Previous albums were out of print, and reissuing them was a logical step.
I have been developing and recording new material, but have also been spending a lot of time on other projects such as motion picture sound design, remixes plus music for TV and video games, so I haven't been able to devote as much time as I’d like on Lustmord.
There was a period during the last 5-6 years when, if I did have spare time, I was using it to catch up on life in general.

Is it true you are recording a new album? Could you tell me something more about it?

The new album Metavoid is finished and was released May 21st.
Its a logical evolution of the Lustmord sound, and it will be interesting to see what people make of it.

Purifying Fire is a collection of tracks (period: 1995 - 1998); have you tried to find a common musical feeling among the songs included or
something else?

The only connection is that the tracks are all pieces that were recorded or worked on and released during that period. On Purifying Fire they are collected together for easier access as some of the compilations they appeared on were obscure or limited. There is a stylistic similarity though, which does help make it work as a coherent album.

What about the art of "sound recycling"? In Black Star you have exploited the art of self recycling, since it has been built with samples
taken from Heresy and The Place Where The Black Stars Hang!

I like to have some fun every now and again, and that was for a Tech label who specifically wanted to revisit older material for a 12” because Tech DJ’s had expressed interest in it.

How did the Paradise Disowned‚ and The Monstrous Soul‚ re-release come about?

Er...they were out of print, so I made them available again...

You have never seen yourself like an "industrial" or "experimental" artist; don't you want to be labelled or do you feel yourself far from these kind of sounds? You are also considered the father of "dark ambient" sound; I think you don't care about it, but you can‚t deny the great influence you have and you have had on a lot of bands (Cold Meat Industry bands, for example).

You are correct, I don’t care. As for other music, I have more interest in those who try to create something original, even if they fail, than I am in those who only copy.

Your music has often been wrapped in a sort of evil mystic, ancestral and deviated spirituality, like if you were trying to convey your own vision of religion (I don't know which religion); do you agree or is it only an impression of mine?

I am against religion, and see no point in it, though I do see that others feel a need for it.
I don’t have my own vision of religion, as I totally oppose it.

Have you tried to translate in music the idea of mind frightening and of what could be described as a kind of "philosophic horror and terror"?

Yes, universal dread is a common theme in some of my work.

What about Side Effects? Is it still alive? Why did you decide to come into Side Effects in 1985?

In 1985 there weren't any labels left who releasing worthwhile experimental music after the peak period of 1977-82, and so I decided to resurrect Side Effects, which previously had only release SPK recordings.
I was a lot of fun, and I’m proud of what it released in the 15 years that I ran it, but I stopped the label in 1999 for various reasons. I was too busy with other things, it was no longer fun, and the market has changed and it became increasingly difficult to be heard.

Do you think you could have expressed yourself well also through painting, writing, etc. or music has been the perfect vector to convey your ideas?

I did go to Art School briefly, and I do write a little, but I have always been attracted to and intrigued by sound, and I find that it is better suited to expressing the ideas that I currently like to explore. I also enjoy working with sound because the ideas it can remain enigmatic, which cloud perception and adds to the attraction.

In which way a sound can change its meaning in relation with the place where you produce it?

It’s all a question of perspective.

What do you think about your past collaboration with Robert Rich for Stalker?

I t’s a good album, one of the few that I’ve worked on that will say that about. I enjoyed working with Robert, so there are good memories.
I think of it as a successful album as it does what we set out to achieve, that is, create a very real sonic world that only exists when the album is played.

You work (worked?) with Graeme Revell as consultant/sound designer for soundtracks featured on famous productions: Basketball Diaries, Spawn, The 13th Warrior, The Crow I & II, Tank Girl, Strange Days, From Dusk Till Dawn, etc.; when and in what way you have been introduced in this world? Which is your approach to this kind of activity? Tell me more about it.

That was my day job from 1993 until 1999. No more, no less.

If you have to look back and make a comparison between the beginning when you were used to record sounds in natural caverns, cathedrals, abattoirs, etc. with the more electronic sounds exploited in the last phase of your career what would you like to underline?

That the meaning remains the same. It is not the execution but the result that is important.
I've always been attracted to subterranean locations, the indefinable but tangible sense of volume and space that they posses.
Using specific locations as part of "the Lustmord sound" was a very important factor in starting the project , and recording underground was a natural step, especially considering the acoustics of such places, as well as the symbolism.
Doing such things has always seemed obvious to me, I'm surprised more people don't do it.

Both are equally valid, and both have negative aspects, based purely on aesthetics, it's a matter of utilizing whatever best for a given purpose.
Over a period of time Lustmord as a project evolved from being one founded on the physical aspect of location recordings and the manipulation of such recordings, and became instead the manipulation of a ever growing library of sound to create a non existent, but yet a sonically very real environment.
I think in hindsight, that Lustmord would have changed earlier if the technology was available.
There's still a certain amount of location recording, but is a much smaller part of the overall effect and is manipulated beyond recognition, the idea is no longer so much to capture the sound of a given location, but to create a new location.

Is there something, musically speaking, you haven't captured yet? An atmosphere, a sound, an image, a feeling,...!

Yes...

Where do you think your music comes from? Do you credit any specific influences (not only musical influences)?

There are many influences, with the main one being the daily experiences of life, of observing and absorbing.