selected and put on cassette, later on CD and now on albums online. It’s indeed problematic today to do that kind of interaction as all is concentrated on one computer, one track at the time. It’s c o u n t e r - i n t u i t i v e unfortunately. We try to fix that by using 2 computers, so we can create ideas on our own, and transfer them to the main computer when suitable. In those days you meet Peter Koutstaal who became part of Linear Movement.Was it him who added a more pop sensibility to the projects? Not necessarily. We had the Autumn and Twilight Ritual projects and Peter was already involved in Autumn, the later part of it. He was also a school mate and a good keyboard player and added his part to the tracks. But it was really me that wanted to do something more poppy, as Autumn was very cosmic / experimental, and Twilight Ritual had a big sense of art and culture in its veins. As a matter of fact, the Not Afraid To Die album, released as Autumn, is a bit schizophrenic: if you check most tracks, it should have been a Linear Movement release. It kind of showed the way in 82, whereas most of the other LMO‘s works are from 83. Another curious project was “Meditation Of The Lost”, released under theAutumn namewhere you played only accompanied by a jazz dancer on stage and the music was more “new age”. Can you please tell us more about the concept behind this new idea? Not much of a concept I’m afraid. I felt a bit lost as a girl dumped me, what else would an 18-year-old feel? So, in my case, I expressed that playing music and I created a bunch of tracks that eventually resulted in a live performance of two parts of 45 minutes and indeed accompanied only by a lady jazz dancer that was present at our Hard Breakfast shows. 2 CDs came out of it, the original ‘short’ tracks and the melted-together live versions. According to you, was Experiments With Environments the masterpiece, the summation of what Autumn was? It might be, as it’s a collection of tracks recorded over quite a year or so and it does present Autumn in its variety of faces – experimental, very melodic, synths and guitars - 13 - alike. It’s the only album that is not associated with a specific event. But it's tough to say that it’s the summation of what we did. You also started a project called Twilight Ritual (and played with it last year at Ombra). You said that the music of TR has more spirit and personality. Can you please explain this? Twilight Ritual was Geert’s idea. He and I make music without any effort at all. But Autumn had a style and he wanted to bring on board more art, culture and alternative stuff as his interests laid very much in that direction. Geert was an art historian, which fits very well. So TWR is indeed only him and me and has a special twist around it. Whereas other projects have less “engagement” and are free to interpret, TWR looks for a character and personality that is more present in its work. After a hiatus when you focused on A Split-Second you came back to TR. Did you see it as your best way of expressing your musical ideas? Things changed for practical reasons. Geert went to university in one town, I went to another one.To continue was a bit difficult after that. I also had to move my‘studio’ once again. Hence, I landed in Ghent’s Top Studio, where TWR made some recordings. But I was also engaged already with another classmate of mine which finally resulted in A Split-Second. That became so successful that it ate much of the time. Geert was still involved as he made most of the cover artwork. In 90-91 I found a way to build a brand-new studio, this time with proper material such as a 32-track inline mixing desk and a 1-inch 16-track recorder. Having my own place again allowed TWR to come back. I told Geert: “It’s been a while but let’s try if we can still do it.” And it went great. We started working on new tracks that resulted in a whole new Twilight Ritual album called Organic, an album with a spot-on title. TWR guarantees artistic freedom, but lyrics and melodies remain always www.peek-a-boo-magazine.be
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