October-December 2003, Belgium
ISSN: 1374-2167
Interviewer: Frederic Cotton for Khimaira

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‘The Seventh Ingress’ is a wonderful gem, a crystal pearl… To what refers the title?

The title is best left mysterious, though some have linked it to my song ‘The Valley of Seven Keys’ (on Alexandria). I am happy to leave this to the imagination.

Alabaster is starting with the beautiful ‘The Throng on the Pier’, based on a passage of the Iliad and on Dante’s Inferno. Musically, it is a typical Louisa song but its theme seems very dark. What made you choose this song as opening piece?

The opening drums were intended to convey a sense of urgency: a soul in flight, terror or passion.

I had the chance (thanks to you) to hear an old version of ‘How should I your true Love know’. Your cover is very dreamy and religious. What did you want to add in your version?

Brett Taylor composed the synthesised strings and organ part, which are the highlight. We also brought in a wind-chime of blue glass elephants, to suggest Ophelia’s clothing and footsteps, swishing through undergrowth into the river. Mark and I had watched a strange, dreamy cartoon of Hamlet… with the image of a white waterbird rising with Ophelia’s soul from the water, similar to a picture by Magritte you once sent me, Frederic… I’d seen images of Ophelia by Pre-Raphaelites and other painters. I wanted to convey her fragility through a slight warping of time and tune…