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ECTONAUT: As far as I'm informed, you entered the studio to record the fourth Arcana album in September last year. Well, how did the recording turn out? Are you satisfied with the final results?

PETER: Well, as I have my own studio, I'm in the studio all the time. But yes, I started the recording of the next Arcana album. I'm sort of in the middle of the album right now, and I must say that I'm really pleased as it is turning out!

ECTONAUT: What can you tell us about the material of this new album? It's not unusual that a band wants to do something different after having released three albums so how's the case with Arcana? Will we hear any major changes in your music on the new album or have you decided to stay true to your old sound?

PETER: Well, it's not going to be a typical Arcana-duette thing, as I have expanded my studio alot with timpanies, hammered dulcimer , percussive instruments and a new really great sampler, I have taken the sound to a new level. I decided early not to take the typical Arcana "ingredients" and just stir them together. It would be both boring and too easy. And I must add that the constellation of Arcana is now more than ever a one man project, even though I have worked only (more or less) with Ida so far. With this album I will work with different people.

ECTONAUT: Who are these people who you are working with and what are their contributions?

PETER: I have done about 50% of the album and I do not know exactly which people will be included in the final result.

ECTONAUT: On The Last Embrace we got the opportunity to experience a new side of Arcana, namely the addition of guitars in your music. I'm of course speaking of the tracks Hymn of absolute deceit, Winds of the lost soul and The ascending of a new dawn. I find this a most excellent addition to the sound of Arcana. Is this something we will hear more of on the new album?

PETER: Yes, I think that the new material has developed more in that vein. I think that working only with keyboards limits the depth of the sound, so it comes naturally for me to use more accoustic instruments. It's also very important for me to take the sound where I want it to be, instead of giving in to the voice of the people that wants me to give the a typical Arcana album. It's either do my own thing or put it to sleep.

ECTONAUT: As far as I know, you are still signed to CMI. Are you happy with what they have done for you so far? Is there anything you would like to change?

PETER: No, I'm really pleased with CMI, it's a  perfect label for me. If I would be on a major label I would probably be treated with less attention. It's better for me to be signed to CMI as we have both a great personal contact and we work really great together.

ECTONAUT: CMI have really earned a good name for themselves by releasing many quality records by bands like raison d'être, Puissance, Mortiis, In Slaughter Natives and Arcana among others during their almost 15 years of existance. Do you take pride in being on such a respected label as CMI?

PETER: Well, both yes and no. Take ISN for an example, people compare my Sophia releases to the ISN releases, but what they do not consider is that some of his stuff is done ten years earlier than mine.. But of course I feel very pleased with being one of the most selling bands on CMI, even though that is nothing of interest.

ECTONAUT: Arcana plays a kind of music that I dare say isn't limited to a certain number of people in a scene or a specific musical genre. Yet you have decided to release your albums through CMI, a relatively small part of the whole musical industry that mostly reaches out to underground people. Have you ever thought of trying to get signed by a major worldlabel, like Sony or Warner and aim for a broader fanbase?

PETER: Well, I think that if I change the sound abit and write the songs with a more commercial tone I think I might get signed to a big label, but as I said earlier, I will either do my own thing or just put this project to sleep.

ECTONAUT: I dare say that Arcana is somewhat a cat among hermines on CMI. I mean, both imagewise and musicwise you are far softer many of your labelmates, at least the ones I've heard. Do you agree?

PETER: Yeah, I guess you could say that. But I think that most of the bands have their own style and some of the more aggresive side and some milder. I feel that Arcana fitts in perfect among these maniacs! haha

ECTONAUT: What do you think of the other bands on CMI and their sublabels then? Do you like what they have released with more extreme bands? MZ 412 and Anenzephalia for example?

PETER: Yeah, I like both of these bands. And I love Institut, so there are alot of great harscher bands on CMI that I really like!

ECTONAUT: What else are you listening to in these days?

PETER: I listen alot to Swans, Depeche Mode, Diamanda Galas, Foetus and Devo. I guess they are quite different from what I do myself, but to me it is refreshing.

ECTONAUT: You are these days working fulltime on your second project Sophia, a project that delivers orchestral music of a far harder school than Arcana. What was it that made you start up this project and what did you want to achieve with it?

PETER: Basicly I started Sophia because I had problems getting people together with Arcana. But after a while I could give outlet for totally a different sound and style. So now I really feel they are two totally different projects. But I also feel that I have given Sophia much attention for a while now and it's time for Arcana to come forward.

ECTONAUT: So the near future belongs to Arcana then? Have you got anything else planned for Arcana at the moment except for the new album?

PETER: There will be the 7" single released soon and I have even considered putting together a tour.

ECTONAUT: Have you decided on what you are going to call the new album yet?

PETER: No not yet, but the 7"/CDs will be called Body of Sin.

ECTONAUT: Is Arcana or Sophia going to be featuted on the CMI.100 DVD?

PETER: Yes, I have songs ready for the CMI.100. This will be a really interesting release.

ECTONAUT: Which project do you consider to be your main project in these days?

PETER: Arcana and Sophia.

ECTONAUT: Two sides of the same coin?

PETER: Sort of, it's just an uplifting way to keep things going.

ECTONAUT: I heard that you are also working with one of the members of Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio in a side-project named Victoria. What can you tell us about this project? How does it differ from your previous works?

PETER: We have released a 7" through my own Erebus Odora. This is a project which me and Tomas have been talking about for some time now. Our idea is to make like 7-8 7" singles and pick the best songs for a full lenght album. Then release a single-box.The songs are of different types, but one thing that we have been talking about more and more is country & western.. Cash but slower and darker.... Apocalyptic country-western.. haha

ECTONAUT: Hehe, Why not? But seriously, why release 7-8 singles really when you could release a CD right away? Are you perhaps aiming for a future collector's value?

PETER: As both me and Tomas are quite busy persons it would be a too demanding job to sit down and record an album, so instead we record songs in connection to other occations, let's say if Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio are recording Erebus Odora.

ECTONAUT: I suppose you are a friend of vinyl. Why is vinyl so special compared to compact discs? Do you consider yourself to be a collector?

PETER: Actually I started to collect vinyls not too long ago, hehe.. I haven't had a decent record player so I didn't care much for the format. But now I have and it's really great to release some stuff on vinyl.

ECTONAUT: It doesn't take a scholar to figure out that Victoria is the latin word for Victory. Is the concept of Victoria perhaps victory related?

PETER: It was Tomas who came up with the name, I didn't give much thought to it, it looked good and fitted well with the music. But as we plan to conquer the world it's a very appropriate name.

ECTONAUT: I believe Victoria is your third musical project at the moment. Why all these side-projects?

PETER: As I see it, I have two personal projects which are Arcana & Sophia. Victoria is something we will do now, and we do not know where it will lead us.

ECTONAUT: Have you ever thought of working with some of our your extremer label-mates? Hehe, why not an Arcana/Brighter Death Now duette for example? That would truely be something to hang up in ones christmas tree I think.

PETER: Haha, I think that topic has actually come up at some drunken point.  I would really love to do something of such stark contrast!! I have to take this with Roger someday!

ECTONAUT: You mentioned Erebus Odora earlier in this interview. What can you tell us about this "label"?

PETER: It's more like a concept over what I do,.. It's my studio/mastering, label/distro, even a haircut saloon.

ECTONAUT: Well, what have you done so far and what have you got planned for the future?

PETER: I have recorded about 7 or 8 other artists and mastered alot of stuff (as the In Slaughter Natives box). The next release will probably be the next Victoria 7".

ECTONAUT: You mentioned an Erebus Odora haircut saloon. So, one can get a new haircut done by Erebus Odora then?

PETER: Yes, there has been some interesting art down in that cellar!!! Call me up and book a time!

ECTONAUT: You are responsible for remastering 4 albums by another truely excellent CMI act, namely In Slaughter Natives. I guess that it was a very interesting experience for a sound technician like you to work with the intense and effectful music of ISN. Who came up with this great idea and was remixing these albums a positive experience for you?

PETER: CMI and Jouni (ISN) decided to re-release all the ISN titles, but they needed to freshen up abit. So they asked me to re-master them all, and it was a really wonderful task! Here I get the chance to work with my favourite albums. I was abit carefull though, as there would be riots if I overdid the mastering! Hehe

ECTONAUT: Once you played guitar in an excellent metalband named Crypt of Kerberos. What was it that made you turn your back on playing metal and focus on producing music of a more keyboardoriented nature?

PETER: Well, that band died in 1993, so I'm suprised that anyone knows about it these days. Turned my back on metal? Haha.. well, it was really easy, I simply sold all of the equipment I had and bought equipment for Arcana instead. I think that, for me, it was really limiting for me to work in a metal band like that.

ECTONAUT: What is your opinion on metal music in these days then? Do you still listen to any metal bands?

PETER: Hmm, not if I choose myself, but I can appreciate some of the classics when I'm at a friends party. I still enjoy Slayer, BoltThrower and Morbid Angel.

ECTONAUT: Are you still jamming on your electrical guitar in these days or is it collecting dust in the corner?

PETER: I actually gave my guitar away to a friend of mine back in 95, but I guess I know how to play it still.

ECTONAUT: When was it that you started to play keyboard really? Have you received any training or are you self-taught?

PETER: I'm self-taught. I started playing it around 92. Just by curiousity what you could do with midi information and a sampler.

ECTONAUT: May I ask you what kind of equipment you are using in these days?

PETER: I got an Akai s-6000 with 256mb ram, Akai DR16 hd recorder, Lexicon PCM 80 reverb, Behringer Eurodesk, Rode NT2 mic, Cubase, wavelab and alot of plugins. And I have alot more effects and accustic instruments too...

ECTONAUT: Arcana delivers high-quality music, yet the keyboardstructure in your music isn't that complicated. I mean, you don't have to be freakin´ Frederic Chopin to play it. Is it correct to say that while it is simple in structure, its complex in feelings and emotions?

PETER: I think that I concentrate more on the orchestrations and arrangements, and one thing that is as important is to get the sound right in the studio, which is getting easier and easier for me to do. It's not very important for me to be a good instrumantalist, it's way more important to concentrate on the songs themselves and get the feeling right.

ECTONAUT: I would say that there's a quite strong element of melancholy and grief in the music of Arcana, especially on your first album Dark age of Reason. Do you and Ida consider yourselves to be depressive persons?

PETER: Haha, not exactly. But I think we all carry some stuff with us that is not beeing let out. For me music is like treatment. You will have to ask Ida herself if she is a deppressive person.

ECTONAUT: Hehe, maybe I will if I ever meet her. The perfectly normal thing to do on first encounter I presume. Anyway, I once heard a rumour that Arcana was offered to compose a soundtrack to a motion picture but that you turned it down when you learned about the nature of the film. Is this true?

PETER: No, not of my knowledge. But I have gotten offers to make music for movies, but it has been the movies themselves that ran out in the sand.

ECTONAUT: Is composing a movie-soundtrack something you would like to do in the future under the right conditions?

PETER: Yes, absolutly. I'm a big fan of great movies so if the right opportunity came up I would love to do the music for it! If someone gave a whole lot of money I would probably see it as a job and not consider the movie itself too much, but if it would be low budget thing I would ask myself if I got the interest and the time.

ECTONAUT: I know that you are a fan of Dead Can Dance. What do you think of Lisa Gerrard's collaboration with Hans Zimmer on the Gladiator soundtrack?

PETER: To be honest, it is a bit boring. Some parts of it are very good, but there are too many compromises between music and commercial elements in it to be interesting.

ECTONAUT: What do you consider to be a good movie soundtrack then? Any favorites? Personally, I feel quite lost within the soundtrack jungle but among the few good soundtrack I've heard are Wojzchek Chilar's soundtack to Bram Stoker's Dracula and Vangelis soundtrack to L'apocalypse Des Animaux. Have you heard these?

PETER: Yeah, they are both great. I love the Howard Shore works (Silence of the Lambs, Crash etc.). But soundtracks are great to a certain point, after a while I start to look for more substance and meaning behind it, and as movie sountracks are often done with a whole lot of compromises they lack of depth.

ECTONAUT: I know from various pictures and interviews that both Arcana and Sophia has performed live a couple of times during the last years. Unfortunately I have not yet had any change to see your shows. Will there be any live shows given in connection with the release of the new Arcana album? If so, where and when exactly?

PETER: First I felt like not playing live with Arcana again, but as the material is turning out in a way that could be great to do live, I'm reconsidering to perhaps do some gigs anyway. Nothing is planned yet, but one thing is sure, I  won't take any low-budget offers. I will only do bigger things, because I've tried to do the songs on smaller P.A.'s and sleeping on floors, which I won't do again.

ECTONAUT: How would you describe a live-show with ARCANA then? Do you add any special effects into the performance or is it just plain musical performance? Any surprises, requisites etc.?

PETER: So far I have only done Arcana gigs with the old songs and with the old line-up. So, I guess there haven't been any big surprises. But if I would play live now I would bring alot more instruments with me instead of  having most of the music on dat or md.

ECTONAUT: I saw a picture of you on the Sophia home-page where you were standing in front of something that I think is a gong of some sort. Am I right? Were do you obtain instruments like this?

PETER: I think it was the Nürnberg gig last easter. The gong was for the Hekate gig. But If I would like to have one I would just start looking for one, either when I'm out on tour and get the chanse to buy interesting stuff, or I just order stuff here in Sweden. 

ECTONAUT: Well, I guess we're drawing to an end. If we were to blend together all the topics concerning your music, imagery etc. that has been discussed during this interview, may I ask you what exactly it is that you as a composer wish to present to the persons that purchase your albums?

PETER: I do not make music for others, I'd say I make music that I'd like to hear myself.  It would feel strange for me to sit down and try to make music that "other" people would like.

ECTONAUT: Perhaps I wrote this question in a bad way. What I wanted to know was more like what the very nature of Arcana is and what it is that fuels you Peter to go on with this project?

PETER: As I have mentioned before, this is like treatment for me, this isn't something I have choosen to do in the beginning.  It's like having a mission in life but no clue what it is and where it will take me.

ECTONAUT: If you were to describe Arcana with just three adjectives, which words would you chose?

PETER: Satisfying (for me anyway), Powerful and thoughtful.

ECTONAUT: If there's anything you feel has been left unsaid, then feel free to speak out. Good luck with the new album.

PETER: Thanks, and sorry for the delay.

Click here to visit the official Arcana homepage.

Contact adress:

ARCANA
C/O Peter Pettersson
Gamla Tullgatan 1
632 20 ESKILTUNA
SWEDEN

E-mail: arcana@algonet.se