Thulean Archives

Yesterday I talked about how I recorded Filosofem. But what about "Hvis lyset tar oss"? Let's find out. 1992 and late 1991 was a very productive period for me. I spent most of my time alone back home in Bergen. And I played a lot of guitar and I made a lot of music. And one of the albums I made in that period was Hvis lyset tar oss. And I made it in the summer in a couple of weeks, probably actually in one week. I made all the riffs in one week, wrote all the lyrics in one week.^[1] And then I called Pytten and we recorded the album. So all in all, it took about 3 weeks to make that album.^[2] From the first riff was made to the master tape was ready. It was recorded like all the other albums, in a Grieghallen Sound Studio, with Pytten as a technician. And I recorded it at the same time as I recorded the Aske EP. And used the same setup, used the same drums, the same amp, a PV60 watt(?). My usual Pantera X300 guitar, Westone. So nothing was different. And I used Padden's from Old Funeral, his drum kit. And there's not much to say in that regard about this. And although I'm not a very good drummer, so to speak I remember that I was an enduring drummer. I could play for a very long time.^[3] And I enjoyed the recording of that album, and in particular the "Hvis lyset tar oss" track. During the recording of Aske that we started with Tomas from Emperor was there to play the bass.^[4] I think he played bass only on two of those tracks, actually. And then he left. And afterwards it was only Pytten and me. And I remember also that I recorded, another track that I wasn't very happy with, so I rejected it. I dropped it. It's always nice to go to studio with an extra track, and then you just use the best of those tracks. And that's basically what I did when I recorded "Hvis lyset tar oss". I also made the Tomhet track, the synthesizer track in studio. And I went to the studio thinking that I would make a synthesizer track because I didn't have access to synthesizer at home. But I knew that he had a synthesizer in studio. And I also knew that all I needed to make a track was access to that synthesizer. So every time I went to the studio, I had access to it and I made something. And I did this time as well Tomhet. And as you can tell from the track itself, I recorded Tomhet live. And that's all I can say about that. I don't remember the name of the synthesizer or anything. What type it was, I have no idea. In hindsight, I am happy with "Hvis lyset tar oss" the Album,^[5] but at the same time, I think it's a little bit difficult to hear what I'm playing. I don't remember when the album was released because I was in prison at the time. But it was recorded in the summer of 1992. And it's one of the few fond memories I have from that scene, that putrid, rotten scene. I don't know if I would have continued to make four albums every year like I did that year afterwards. And we will never know because I was never able to try. But it does feel special to me that I was actually able to make that much music at the time. And I don't really know why. The concept of Hvis lyset tar oss was, of course^[6] the idea that Christianity is a spiritual black death and their light is harmful in all ways. For that reason, I used images from the Black Death collection by Theodor Kittelsen, a Norwegian artist. And I used Kittelsen again for Filosofem because it was anti black metal. And because I wanted to have albums released in pairs, so to speak. We have the first two albums fit together. The next two albums were supposed to fit together artistically, you know, visually and so forth. So that's why I used it for Filosofem as well.^[7]

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1. The same week, that is.
2. I had to wait one week to record.
3. And keep the same tempo.
4. Sorry about the poor sound on the video.
5. But that might be what makes it special too.
6. Again, sorry about the poor sound.
7. Timeline cleanse.