From Cair Andros zine 2001

And speaking of 'atmospheric music', there's another darkling project str8outtahobart which could perhaps fall into this category. I refer of course to Diable Amoreux ('the Devil in love', a term which could have about three or four meanings, methinks). For Her Requiem (self-released in 1998),
the first album produced by this solo artist, is a highlysuccessful foray into the realms of keyboard-andeffects-driven ambience-save for the fact that it's hardly ambient. I would call it foreground music, more than anything else; For Her Requiem is compelling and absorbing, to say the least. Sin-Nanna himself describes the CD thus (quoted from The Fall of Because magazine): "So sad but beautiful ... I would say listening to this is like a tragedy; so bleak, a journey through dark and depressive ambience to find there is no love waiting on the other side." A fairlyaccurate analysis, at least in my particular reading of the record's symbolism and underlying spirit. No wonder the project was originally called Lamentum, eh?Anyhow, going on the excellence of the first release, I resolved to interview the man with the plan himself, 7. (Also because he ordered me to do so. I cannot disobey the Fuhrer of Van Diemen's Land.) So here goes:

CA: What are your aspirations, musical and otherwise? Are they coming to fruition as we speak?

7: "My aspiration is to finally complete and end existence; mine. Perhaps if I were more charitable towards my fellow woman and man I would be interested in ending it for all, but displaying the most primitive and fundamental instinct of the human that I am - care for the self - I'm not. As for musically, I really have no idea. I do not believe I have much to do with the music of Diable Amoreux. Not until I listen to the mix do I discover what has been recorded. Just who is responsible for the compositions, I'm not sure, perhaps Elizabeth. I appear to mainly handle the technical side of the process. So if it is turning out as its creator intended, and who the creator is, perhaps only the Devil knows. For myself, I feel that my involvement in the music leaves it lacking at times. Certainly the absence of musical ability and talent can only be a downfall.

"Is my own personal aspiration coming to fruition as we speak? Yes it is. I cannot live forever, can I."

Can you provide a rationale for the name-change? Does this indicate a shift from introspective, gothic, miserable perspectives to a more life-affirming sense of diabolic power, destiny and romance?

"No, I just didn't like the name. The name change was also executed to better represent an underlying, and what has now become the main, theme in the project, that of sympathy and love for the Devil-Lucifer. The deity that, whether you believe to be actual or not, is the best representation of the link between woman and man on the earth, this plane, and those at the end and top of evolution, those now with the universal body.

"There will never be anything 'life-affirming' about anything I am involved with. Quality of life, yes, though we may differ on what that is. (To me, quality of life is living each moment according to your Will. The only evil is that which a man does to himself. -SL) If the 'musical' aspect is different in the new material (love songs for the Devil) then it is because of a different recording environment, and the fact that more of my limitations as the 'transducer' are being addressed; in a few years I may not have anything to do with it [the project] at all."

Are the musical and spiritual/ philosophical/ narrative ideas within Diable Amoreux inseparable? In other words: does the music serve to enhance the underlying concept, vice versa, or are they distinct elements that neither feed off or support each other?

"The sound-scape and the tale that it tells are quite the same thing. Just as, or maybe not 'just', Beethoven's Pastorale is supposed to represent the storm in music form, so too do D.A. songs have an actual interpretation.
Though what it represents is an actual story, (soon on the Diable Amoreux web page) similar to the 'UN-Negro instruments' Burzum albums, although perhaps somewhat even more involved still. (I think he means Dauði Baldurs
and Hlidskjolf. -SL) They tell a story without using words. But of course, likewise with instrumental classical music, your own personal interpretations are far more important."

I am aware that, in terms of narrative at least, Diable Amoreux and various fictions published in The Fall of Because magazine are somewhat affiliated. Care to share?

"I guess they are because the same person writes them - me. I'm not quite sure how to elaborate on that. Certainly they are affiliated by the same themes-that disclose what a fucked-up individual I am."

Continuing along this line of interrogation: who is Elizabeth??

"Yes, this theme / woman is affiliated with both projects, but who / what she is, I am not too sure myself.
"She is the other half complete, the Ying. The seeker and the searched for, she is the seeker on the For Her Requiem mini album. If she exists, certainly she is dead, though maybe not. She may forever remain a mystery to me, that is the one thing I most fear."

Let's discuss matter spiritual. What is Satanism to you? Would you consider yourself a heathen, say, in the Paul Christensen sense of the word?

"Satanism to me-Lucifer is the embodiment of progress, spiritual enlightenment, honesty, fair play and the way forward. I believe in the Satanic spirit. The Devil is behind inventors and creators, science, the arts and the truth. For an example see the Laibach song "Message from the black star". It is the part in woman and man that we must bring out so we may push ever forward. Those who cower behind lies and are not open to new things are not of this Satanic spirit, though that is not to say that they do not have a place in the mechanics of the world-just that I have not worked out what that part is yet. Perhaps to make those of the 'true way' feel better about the ostracism that they often have to wade through in order to fulfil their niche in life.

"What is the Paul Christensen sense of the word? And exactly how do you define a heathen? I'm a Pagan. We are all Pagan because we are all human, all animals. Only if you affiliate your self with deceptive or 'non-human' associations do you forfeit and turn your back on what you are. As the church has now bastardised the word, "heathen" to me is more someone who is against the church, rather than just a Pagan, a member of the old religion-the human race." (It was a deliberately obscure question, perhaps intended to provoke just such a response. -SL)

Does Tasmania hold a central position in your psychological cosmology? I remember you wrote an article, in Mess mag, about Tassie youths continually being drawn back to the roost. Why do you think this is? Some bizarre invention of Thomas Wolfe's "you can't go home again"?

"Tasmania is home, though I don't really have any particular affiliation with any of the places there, not the cities anyway, it is more the island as a whole. I don't know why people keep coming back, a lot do not. It is very different to any of the other places I have been to in Australia.
Perhaps it is the spirit of the woods, the mist on the mountain in the winter mornings; this is what stirs a longing to turn homeward for me. It may be hypnotic. "And as I look back, I will surely see you coming; eager and light hearted, with all the south in your way."

"Tasmania has by far a better quality of day to day living, but of course it lacks a lot of the things 'the young' find essential for their existence and happiness, especially if you are ambitious, which a lot of us are.
No-one organelles anything for you down there, so if it is ever to happen, you must do it yourself. And then of course nobody shows up, which can either make you pessimistic, or make you more determined."

Here's an obligatory question. Answer in as interesting a fashion as possible. What are you influences?

"I compose music on Friday nights as close to the full moon as possible, in an old haunted mansion in the old part of town where no one goes any more.
It is based in ritual form. I arrive at the stroke of midnight, whereupon the door is opened by a buxom, naked woman. She escorts me into a room which holds an inverted pentagram. It has been etched onto the floor with chalk and has a candle burning at each of the points. There are more naked women and men inside the pentagram. I walk through the group to an ancient pipe-organ, where I have sex with them all and compose works for the up coming Diable Amoreux releases. All this whilst the spirits of Aleister Crowley and Anton LaVey play tiddly-winks in the background.

"I am not too sure that I have any influences. But Diable Amoreux seems to come out like a combination of Raison d'Être, Current 93 and perhaps a little Mortiis."

What's your favourite type of jelly? What do you think Aleister Crowley's favourite type of jelly would be?

"Now there is an original and insightful question. Yellow jelly, which I believe is the preferred choice for the Bananas in pyjamas. I think old Al would have gone for port wine-flavour, a nice deep red, and perhaps laced with cocaine."

How about Melbourne, eh? Do you hate junkies yet?

"Melbourne is a fine city and has a nice balance. It is not completely 'trendy' like the impression Sydney likes to give, and not as 'arty' as Hobart. It is a nice looking city as well. Thought it is at its best on gray days, which hide the dirt. Perhaps there should be a limit on how high the buildings can be, like in Paris.

"I have slightly more sympathy than hate for those whom have given up on attempting to make any progress with their soul, (Sympathy? Sympathy?!?) whether it be by escapism through drugs or mindless misguided belief. Though I'm sure if I encountered one of these creatures in a dark alley, my opinion would quickly change. Dealers should be publicly hung. And the bigger ones should be hung with steel catgut."

Are there any questions you might care to ask me?

"No. Thank you for the interview."

Thankyou, 7; I hope you found it enthralling and inspiring. May the wind under your wings carry you to where the sun sails and the moon walks.
But unless you're a real pervert, I'd doubt you would like to walk beneath Striborg's Cold Winter Moon... We shall now return to our grilling of Tasmania's one-and-only Metal Troll (Sin-Nanna, that is), and continue on the topic of influences.