"I grew up in the cold north called Sweden. Faced with never ending darkness during the winter months, introspection turned to mysticism. Meditation, Martial Arts, Occultism, Eastern Mysticism and Psychedelics proved to be invaluable medicine." – Simon Heath
Nyarlathotep is the third lovecraftian themed album in the history of Cryo Chamber, could you tell us something, about your relationship with the author?
Lovecraft has been a big inspiration, as it turns out, for a lot of the artists at Cryo Chamber. It felt like a very natural collaboration to start once we all started to uncover each others interest in his Mythos. Many of our projects have been gliding in and out of his Mythos without explicitly expressing it.
What was your first experience with him, and which one is your favorite story?
My first encounter would be Conan the Barbarian, who shares H.P. Lovecrafts mythos. The Call of Cthulhu holds a special place.
There are twenty-five artist on the new album, and the records are released on three CD. It was a direct decision to made such a big project, or so much good music was made?
We actually started with only 12 artists on the first album, Cthulhu. After the first album we had many other artists in the scene nodding their head in interest to participate on upcoming album in the series. We we're aiming for 2 CDs with Nyarlathotep, but we had so much material to work with that in the end it was impossible not to a 3 CD release.
How it is made. such a complex triple album?
We all talk quite a bit about the concept and how we are to tackle it, what anchor points we have that are the very edge of the theme. For example, Nyarlathoteps connection to Egypt felt as an important thing to convey and I think that can certainly be heard on the album. As for the process of actual recording, we work on individual audio layers that gets sent around the globe, then get re-edited by each other. We work with a massive pool of audio layers recorded by everyone from which everyone draw inspiration and re-edits again. It's an incredibly time consuming process but it lets us influence each other very heavily in the direction. We can truly say that these albums are a complete joint effort and not compilations, each ones fingerprints are all over every minute of music in one way or the other.
Why Nyarlathotep was the main concept?
We were interested in Nyarlathotep because of the differences between him and many of the other indifferent gods. He is in many ways a two-faced god, claiming indifference but still enjoying the madness he creates far too much for wanting the world to end.
How would you define he's mythical character throught music? The collaboration tried to attempt this?
I think we've succeeded in our atempt. When I listen to it I enter another state of mind after the first hour or so. I get a feeling that comforting black inky madness is seeping into my pores.
The digipack looks imposing, the cover art is beautiful, and the discs looks really exciting too, but am i right, if i see there are no difference between the discs, and they are not numbered?
There are no numbers on the discs, but they have one, two or three circles depending on which disc.
How could you define for an outsider, these dark ambients musics, what kind of aesthetic beauty they have?
It takes effort on the part of the listener to be willing to sink into dark ambient. It is certainly not music for the restless. The themes are dark, but your state of mind must be relaxed to enjoy this genre. As such, I'd recommend it to anyone that likes immersing themselves into other worlds. We've also seen a lot of creatives, writers, painters listening to it while they work to gain inspiration.
The Cryo Chamber made more than seventy album, there are any album, that was really close to you, and musical artists that would you recommend for us?
My mind is very focused on Sabled Sun as I have just been working for almost 2 years finishing. I enjoy all of our releases on the for different reasons and moods.
Whar are you listening in your free time, when you try to chill, to leave the world of ambient, and your job?
A lot of video game and film soundtracks
Can you imagine, that the following lovecraftian record were going to have four CD? Are you thinking about some kind of conception?
Haha, that might actually happen with how things are progressing. But I would much prefer a 2 CD or 3 CD release knowing just how much work it involves to put these albums out.
I would like to ask you, message something for the (hungarian) artists and musicians!
Stay free, stand strong!