This interview was conducted in March 2001 by Riccardo Conforti and published in Wasted Landscapes webzine / Italy.

1. In the first place it compliments indeed for Nordland, a truly wonderful job! Also the side artwork is truly impressive, a cured confection therefore would make to fade also best productions CMI. But I would want to begin asked you some information on the biography of Apoptose.

Thanks very much for your kind words! At the moment Apoptose is musically a one-man-project. I had it in my mind for quite a while in a more or less abstract form before I started recording music. I had ideas that I wanted to express with sound but I didn’t know exactly which way to go with these ideas so I thought it would be better to wait and see. Finally about four years ago all became clearer to me and from this time I worked constantly on the music and the photos for the visual presentation of Apoptose.

The artwork is a very important aspect of the whole project, too. There are two close friends involved, Ingo of Polygon and Sebastian of Das Visionomicon, who bring in their graphic skills. The Nordland-cover was the first example of this fruitful cooperation.

2. Nordland is characterized from a truly glacial atmosphere along all its duration, is a concept of bottom in meant its?

“Glacial atmosphere” is a very fitting description because all of the music of this album is influenced by the landscape and the rough living conditions of the northern countries. But there is something more: The term “Nordland“ has another level that goes far beyond the pure geographic meaning of this word. To me it also represents the part of the human consciousness that is not easy accessible, the night-side of our mind that you find below the surface. All people have got this dark side but most of them reject its existence. “Dark“ doesn’t mean that it is “negative“ it is just an archaic part of us that has its roots thousands of years ago. This part of the consciousness still influences our everyday behaviour although we often don’t recognise it. The music is an exploration of my personal “Nordland“ and may be a device for the listener to find access to the own inner world.

3. I must say that I have found in yours sound various infuences: some you typically leave more martial that have remembered me a lot Arcana the darkest ones, others Dark ambient to the Raison d' Etre; can you confirm it?

From the moment I used this voiceloop in “Nidstång” I knew that my music will be compared to  raison d’être but that is no problem for me. I know Peter for some years and I really like his sound. Same with Arcana. Both of the projects are very dark and calm just like Apoptose so it is no wonder you see similarities. But my influences reach even further and beyond the horizon of dark ambient. Classical music is a very prominent influence but I also like neofolk or electronic music or even pop music and they all have a certain influence on the way I express certain emotions with sound.

4. After to have translate the titles of the single tracks, I have noticed that they are all centralized on visions many ethereal and nocturnal of the nature. What you have intentional to describe with they?

The heathen belief of our ancestors and the dark side of nature always fascinated me very much. From the beginning this is one of my main influences and so it is no miracle that all the tracks on Nordland are more or less directly inspired by the observation of natural phenomena. But there are again these two levels of meaning like in the title “Nordland” and the concept of the album that I mentioned before. On one hand you can see the tracks as single units which all have quite a different atmosphere according to the specific topic they are dedicated to. For example Nidstång is more “catchy”, Erntewôd is very ambient and Sturmnacht shows the more experimental and noisy side. But when you look beneath this surface you find that they are all different facets of the same thing. They use different colours to paint the same picture which gives the full impression in the end.

5. The track that to more it has hit me has been Nidstang, where to its inside there are shadings that are not found in the other songs, like the gregorian chants and above all that sound that personally remembers me one distorsion guitar. Which it is the reason of this choice?

You are right, Nidstång is different maybe because it is the track that comes nearest to the normal scheme of a “pop song” on this album?! It features a very prominent guitar-melody, the voice and the continuous drums from the beginning to the end. Although it is quite an abstract and slowed down “pop song”... This melody was in my mind for a long time but I was not able to fit it into a track before I came across this voice-loop. When I put them together it suddenly made sense.

Before I produced music myself I heard other musicians telling similar stories in interviews but I never really could believe what they said because I always thought a good melody is a good melody and that is all you need for a song. But now I know that they were telling the truth. A good melody needs the right time and place to be able to show its full quality.

6. Tell me something of the Tesco, in that relationship you are with they and like they have contacted you?

It was the other way: I send them a demo CD with a couple of songs and a rough artwork because I really like the way they release their stuff. Some weeks later they contacted me and told me that they are impressed by the sound of Apoptose and offered me to release a full album which later became Nordland. The working relationship with Tesco is really relaxed because they are very professional.

7. What do you think about Tesco's bands ?

Tesco released and still releases a lot of interesting records but as I am not such a big fan of “Power-Electronics” I missed many of their releases of this style except from Genocide Organ who are truly original. It is not difficult to guess that my favourites are the more ambient projects on this label. I was very impressed by the “Cancer”-CD of Illusion of Safety and the first LJDLP-CD years ago. “Derelict” of Asmorod is also very good and the brilliant Contrastate albums. Especially the LP/CD set where the CD was placed in the big middle-hole of the vinyl was simply outstanding! Since then I have never seen anything quite like this again. I think Tesco are right in mixing different styles on their label so that you can’t say before what kind of music you can expect next. It makes the whole thing more interesting.

8. Have you in program some live acts for promote Nordland?

It would be great to perform the music live on stage but the way I want an Apoptose-show to be is not easy to achieve. I witnessed enough boring industrial one-man-performances in my life to avoid this kind of show! A concert will only work for Apoptose with guest musicians and drummers playing as much of the instruments live as possible to give a proper impression and a worthwhile entertainment for the audience. But it is very expensive and time consuming to coordinate all these people who would be necessary and later rehearse with this tour band. At the moment this is impossible for me but I don’t give up hope so soon! I am patient and maybe one day there will be the opportunity for me to do something like this.

9. Future programs?

The next release with the participation of Apoptose will be a sampler of the Italian label “Octagon”. It will be called “Audacia Imperat” and is planned to be released, as far as I know, in May 2001. You’ll find an exclusive new Apoptose track on this one.

At the moment I am in the first steps of preparing a new album. This will be quite different from “Nordland” because it shows a different aspect of Apoptose but you will certainly recognise the parallels. The main part of this are special documentary recordings which I made some years ago in southern Europe. I can’t say more now because it is all in the beginnings and so many things can happen…but at least I hope to finish it this year.