Interview with: Rafał Kopeć
Conducted by: Michael Barnett

This interview was originally published on Terra Relicta Dark Music Webmagazine back in October of 2016. Tomaz has been kind enough to allow me to re-publish this interview on This Is Darkness.

Hoarfrost have been on the dark ambient scene for a few years. Their work has definitely moved some eyebrows in the past. But, this time around Hoarfrost have delivered an album which has been receiving an abundance of praise. Released on Reverse Alignment and accompanied by a brilliantly well done music video, their latest album Anima Mundi appears to be a career defining moment. I caught up with Rafał Kopeć, the main artist behind Hoarfrost to ask him some questions about the album and the history of his project.

Michael: Thank you for taking the time to join us for this interview, Rafal. First I would like for you to give a little background on Hoarfrost for those who may not be familiar with your project.

Rafał: Hoarfrost was born in the end of 2006. The first CD, Ground Zero, was released in 2008 by the big Polish label Zoharum. Next CDs by Hoarfrost: collaboration with Inner Vision Laboratory entitled Decline and album Puppets Of Divine Coroner, also appeared on this label. After a few years of Hoarfrost’s absence on the music market, a brand new album entitled Anima Mundi, was released in August 2016 by Swedish label Reverse Alignment.

Michael: Anima Mundi is heavy on vocals, unlike your previous albums. Would you please tell us a bit about why you decided to take this direction, this time?

Rafał: Before I have started to compose as Hoarfrost, I have been engaged in music, where lyrics have played an important role. This I missed in Hoarfrost from its beginning, but it was difficult for me to find the appropriate vocalist. I met Hekte Zaren, when I was finishing the stuff for Puppets Of Divine Coroner. The compositions were almost ready and there was not much space for the vocals. This is why Hekte appeared only in a few of the tracks. When we were working on Anima Mundi we felt comfortable, because the music was created intentionally for the vocals.

Michael: This is your first release through the recently resurrected Reverse Alignment Records. How has your experience been so far with Reverse Alignment?

Rafał: When I finished working on Anima Mundi, I sent the samples of the album to Reverse Alignment. I knew, that it is a good label from Sweden, which is one of the capitals of ambient music. I immediately received a request for more music. I sent one complete composition and in two hours I received the proposition of the contract. When Anima Mundi appeared and its promotion started, it became clear to me, that my cooperation with Reverse Alignment was a good decision.

Michael: You mentioned that this album is dedicated to a late friend of yours, who also contributed much of your previous album art. Would you like to tell us a bit about this person, and how they influenced Anima Mundi?

Rafał: Anima Mundi is dedicated to Amellia, a great Polish photographer, associated with Hoarfrost almost from its beginning. Thanks to her works and visions, the Hoarfrost album covers came into existence, visualizations for live gigs and video clips to the compositions from last album. Amellia died suddenly on the beginning of the production of Anima Mundi, when we had just started planning a visual concept for the cover. This tragedy delayed work on the album. I even consider for a moment, if my music activity as Hoarfrost still made sense. Eventually, I decided to finish Anima Mundi and dedicated it to Amellia.

Michael: There are a slew of guest musicians on Anima Mundi. How did you decide on who you would work with? Will you plan to have guest musicians on future projects?

Rafał: When I am planning, how my album should sound, I know, what instruments or tones I would like to hear on it. By this key I choose musicians. I like working with other musicians and I don’t exclude that I’ll invite some musicians for the next Hoarfrost albums. All depends, in what way I will plan the new material.

Michael: The music video for “Refracted In Illusion” turned out very well. Could you tell us a bit about the concept behind this video, and how it came to happen?

Rafał: The concept for the video was evolved by Paulina Mieczkowska, a Polish model, fashion designer and my friend, in cooperation with Jarek, the cameraman. My role was only editing the material. You should know that realization of this music clip, and problems which appeared during working on it, are an individual history. I could make a good horror about it.

Michael: Can we expect more music videos in the future?

Rafał: All Hoarfrost albums were promoted by one video clip each. There are also available on the internet a few very interesting videos made by fans for Hoarfrost compositions. Of course, if there will be an opportunity do make another video, they will appear, maybe not to tracks from Anima Mundi, but to future material.

Michael: I wonder, which is your favorite track from Anima Mundi, and why?

Rafał: I am looking at the album as a completeness, which has its beginning, developed view and the ending. Each track is an element of a jigsaw puzzle which has to match to another. So I couldn’t point to one favorite track. Anima Mundi is for me one 50-minutes composition.

Michael: Who are some of the strongest influences on your music? Which were your favorite bands from your formative years?

Rafał: It is a very difficult question, because I have always listened to many different genres of music. My first fascination was with punk rock, next there were metal, sung poetry, new wave, but, anyway, I never was interested in electronic music. At present, I also listen to many genres and many artists. The music, which I listen to, should have “something” which makes me go back to it again and again.

Michael: Do you have any rituals/customs which you incorporate into your recording sessions?

Rafał: Before I sit down to make sounds, first I try to ex-cogitate and prepare everything in my head. It helps me to go into some kind of trance. When I lose my inspiration during the work, I try to give my attention to other music. In this way I have made the album of my other project, Arbeit, which I composed while working on Ground Zero. Currently, in moments like this, I take my guitar and I play for a few minutes, trying to relax. I like to work with headphones in darkness and loneliness, because in this way I can be alone with the sound.

Michael: What is your favorite piece of equipment in your studio?

Rafał: I haven’t a favorite piece of equipment. Each thing I use, attends to the particular intention, so they are all important to me in the same way. The destination is the sound and everything is subordinate to it.

Michael: Do you ever perform live? What would be the perfect line-up for you?

Rafał: Hoarfrost is rather a studio project, but I had an occasion to perform on a few concerts and festivals. I like very much the Scandinavian scene, so my dream line-up should be created by Desiderii Marginis, raison d’etre, In Slaughter Natives and Peter Andersson with one of his projects. I have just realized, that all the projects, I have listed, are from Sweden, like my publisher Reverse Alignment. Ha ha ha!

Michael: What can we expect next from Hoarfrost?

Rafał: When I release the album, I don’t plan the next material. There should pass some time, so I can give it some distance. Each album is a separate message. It can’t be random. The music is an addiction. Releasing new album gives a satisfaction for some time. Later the requirement of creating comes again.

Michael: Do you think the apocalypse is coming? If so how do you think it will happen?

Rafał: The vision of the apocalypse has accompanied human-being for ages. History of our planet shows that in the past there took place events, which had characteristics of global catastrophes. Modern scientists also leave no doubt about the future of Earth. So if I should give a short answer, it is: yes. The apocalypse will come, but before total destruction, we would have to do with more and more powerful, disruptive phenomena which are human-induced.

Michael: Thank you so much for your time. I’ll leave the last words to you.

Rafał: Thank you very much for the opportunity to express myself in your magazine.

Hoarfrost links: Official website, Facebook, Youtube

Interview with Thomas Langewehr (Ager Sonus)
Conducted by: Michael Barnett

Ager Sonus is a dark ambient project out of Germany. While he has had several previous self-released albums, Book of the Black Earth is his first major label release. Releasing through Cryo Chamber immediately drew a lot of attention to his music and it seemed like the perfect time to get in contact with him and find out more about Ager Sonus. Thomas talks to me about some of his inspirations, recording techniques and the history of his musical career. As always, I hope you’ll enjoy the interview and definitely give his music a listen!

Michael: Book of the Black Earth has been on repeat here at This Is Darkness HQ quite a bit since release. The album seems to be getting a great reception from fans and critics alike. Did you expect this kind of response?

Thomas: To be honest, I did not expect that. I am surely not the only musician who has doubts about the music he creates. I usually listen to every single song multiple times on multiple devices before I am “ok” with it, and even then I will go “could I have done this better?” from time to time.
But the release of this album has shown me that there was no need for those doubts. I was very suprised when people started to give me positive feedback, were it as comments under the videos Cryo Chamber uploaded to Youtube or messages/posts on Facebook. It has been a very positive experience so far, this is definitely the most feedback I have ever gotten, also of course due to the the huge amount of fans Cryo Chamber has. I noticed that this genre really is a big family, I have not seen fighting by fans like we see in many other genres, so I definitely appreciate it a lot that the CC fans have such an open mind and gave me a warm welcome. The reviews so far have also been great, even though so far there are only two reviews, more might be coming.

Michael: I have no doubt that you will see more reviews coming in over the next month/year. Cryo Chamber is quite obviously one of the biggest players in the current dark ambient scene. How has your experience been with them so far, as opposed to releasing your music independently?

Thomas: Like mentioned above I immediately noticed the huge amount of feedback due to the large fan-base Cryo Chamber has. Also the response just from the artists within Cryo Chamber, those are the people that I look up to, that made me get into this genre. Talking to Simon (Atrium Carceri) over the years has made me a better musician, especially in terms of mixing, he also said in one of our first chats that I would have to develop my own “voice” which I did not see at that time but it actually came out even though it took a lot of time.
My releases so far have not gotten much feedback or reception. Only a handful of people bought my previous albums (for which I am very grateful to everyone who gave me that support!) and word didn’t really spread at least not that I would have noticed. Critical reception has always been good, but I pretty much only had one person who was always willing to review my music (Casey Douglass – shoutout!).

Michael: Casey definitely runs a great blog. I always enjoy comparing our takes on an album after I’ve finished writing my review. (I never read other reviews before writing my own.) Have you been following dark ambient for a while now, or are you relatively new to this genre?

Thomas: I have been following the genre since around 2007/2008, after S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – Shadow of Chernobyl was released, one of my favorite video-games. The music of that game was one of the many reasons why that game was so amazing and it had this amazing atmosphere that was, and still is, one of the best in gaming. I did not know the term “dark ambient” or “ambient” even as a genre, so once I had that and started to look into it a whole world of musical marvel unfolded in front of me.

Michael: Are there any particular albums or artists that inspired you to become active in this genre?

Thomas: Hard to pick only a few because there are so many. But if you’d ask me what were some of the early ones that amazed me I would say Kammarheit, Atrium Carceri and Svartsinn. “I Found It Weeping In The Field” is one of my favorite dark ambient tracks and reminded me a lot of the atmosphere in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and in that regard Nord Ambient Alliance was one of the first dark ambient albums I listened to.

Michael: Book of the Black Earth seems to be mostly focused on ancient Egyptian ruins, more so than the actual ancient Egyptian people. Have you actually been to any of these ruins?

Thomas: Sadly, I have been not. Egypt in itself and the mystery surrounding its history has always been a huge interest of mine, I always loved movies that had Egypt as a theme when it came to mystery and I also loved certain video-games just because of that setting.

Michael: What in particular drew you to this Egyptian concept?

Thomas: It is not just the mysterious elements regarding the gods and the concept of the Egyptian underworld, I was wondering if there was a way to create a musical journey, quasi substituting for the fact that I have not visited Egypt (and probably never will), at least not in a rummaging-through-ancient-tombs-kind of way.

Michael: I think you’ve certainly achieved that goal. I was recently reading “Under The Pyramids”, a story that was ghostwritten by H.P. Lovecraft for Harry Houdini. The music perfectly fit his narrative of being trapped inside a pyramid which was filled with ancient gods and demons. Will you veer off into a different direction for your next album, or are these themes presented on Book of the Black Earth essential to Ager Sonus?

Thomas: I have not yet narrowed down what the concept of my next album will be, Book of the Black Earth was a great learning experience since this is my first album that told a cohesive story. My albums so far always had a “theme” but the tracks always stood for themselves. Liminality was about going to places that were, to many people, unreachable or uninhabitable, yet I wanted to have a musical representation of being there, so I could “visit” them in my head. So in a sense, that set the groundwork for Tartarus and now Book of the Black Earth.

Michael: I see that you are also interested in orchestral music. Do you have a background in classical music?

Thomas: No, but orchestral music is a huge joy to listen to. I just love how so many musicians can work together in harmony to create amazing experiences. From film scores, video-game scores, classical pieces from Mozart or Beethoven, there is a lot to enjoy and to inspire.

Michael: Do you have a favorite classical composer or a favorite piece of music from this area?

Thomas: I mentioned Beethoven, the “Moonlight Sonata” is one of my favorite pieces because of its dark tone, so to me it showed me early on that darkness is an important part of me.

Michael: What are some of the various instruments that you play?

Thomas: I don’t actually play an orchestral instrument which I regret very much not getting into earlier in my life. The passion to actually create music myself came much later, for the longest time I was “just” a listener.

Michael: I see that you are also a drummer. Would you like to speak any about that musical project?

Thomas: I started playing the drums at 27 years of age which some would say is way too late (and I agree). It just took way longer to learn a lot of the techniques, especially in terms of coordination but I am happy how far I got with it.
I play in a Punk/Rock/Hardcore-band though it is more just for fun. We don’t play live regularly and we don’t record the music in a professional way. Just a fact of having day-jobs and some of us being fathers, it is just not do-able, which we regret sometimes, playing live is a lot of fun.

Michael: When you are creating music, is there a place or idea from which you are able to draw a constant motivation, or does the motivation for each track come to you in different ways?

Thomas: It depends, I had cases where I already knew in my head how I wanted a track to sound, what instruments to use, what name I would give it etc. But I also had tracks where the motivation came from listening to recent field recordings or just playing a few notes on my keyboard. Once I find the “opening” for a track it mostly, for lack of a better term, writes itself.

Michael: Do you perform any rituals in preparation for working on music?

Thomas: Does drinking coffee count? Mostly I just need to be in the right mindset and be relaxed. I love to create music when it is rainy outside. I just like the atmosphere of it being cloudy and the rain interacting with the environment has a nice sound to it, also I have a few bushes and a tree in front of my window next to my workplace, I enjoy having those react to the wind. I am probably very weird.

Michael: Well then we are both weird! I also find a great deal of inspiration from gloomy/rainy days. When working on Book of the Black Earth, did most of your sounds come from the digital spectrum or did you also incorporate some analog synths, or live instruments?

Thomas: It has all been digital, there are a few sample libraries of real instruments which I use from time to time. In this case I needed “real” flutes and other Egyptian or Middle-Eastern instruments. Since I don’t have the resources to get the real world instruments I like to rely on these libraries, which allow me to play very realistic articulations which was important for the flutes I wanted to use.

Michael: Is dark ambient currently your main focus in music, or will you be taking a break and working in other areas before writing another album?

Thomas: Dark Ambient is my current focus because it allows me to try out all kinds of themes and composing styles which gives me a lot of creative freedom. Before working on a new solo release I would love to work with some of the other artists on Cryo Chamber, that would be amazing and a huge learning experience to work with these amazing musicians.

Michael: Are there any movie directors, authors, or artists that truly inspire you? Of course, many of us could probably write a list, but is there any one that you hold sacred above the rest?

Thomas: This list could be very long but I will try to select only a few: John Woo was one of the first directors that I followed very closely, whose visual style always fascinated me. While I don’t have a particular genre of movie I like, he comes to mind almost immediately.
In terms of authors I very much love Dean Koontz, John Saul and Stephen King. Especially the first two wrote riveting horror/mystery-stories that didn’t just inspire me but a whole set of movie directors out there.

Michael: Between geo-politics, concerns about the climate, and religiosity, there seems to be a lot of turmoil in our current times. Do you see “the apocalypse” (in whatever form that may be) coming? If so, how do you think it will happen?

Thomas: The mystery-fan in me has all kinds of ways of how it could happen, though realistically if it happens we will probably go down due to our own doing. Melting pole caps swallowing up countries, woods dying, whole lands drying out etc. Or an asteroid! Not a fun thought.

Michael: Thank you very much for your time, I’ll leave the last words to you!

Thomas: A big thank you to Simon Heath for giving me this chance to reach more people with my music, the chance to collaborate with people I look up to, people that inspired me. And of course a huge thank you to the people that actually listen to my music, I hope it helps you to relax or take you to other places!

Ager Sonus links: Facebook, Bandcamp (personal) (Cryo Chamber), Cryo Chamber Profile

Interview with: Dmitriy (Black Mara Records owner)
Conducted by: Michael Barnett

This interview was originally published on Terra Relicta Dark Music Webmagazine back in October of 2016. Tomaz has been kind enough to allow me to re-publish this interview on This Is Darkness.

Black Mara Records is a relative newcomer to the genres of dark, ritual, and drone ambient. They have been able to quickly solidify their position as a premier Russian label. Including albums from Ad Lucem Tenebratum and Ugasanie, as well as compilations with some of the most promising new artists around the world, Black Mara has set themselves apart. Each release has its own unique packaging, coming with magical stones, herbal-teas, and various box-set formats filled with goodies. I had plenty of reason to get in touch with Dmitriy the owner of the label. We spoke about his mission for the label, along with the subjects of the gods, and some of his personal tastes. Enjoy the following interview conducted from opposite sides of the globe.

Michael: Thank you for taking the time to speak with me Dmitriy. First off, maybe you could tell the readers a bit about yourself, and why you decided to form the label, Black Mara.

Dmitriy: Hi! Dark ambient and similar music attracted me for a long time. The first thought about creating a music label came to me about 2-3 years ago. I was in correspondence with Halgrath and a few other performers. At that time, Halgrath was not published on Cryo Chamber. But a clear concept at that moment was not developed. Only a year later, the idea came to me again. We thought – what’s missing, in our view, for the presentation of the album and developed further on this style, as a sound and visual component of our releases.

Michael: I’ve been listening to Black Mara releases since the label first showed up on the dark ambient scene a little over a year ago. Each release has its own feel and unique packaging. I wonder, what gave you the idea to do these unique packages?

Dmitriy: Thank you! The music itself tells us, in what form it is convenient to be published on Black Mara. Dark ambient creates images, backed by emotions, they fly around, and are sometimes elusive.

Michael: Do you produce music yourself, or do you just run the record label?

Dmitriy: Yes, I create a little of some sound canvases. I began composing in my youth. Then, I was fond of experimental electronic music. I also DJ a little. My dark ambient mixes I still like, because some of them took a long time to create, carefully choosing the composition. All the work is like puzzles or colour mosaics to me. Just need to try to do it correctly and it is interesting to draw a picture of what you have.

Michael: Russia seems to be one of the most fitting regions of the world to produce dark ambient. There seem to be many dark ambient artists coming from this region, of varied quality. Can you speak a little bit about how this part of the world has been an influence on your musical taste?

Dmitriy: I realize the fact that the entire universe affects us, whether we feel it or not. Sometimes I see, for example, a lone tree in the field and it immediately fills me with inspiration. Any sounds in the street. In general, everything is able to affect us. Apparently, you only need to be open to it. I like the ambient from any point of the universe. If only it has a quality that carries any messages and is able to invoke emotion when listening, creating interesting live pictures in the imagination. I want to also note that in Russia a lot of interesting dark ambient artists have their own style.

Michael: The Dark Side, by Ugasanie, was the first record to catch my eye on Black Mara, as I’ve been a huge Ugasanie fan for several years now. It seems like his album was a great way to get the word spread around about Black Mara. Are you friends outside of the musical world?

Dmitriy: Of course, we keep in touch. It is the same with all artists whose albums we published.

Michael: Will you plan to work with Ugasanie again in the future?

Dmitriy: We would be happy. (Smiling)

Michael: Along with established artists, like Ugasanie, you also have worked with some new-comers to the genre, such as Ad Lucem Tenebratum. What are some elements you look for in a new artist when considering releasing their album?

Dmitriy: Ad lucem Tenebratum (Ad Lux Tenebrea) is quite an old and well-known project. They are considered to be one of the pioneers of the genre in Russia. They have published music since 2003. First, material for publication must be conceptually interesting. Secondly, it is very important to the quality of material to release. And third, music should affect the imagination and emotions, like I said earlier.

Michael: Oh! I didn’t realize Ad Lucem Tenebratum and Ad Lux Tenebrea were the same musician! Thank you for clearing that up! On your two compilation albums Beyond The Invisible and Gorgons Tale, you have picked artists from all over the world, including Ireland, Iran, and France among other places. Will you be looking further outside Russia for permanent additions to the Black Mara roster? Or do you prefer for this to be a strictly Russian endeavor with minimal outside influence?

Dmitriy: Oh, of course we are focused on the whole world, obviously. Many performers from different countries perfectly fit into our concept. It has always been this way.

Michael: Sun by Welcome Black, comes with a meditative DVD companion disc. Would you like to explain a little bit about this release, and how the DVD complements it?

Dmitriy: Well, I immediately appreciated the sound of this album. While I am listening to it, in my head interesting and strange thoughts arise, some memories. It looks to me as if it sweeps through all life, at a glance. Here and carefree, youth, what hidden secrets, dreams, growing up and becoming, and the end of life. This is something global, generalizing everything and everyone. This is the original idea of the author, and we think he managed to perfectly express his idea. When I started developing the release of Sun we decided to shoot a small clip. But in one short video it is impossible to fit all that music. So, we started filming a meditation movie. The film begins with the dawn, symbolizing the birth. A lot of wildlife, mountains. We are growing and embarking on an interesting path. Our whole life is a great adventure. In the movie sometimes the soul is clearly heroic. It enters into different situations in this adventure. Also, the film is affected by subliminal hidden moments, dreams upon dreams. In the film we see the loneliness and the beauty of individuality, of items, some of which remain with us, and some are slipping from our lives. Finally, the journey comes to an end. The phrase “That death should finally tell us” – most accurately describes the essence. I really like what we did. The entire film was shot on the old optics from an SLR camera, so there are real moments of defocusing or concentration. On some modern digital cameras and phones that would be impossible.

Michael: Can we expect to see any Black Mara concerts in the future?

Dmitriy: Not so long ago we organized a concert in Novosibirsk. The performance featured Sacra Fern, Ad Lucem Tenebratum and Time Spiral (Spiral Vremeni). Everything was great! And, Yes, we are thinking about the sequel.

Michael: What are your views on religion, and how do they affect your record label’s format?

Dmitriy: Each of the faiths’ professions changed very much since inception and currently do not carry the semantic load that they once had. In our day, religion is very politicized and, in our opinion, divorced from God. Almighty God is inside of us. For us God’s temple is nature, and our task, if we believe in God, at least try to save what is left. Between us and God there are no middlemen. We can always get in touch with the Almighty Creator directly.

Michael: Are you satisfied with the exposure Black Mara is getting so far in the dark ambient scene?

Dmitriy: We get a lot of positive feedback. But we believe that this is not the limit and we have room to grow.

Michael: What is your favorite film or director?

Dmitriy: Hmm. I like lots of movies, it is hard to remember them all at once. I would like to mention David Lynch with his “Inland Empire” and “Mulholland Drive”. I like the film “Stalker” by Andrei Tarkovsky, “The Beginning”, some old pictures by Tim Burton. “The Matrix” at the time, made a deep impression, some of the old fantasy types like “Alien”, “The Thing” and “2001: a Space Odyssey”, one of my most favorite movies is “The Shining” by Stanley Kubrick. Of course, I watch a lot of movies and many of them I like, some of them are known worldwide, and some only to a narrow circle of spectators.

Michael: Nice list! Many of these are also my favorites! If you could have any one dark ambient artist from the history of the genre on your label, who would you pick?

Dmitriy: Voice Of Eyes, Halo Manash, and Inade are the first who came to mind. At the time, I really wanted to work with Ugasanie and Ad Lucem Tenebratum. And we did it.

Michael: Thanks for taking your time to answer these questions Dmitriy. I wish you the best with your upcoming releases on Black Mara. I’ll leave the last words to you.

Dmitriy: Thank you Michael. I want to wish the readers of your magazine bright good experiences in life, fulfillment, and happiness. Good luck!

Black Mara Records links: Facebook, Bandcamp

Interview with: Pär Boström, Åsa Boström
Conducted by: Michael Barnett

This interview was originally published on Terra Relicta Dark Music Webmagazine back in July of 2016. Tomaz has been kind enough to allow me to re-publish this interview on This Is Darkness.

Pär Boström has been involved in a ton of projects since the rejuvenation of his musical career in 2015. We’ve seen two Kammarheit albums on Cyclic Law (The Nest and Unearthed 2000-2002), the second release under the Cities Last Broadcast moniker on Cryo Chamber, the founding of the new label Hypnagoga Press with his sister Åsa Boström, the debut of the siblings musical project Hymnambulae and the new project Altarmang between Pär and Kenneth Hansson which released the debut Void at the end of 2016. Add to that Pär’s involvement in the collaborative albums Onyx and Echo along with Atrium Carceri and Apocryphos and its easy to see that there are a ton of things happening, as well as the prospects of plenty more to come. So in July of 2016 I got in contact with Pär and Åsa to ask the siblings some questions about their many projects happening in relation to the dark ambient scene.

Michael: Why did you decide to start Hypnagoga Press?

Pär: It’s something we’ve talked about for at least a decade now. We both wanted to build a place that could hold all our projects, from art prints to music to children’s books and poetry, with focus on beautifully packaged limited editions. We’re both nerds when it comes to packages and design and we need something like this to challenge ourselves.

Michael: What is your musical past with Åsa, did you play music together as children?

Pär: Not that I can remember. It wasn’t until 2009 that we started to improvise together. We would bring different equipment and set it up at various places and see what happened. The album Orgelhuset was loosely based on these improvisations. I don’t think it counts but I used to wake Åsa up by playing the alt horn as loud as I could when we were children.

Michael: I have been listening to the Kammarheit albums in Unearthed box set a lot recently, my personal favorites are Among The Ruins and At The Heart Of Destruction. Shockwork seems noticeably different from the other albums, was there something you learned about your sound during or after this one that changed your way of doing future endeavors? Would you mind speaking a little about the Unearthed box set and what some of the various albums on it meant to you at the time of recording and what they mean to you now, being remastered and officially released so many years later?

Pär: Shockwork was something I recorded during one night in a very inspired state of mind when I was 17. I had gone to an abandoned factory to record sound out of boredom and I stumbled over such a haunting yet majestic and peaceful atmosphere that I suddenly knew exactly what kind of music I wanted to make. But I had almost no equipment – just an old computer with Fast Tracker 2, a tape recorder and a borrowed multi effect unit. I had made similar music before but up until that night I had no name for it, no concept or any real inspiration. If I remember correctly it took almost a year until I continued to make the other five albums from the Unearthed box. By then I’d started using other software and had a bit better understanding about what I wanted to make and how to do it, although I remained totally ignorant about sound quality and proper mixing techniques. I had promised myself that Kammarheit would be a project about recording atmosphere and not to worry so much about how to make actual songs. All the albums of Unearthed were made to keep me company during my insomnia. I had no plans to release any of them, I just wanted somewhere to go, something that could help me explore the inner worlds that I was obsessed about. I was depressed, numb. I didn’t feel much during the days but at night I could drift away somewhere and that really helped. I rarely listen to any of the albums today but when I do I feel a strong sense of gratitude. I don’t know what would have happened to me if I hadn’t made that music. Frederic wanted to release the albums on Cyclic Law many years ago but I wasn’t ready. It took a lot of convincing, but I’m glad they got a proper release at last. They had already been available in dark corners of the Internet for years, so why not make something proper of it. Even if the material is very uneven and in my opinion not very good at all, it shows where I’ve been and how Kammarheit started.

Michael: How much different is the creation process now with modern DAWs, do you like the new systems or do you prefer the old way?

Pär: Having a better studio has obviously helped a lot as I can now translate my ideas into music much quickly and more accurately than I could before. It was so frustrating in the beginning when I had to struggle so much to re-create what I had in my head and the tools I had didn’t feel right at all. I can miss using Fast Tracker and the whole mathematical and aesthetic approach. You had all these numbers on the screen and music played from the top to bottom instead of playing horizontal. It made sense to me, at least back then. I would probably be lost if I went back. I can easily lose my focus in front of the computer so I often try to make as much as I can outside the computer, using instruments and effect pedals and record it on tape recorders or my portable digital recorder and then import it to the computer and continue from there when I’m ready for it.

Michael: You have mentioned in the past that each album is a window into a place, some landscape which you depict. Is this a recurring landscape or do you have different places in mind for each track/album?

Pär: It’s usually the same place. The idea or atmosphere of a place at least. It can be an enormous city where I visit different areas or a large church-like ruin in some enormous cave. Some tracks can be about other places or about certain moods but I usually want to go back to the same places. Those glimpses into the imaginary places happened when I was so young and it never left me. As soon as I start a new track I immediately drift away to that otherworldly stillness. I can’t help it. I’m such a romantic when it comes to atmospheres, escapism and sceneries. Sometimes I just enjoy how some recordings sound together and build a track from there, but after a while that whole drifting thing begins and if I’m not careful I’m half asleep in my chair while some droning loops are playing in my headphones and I get nothing more done that day. The drones are like a wonderful, terrible drug.

Michael: I think it would be interesting to see you team up with a painter and try to recreate some of the places from your music, is this something you would ever consider or do you prefer to let the music speak for itself?

Pär: I try to become a better painter so I can recreate these places myself. So far music has been the easiest way for me to explore them but I often wish I could show the worlds with art or in my writing instead. I have had the good fortune to work with my friend Viktor Kvant / Dreamhours on some of my albums and he has come very close to how I see the music myself. In the past it felt more important to not be too specific. I wanted to leave a lot of space for the listener’s own imagination but even if I did include more images the listener would probably still want to go to their own places instead. In the end I think the music will always speak best for itself.

Michael: I find The Nest to be a bit larger of a sound than your previous major releases on Cyclic Law, The Starwheel and Asleep And Well Hidden. For example, I love listening to The Nest during waking hours, while I find The Starwheel and Asleep and Well Hidden to be more suitable in the midnight hours. Do you see this same variance and if so was this an intentional difference or did it happen naturally?

Pär: I wanted it to sound larger, but for me The Nest is such a subterranean experience. It wasn’t supposed to be like that, but no matter what music I tried to make I always ended up down there. Åsa and I went to a small place in the north called Borgafjäll many years ago. She went there to write and I went there to work on the album, and I was so mesmerized by the foggy mountain and couldn’t stop my imagination from building massive halls underneath it. When I came back I tried to go back to my original plan to make another kind of album but the mountain didn’t let me. This album just had to happen the way it did. All my albums are usually recorded at night or during early mornings so I will probably always associate it with night time. What started as troublesome sleeplessness has become something comforting. Those magical quiet hours when everybody is asleep and the streets are empty and you can let your own ideas and music roam free.

Michael: Onyx is a colossal album. I have listened numerous times and haven’t come close to getting tired of it. What was the best part of working with Simon Heath and Robert Kozletsky? What was the most surprising? Did the collaboration bring out any aspects of your music on a personal level that you had not expected?

Pär: The most surprising thing with Onyx was that the whole process felt so incredibly natural yet always interesting. Simon and Robert are both extremely talented and kind and I love working with them. We communicate a lot and leave enough room in the songs so that the others can do their thing. No egos, no rivalry what so ever. We all want it to sound as good as possible. Since Onyx I often go to the both of them for advice when it comes to most of my creative work. Simon has especially been an influence when it comes to organizing my files and keeping track of what key the songs are in and what tempo I’m using. As I often use effect pedals and askew tape recorders and pitch things up and down that kind of information usually gets lost in the process. But somehow we have found an easy way to communicate and work together. We are making a follow up to Onyx and it sounds very good so far.
Editor’s note: That follow-up turned out to be the album Echo, released through Cryo Chamber.

Michael: What has been your favorite thing outside of music recently? Movie/TvShow/Book. I have to add here that I’m a huge David Lynch fan, are you a fan of his work? What would be your favorite piece, if so?

Pär: I’m indeed a David Lynch fan. I especially love Twin Peaks and watch it on a regular basis. I also enjoy his music and writing. The Music Of Hildegard von Bingen album he did with Jocelyn Montgomery and his album The Air Is On Fire is something I often go back to. I love reading and I love collecting beautiful books with old illustrations but I haven’t read much lately. I’ve been busy with music and writing and when I get some free time I want to either take notes while listening to music I work on or just rest my head in a quiet space. At the moment I’m reading The Club Dumas again, the book that lead to the movie The Ninth Gate and from time to time I read books on printmaking and a biography about Tove Jansson who wrote the Moomin books. There are unfinished books laying everywhere and I often just pick one up and read a few pages before I do something else.

Michael: I still sleep to The Starwheel almost every night, do you still use your own music for sleep aid, do you have any other favorite artists that make “sleep music”?

Pär: I’m glad to hear that people are still enjoying The Starwheel. I sometimes use my music for sleep aid but I get so many ideas on what I could improve that it is difficult to relax. I prefer to listen to the NASA Voyager Recordings instead. That is the ultimate sleep music for me. But I do listen to tracks that I am working on just before I go to bed with the ambition that ideas about how to improve the music somehow finds their way into my dreams so that I know how to proceed as soon as I wake up. Too many dreams are just stupid and boring. I prefer to give my brain a task before heading into the strange labyrinths so it knows what to look for.

Michael: Which artists have been the most influential to you throughout the years?

Pär: That would probably be Arvo Pärt or some of the early Cold Meat Industry artists. I’m also a huge fan of the music that Gurdjieff and Thomas de Hartmann recorded together. There is something about those old recordings that puts me in a wonderful kind of nostalgia concerning something lost and vague when I listen to it. I also think that bands like Coil, The Klinik, Throbbing Gristle and Swans have formed me a great deal.

Michael: Thanks so much for your time Pär! I’ll leave the closing words to you, before we turn the questions over to Åsa.

Pär: Thank you for the interview and your support, Michael.

Michael: When did you first come up with the idea for Hypnagoga Press? Was this something that happened simultaneously with Hymnambulae, or were they totally separate ideas?

Åsa: Both projects have evolved simultaneously. We’ve discussed the idea to form our own label and publishing house for a long time, build a possibly life-long business together, with the potential to include all our creative outputs and collaborations, as well as collaborations with others. In the past we’ve done exhibitions together, Pär has illustrated some of my text projects, and we’ve shared studio spaces and traveled together. All of this has lead up to Hypnagoga Press. The past years I’ve also done much traveling on my own, and when I decided to set up a home and studio in Sweden again and got my house in the countryside of the village Innansjön, we decided it was time to found Hypnagoga Press. Now my house functions as somewhat of an headquarter for us.

Michael: We know a lot about Pär’s musical talents, but you are a bit of a mystery to me. Would you like to talk a little about some of your input in Hymnambulae’s debut?

Åsa: Orgelhuset is loosely based on improvisations we’ve done for the past seven years. For this album Pär has been the technician, using his skills to figure out how to musically translate conceptual designs we’ve outlined together – alongside visual, text-based and philosophical concepts. When we’re in the studio we tend to work quickly. Over the years, having listened to the same music, been exposed to the same influences, developed similar preferences, as well as several differences of course, we’ve developed an understanding for each others creative worlds and created a common language that’s very useful when collaborating. In the studio we have an ongoing dialogue, often referring to our other projects in progress and the overall plans for what to publish on Hypnagoga Press. I have a history of playing the violin and with spoken word and dance. Voice has been my main instrument, as an extension of my writing. Onwards it will be interesting to see how our collaboration through Hymnambulae will inform my overall creative practice – as an artist, writer and composer.

Michael: Would you care to talk about any of your upcoming projects, not much detail is necessary if you like.

Åsa: This summer I’m exhibiting art in Italy and the US. Together with a team of consultants I’m also working on scaling up a program for writing after trauma called Write Your Self, a program I’m the owner for – a big creative project for me. Besides this I want to spend as much time in the studio as possible. In my own art-making I’m currently experimenting with film-making, and in my writing I’m moving between several text projects, completing a collection of poems, a children’s book and a novel. After all these years of traveling I’m enjoying being still and spending time with collected supplies and impressions. When living in France a couple of years ago I studied paper-making. It would be nice to equip my home studio for that.

Michael: Pär seems to have a deep interest in the mystical, supernatural, and occult, especially after hearing his release The Humming Tapes. Do you have similar interests in these subjects or are yours a bit different?

Åsa: Since childhood I’ve been interested in, or pulled towards, spirituality. This has expressed itself in many ways. Through studies in the occult, shamanism and witchcraft in theory and practice; through many years of yoga and meditation practice, finally resulting in training to become a teacher; through academic studies leading up to a degree in Comparative Religion. Back then I had the aim to do a PhD in Psychology of Religion, but then decided to proceed with my studies outside of academia. Spirituality and creativity have been key elements when traveling too. Mysticism forms a foundation, it’s a part of who I am, how I live and it also shows up in my work. My creative practice is a channel for it.

Michael: You seem to have a very good sense of home decor, from the photos I’ve seen through Hypnagoga; if you could have any painting in your home, which would it be?

Åsa: Thank you. Difficult question, still getting used to not being a complete nomad. Perhaps something by French symbolist Gustave Moreau, like The Apparition (love his museum in Paris); or Le Silence by Lucian Levy-Durmer (hanging at Musée D’Orsey); or something by American abstract painter Rebecca Crowell. I took a workshop with her in Ireland a couple of years ago; she works with oil, cold wax and pigments, making multi-layered and heavy-textured paintings with both simplicity and complexity to them. I’m very selective with what I bring into my home, it has to really add to the space – presence, spirit, beauty, complexity that can grow over time. Or perhaps traditional Japanese screens. Something that I could reflect upon while exploring where to take my own art-making next.

Michael: After looking through The Solar Zine no. 1, I learned a bit more about the flute player on Orgelhuset. He really seems to naturally complement the Hymnambulae sound. Was it nice working with an outside musician, and will you plan to work with Sergey Gabbasov again in the future?

Åsa: Yes, I enjoyed working with Sergey, his contribution really elevated the album, also pointing out directions that we’re interested in taking Hymnambulae in the future. I liked to learn about his musical-anthropological travels. That also added to the overall story of the album.

Michael: Will you plan to work with more guest musicians in the future? Any particular instruments you dream of collaborating with?

Åsa: Yes, we do. There are several musicians we plan to contact in the future for discussing collaborations, and we already have a few coming up. The cello, drums, more classical music would be nice to experiment with. One musician we’re thinking of is a friend of mine who’s a composer of classical baroque music. Would be interesting to place that within the Hymnambulae framework.

Michael: Would Hymnambulae do live performances, or is this more of a studio focused project? I feel like the whole aura around Hypnagoga Press would fit nicely in a festival setting.

Åsa: We’re discussing it, but for now we’re a studio focused project. In the future live performances might become a part of our travels. Both Hymnambulae and Hypnagoga Press offer a wide spectrum of expressions that could be combined live.

Michael: Thank you very much for your time Asa, I’ll leave the last words to you.

Åsa: Thank you Michael for this interview, for your support and for inviting Hymnambulae to be a part of your upcoming compilation. All the best to you and your work.

Kammarheit links: Official website, Facebook
Hymnambulae links: Facebook
Cities Last Broadcast links: Facebook
Hypnagoga Press links: Official website, Facebook