Atrium Carceri

Chain D.L.K.: Thank you for making this interview with Chain D.L.K.Please introduce yourself and your main projects. Are there any newprojects that you have coming down the line that you’d like tomention?
Atrium Carceri: I guess the only projects I dare mention (In this time andspace and too early a stage of evolution) are: Atrium Carceri,Alvskugga, which I released very few tracks of and is partly aterminated project by now as I have not produced anything for acouple of years.Za Frumi – Spoken word/Soundtrack like music with Musterion (SimonKolle)Abnocto – Cynical Spiritual music also with Musterion (Simon Kolle)

Chain D.L.K.: So, what was growing up like?
Atrium Carceri: Amazing, newborn to this planet with mentors all aroundgranting mostly retarded suggestion and teachers holding you back,instead of encouraging free will and thought. I guess a lot ofpeople growing up in a land with 8 months of darkness each year didlike me, travel inwards and clawing at the illusion sensingsomething is VERY wrong with the world our ancients presents to us.

Chain D.L.K.: Did your parents encourage you, as a young person, topursue your interests in music and art?
Atrium Carceri: I started playing the piano at institutes very early. But apartfrom that, not really.

Chain D.L.K.: Yours and Simon Kolle’s work with Za Frumi is amazing.What is next for Za Frumi?
Atrium Carceri: Nothing is official yet, but we have begun talking aboutLegends Act 3 (Instrumental) and Simon Kolle got a lot ofinteresting ideas up his sleeve for this release.

Chain D.L.K.: All of Atrium Carceri’s releases take on a theme. Yourthemes are often places. Can you talk to us about that? How do youcome up with a new idea and are there any new idea you can sharewith us?
Atrium Carceri: I guess being a neurosurgeon would have made this so mucheasier. I must refrain from speaking of my minds well. The reasonthey are places are mostly because each place where the human mindbreaks down is highly interesting, when it transforms into a truthso absurd for the unwoken mind that it is referred to as madness.And then it happens… I hope I can grant my listeners a deepenough trance and meditative state that they can see their currentlocales transforming to the place beyond the physical.

Chain D.L.K.: Aside from your music, I understand you delve into theoccult a bit. Tell us a bit about that please.
Atrium Carceri: When the world has evolved more I would gladly discuss topicsof free will. But not at this time, sorry.

Chain D.L.K.: How do you juggle the projects you take on? Differentstates of consciousness and mindsets for different projects.
Atrium Carceri: Sometimes I delve into the abyss for a long time, and sometimesthe ideas just has to come out, followed by a breeze of inspirationfor the times of past or future.

Chain D.L.K.: Which artists do you seek out for inspiration?
Atrium Carceri: I seek out the other artists/producers/composers I producewith, which is about two handfuls of people.

Chain D.L.K.: What music would you recommend to someone new to thedark underground? What should they listen for?
Atrium Carceri: The dark underground sounds like something created for peoplewanting to belong to a subculture beyond the regular subculture. Iam for individuality through linked consciousness and laugh andmock the underground and the people claiming allegiance to it.

Chain D.L.K.: The technology available to a composer has changeddramatically over the years, and what a composer needs to knowabout the technology has changed, too. Does electronic music play adifferent role, as a result, than it did in the past?
Atrium Carceri: The quality of sounds has dramatically increased as has thepower of processing units and such. This has helped me a lot as Ihave been forced to take different routes to not overload the CPUsince the beginning of my studio days. I can hardly speak foreveryone; there are still people with tape recorders and electricguitars who do not understand the power of our collectiveconsciousness apparatus.

Chain D.L.K.: Do you think it’s fair to say that some dark ambientand dark electronic composers have focused on innovation andexperimentation, at the expense of connecting with an audience?What do you think is an appropriate relationship for a moderncomposer to have with listeners? You have made live gigs withAtrium Carceri and Za Frumi right?
Atrium Carceri: I believe that there should be no connection between thecomposer and the audience, only a connection with the audience andthe music. I would gladly play every gig with a black screen infront of the stage, obstructing the very thought of idoliry.Performance/Shows have nothing to do with music and soundscapes.

Chain D.L.K.: Have you any other experience playing live music?Worked as a DJ perhaps?
Atrium Carceri: Yes a lot of experience, in drug-induced crowds all over thenorth, but it is disconnected from Atrium Carceri, Za Frumi and soon, a vision disturbingly different from the illusion clad walls ofsoundscapes gone mad. Most of them played with Donald Persson theformer member of Za Frumi.

Chain D.L.K.: Classical composers have always drawn on popularinstruments, forms and influences. Electronic music has becomeubiquitous in popular culture in the last twenty-five years,providing soundtracks for movies, dancing, games, and many newstyles of music. Popular music has also provided some of the firstvirtuoso electronic music performers. What can you undergroundcomposers learn from really mainstream popular electronic music?

Atrium Carceri: I would not call myself an underground composer, but there isnever a shortage of things to learn as a composer or producer. Whatwe see now in the mainstream might be a bit sad, it seems music isbecoming a lot more simple than in days past, my guess is that theaverage Joe feels a bit better about himself (and can call himselfa musicians critic) being able to hear all 5 sounds in aminimalistic Timberlake track, instead of trying to decode the manylayers of more advanced compositions. What I think of electronicmusic… wonderful, evolution grasp forward, not backward. Do youwant to evolve or play your fathers electrical guitar?

Chain D.L.K.: Cold meat has written that you have a background inclassical music. Most musicians are now likely to deal withelectronics, in some form, in their careers. What do you think aclassically-trained musician, like you, needs to know aboutelectronics and electronic music?
Atrium Carceri: If you are a musician, it’s fine to just play your flute foryour entire life, if you are a producer it is very important tolearn technology if you want to take advantage of it, the step intohigher bitrates means more details. There still is a retarded viewon electronic music, because people see computers as generators nottools. They think you push a red button on your keyboard and atrack is completed from scratch. All composers should be open tousing tools of the future.

Chain D.L.K.: The majority of the bands that I hear, particularly onTV and the radio, tend to sound the same and lack substance. Doyou feel the same?
Atrium Carceri: Yeah, it’s mostly because of the volume race I reckon, tracksare highly compressed to have a high output sound on album, andthen every TV-channel and radio channel puts the tracks throughtheir own compressors a second time. It makes the dynamics flat.

Chain D.L.K.: Now a hard one. Please pick two Atrium Carceri songsand two Za Frumi songs you can recommend to our readers. Alsomention from which records they appear. Do you have any other alltime favorite song of yours, mention it too.
Atrium Carceri: Atrium Carceri – End Titles, Static of the KapnobataiZa Frumi – Halls of Madness (from Legends act 2), The Interludiumfrom Chapter 3. I am quite fond of the Alvskugga track from the Tribute to Uglakhcompilation as well.

Chain D.L.K.: Being in several (related) scenes at one and doingwhat you love, what is the most valuable piece of information youcould pass on to people coming up? What makes it all worth it?
Atrium Carceri: Their is no higher reward than creating your own world orpainting the world others cannot see.

Chain D.L.K.: What are your quick opinions on these projects/artists: Dead can Dance, Arcana, ROME, Deutsch Nepal, Pimentola,Musterion, Coph nia, Brighter death now, Raison d’Etre, MidnightSyndicate, Dimmu Borgir and Mozart.
Atrium Carceri: Dead can Dance: Lisa Gerrads voice and ethno-mumblings are great.
Arcana: Boring and lacks a renewal of its own sound.
ROME: Have not heard yet
Deutsh Nepal: Great name, nice send reverbs, especially on piano.
Pimentola: Haven’t Heard yet
Musterion: Ancient tales from my friend, how can I not recommend it?
Coph Nia: Intimidating beard, good stuff.
Brighter Death Now: The ancient flame still burns bright
Raison D’etre: Sometimes, nice gnarly sounds with very mellowreverb, focus on that Peter, sounds great.
Midnight Syndicate: Never heard
Dimmu Borgir: some kids never grow up, a product of underground/kindergarden.
Mozart: Genious

Chain D.L.K.: You and Simon Kolle also have the project Abnoctotogether. Is that a one album project or what?
Atrium Carceri: I guess time will tell.

Chain D.L.K.: Last but not least. Is it anything you want to add?
Atrium Carceri: Be free, my brothers and sisters!

[interviewed by Ivan Racheck] [proofreading by Edward Wilkinson]