Ashtoreth & Penumbral Aethyr interview: ‘There is something healing about the process of creation’
Ashtoreth & Penumbral Aethyr
I’m not a fervent fan of occasional artist collaborations. They often result in a single release, then fade out, only to resurface later with a different partnership. This is a common phenomenon in genres like Dark-Ambient, Cinematic, and Industrial. However, there are exceptions — and “Naiad” by Ashtoreth & Penumbral Aethyr, released on Winter-Light, is one of them. This album resulted from the common efforts between Belgian artists Peter Verwimp (best known for Ashtoreth) and Nicolas Van Meirhaeghe (best known for Empusae). The album contains only four tracks, but each is composed with meticulous care and stunning progression. Drawing from Dark-Ambient, Cinematic, Ritual, and Trance influences, “Naiad” reveals a true alchemy between two artists who clearly understand and complement each other. I had the chance to speak with these two driven and talented individuals, and I can highly recommend “Naiad”. (Picture credits by Christel Morvan / Interview courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)
Q: You’ve both collaborated with various other artists, but how did your meeting and collaboration come about? What was it about each other’s musical approach that made composing together either challenging or inspiring?
Peter: Our first meeting was more than 10 years ago at the Garden of Drones event. We had both performed there and had a nice and cozy chat after the shows with some cocktails that Nicolas made us. After that we both played with the idea of collaborating but neither of us dared to ask, hahaha… for 10 years! It was only last year that Nicolas contacted me and we immediately agreed on starting work on an album.
Of course we were following each other’s work for many years, so we knew each other very well through our music. So once we really got working, everything fell into place and the writing went really smooth and easy. As if we had been preparing this for the past 10 years and now it all accumulated in this moment of writing and playing with ideas. The whole endeavor was inspiring from the first pieces that Nicolas sent me. It was so easy for me to respond musically to what he was offering. It was almost as if the album wrote itself!
I think we have a lot in common when our approach to music is concerned, but different enough to make it challenging and adventurous to engage in this collaborative effort.
Nicolas: Peter got it all right. There was this instant synergy when we discussed each other’s work (I was blown away by his performance), and yes, it took us a decade before the timing felt right for me to propose a collaboration. Once we decided to go for it, I started working under my Penumbral Aethyr moniker. I had only written three pieces for this project just a few months before, so I was far from my Empusae comfort zone. But knowing the material would be given to Peter, it felt so natural, and the magic instantly happened.
Q: In terms of both theme and working method, “Naiad” seems like a conceptual work. How do you view that yourselves? How did the process and development unfold, and what were each of your specific contributions?
Peter: There is, in part, truth to your statement. Only did the music come first and the concept started growing from there. Nicolas had sent me some of his recordings, multiple Experimental tracks that already held the skeleton of the different pieces in them. We had agreed beforehand that I would take on the mixing/producing duties and so I started with arranging and structuring the pieces he had sent me. That sometimes meant throwing away sounds or ideas that didn’t work as well as highlighting those that had a special kind of magic about them. Afterwards, I added more layers with my own contributions and started working towards a global mix. I recorded some base tracks as well and we kept working over the internet until we were both satisfied with the end result.
Throughout the whole working process we discussed possible angles and concepts to accompany and amplify the intent behind the music. It was only in the final stages that we came up with the song titles and the meaning behind them. The emotions of the initial music led us to giving meaning to them, I suppose. I’ll let Nicolas explain more about his contributions in terms of instrumentation and the experiments he conducted.
What was clear from the beginning of the process was that percussive sounds formed an important place in the music we were creating. So I took that approach and experimented with bass, guitar, shamanic percussion instruments and voice. Some sounds even involved banging on my mixing desk, haha!
Nicolas: The main concept for me at the start of this project was to create something instinctive, natural, visceral, organic, intuitive, and occult. Using software to add or alter sound sources wasn’t an option for me personally. I began my recordings with field captures—crickets, birds, wind—which I processed, deformed, and morphed (exclusively with hardware) into drones, textures, and ambiences. I also used various objects and fabricated alien tools suitable for Electro-Acoustic experiments, as well as several drone machines to add an analog touch and enhance the cosmic depths of the layers. No structures were followed—only instinct—and I intentionally left space and options for Peter to modify them and add his magic, which he did more intensely, more deeply, and much faster than I anticipated.
Q: I understand that “Naiad” revolves around mythological figures that you link to human emotions, ultimately leading to a kind of inner reflection on the world we live in. What conclusions did you arrive at during this journey, and how did you translate those emotions into sound and composition?
Peter: As I said before, it was the initial emotions of the first recordings that triggered everything, and I feel that those emotions were directly coming from what was happening in the world at that moment. We live in dark, challenging times and we as artists have a need to channel and transform that through our art, to translate them into image and sound. Because while Nicolas and myself were working on the music, Christel Morvan, creator of the artwork, was actively following our progress and listening to the pieces as they were created, she was equally part of the project right from the start. A lot of our music is improvised, intuitive and organic; the primal energy of the moment was captured by recording our experiments and only at a later stage structured and rationalized.
I don’t think we arrived at any conclusions, but there is something healing about the process of creation and I hope that the listener can have a similar experience when listening to the album.
Nicolas: I absolutely agree with Peter. The process of creation had a strong healing and soothing effect on my mental health, which I felt was reciprocated, for the three of us. Chris’ input and visions on top of the music we were working on infused the project with an extra layer of energy. I think this also explains why this collaboration went so smoothly. We had an album before even realizing it.
But yes, we were channeling the heaviness of what was happening around us into something equally dark but with the opposite effect as result. At least for us, during the process and after the final outcome.
Q: You employed various forms of chanting throughout the work—perhaps not always prominently, but they play a significant role in shaping the atmosphere and a certain ritualistic element. Could you elaborate on that? And to what extent do you view music with trance-like qualities as a transformative or even groundbreaking experience?
Peter: We did indeed both use our voice on the recordings. And even though we don’t use any words on the album, still it is the voices that tell the tale. They add the emotional weight to each piece. I feel it has to do with the qualities of vocals in general, something the listener can recognize and hold on to. I use my voice a lot during shamanic journeying/healing sessions and even though wordless it has the power to convey messages to those present in the session, they speak to the unconscious.
And to answer the second part of your question, Trance-like music has indeed the possibility to take the listener on a journey inside themselves and even transform/transmute them from the inside out. These practices are ancient and have always been with us and keep changing shape, but their effect remains the same. Music in general has the ability to convey images, feelings, memories, etc… Trance-like music makes it easier to lock into our unconscious and even heal those parts of ourselves that need it.
Nicolas: I was actually hoping (and secretly aiming) for Peter to add his chants and vocals to the recordings, and it worked out beyond my expectations. I don’t use my voice that often—it depends on the music I’m working on—but I see vocals as the ultimate organic instrument. They trigger something tribal and ancient within us. Especially Peter’s shamanic chants resonate deeply with human emotions and the nervous system, as well as what some call the soul—at least for listeners open enough to let the vibrations do their work.
Q: You seem to have made a conscious decision to work without plugins, relying solely on hardware, vocals, and field recordings. How did this approach—and the limitations that come with it—influence the creative process? And what was the reasoning behind this choice?
Peter: For me personally, it has a lot to do with authenticity and integrity. There are so many easy ways to make sounds or music these days—some music even gets made up entirely by AI—but that just takes the fun out of things, I feel. We wanted to capture real, human emotions, and that is something an AI will never be able to do. It might be harder to achieve good sound quality, but to me that comes second; the emotive aspect is what matters most. It needs to feel organic and real, and I don’t mind that it sounds rugged or imperfect—on the contrary, I like that a lot more, as it adds to the realness of it all.
Nicolas: I wanted to enter this collaboration as Penumbral Aethyr, which is a no-software-oriented conceptual project. Working with Peter as this entity was the perfect setting to let go of my comfort zone and make space for experiment, accidents, and randomness, as well as being restrained and restricted and focusing on creating sounds in even more unorthodox ways. And in my opinion, we didn’t fail at all 🙂
Like Peter says, the imperfections and human touches give this genuine and organic feel, which enhanced the tribal, ritual, and spiritual experience of it all.
Q: Do you see this collaboration as a one-time project with “Naiad”, or is there a chance of a follow-up, possibly including live performances? What are your individual plans for the near future?
Peter: At the end of the process we both unanimously and immediately decided that there will be a follow-up to this work. We had a lot of fun working on “Naiad” and it gave us the chance to discover each other in ways only music and creation can do. I suppose it will be something for next year.
My individual plans for the future are various. I’ve finished another album with Grey Malkin that will be released on Cursed Monk in Fall/Winter. There is a new solo album that I’m still looking for a label to release, and closer to home I have found some really nice musicians (members of Schim) to meet up with and improvise in a live setting. We often gather in a studio to record our improvisations and play live too. There is also the Votta project I’m part of with Grey Malkin and Amanda Votta (The Floating World) and with which we keep creating new music, a new project with Orryelle Defenestrate and Bart and Els from Dead Man’s Hill/Brotherhood Of Sleep, and also SVARTUR with Peter Moorkens (Onsturicheit) and Lawrence van Haecke (Umweltverschmutzung, Solicide) is still active… enough to keep me busy.
Nicolas: Yes, a follow-up is definitely coming! We wanted to continue creating more music when we finished the four tracks, but we decided to keep the energy and let the inspiration grow even further to restart working together next year.
For my part, I’ve been extremely busy as well. There is a new Tzolk’in 7” coming out on Sealt (very limited special packaging), which will be pressed by the time this interview gets published. In September, an Empusae collaboration with one of the Cold Meat Industry legends (and a very Entartete Musikk special guest) will be released on Entartete Musikk. In November, a collaboration with an American friend and drone hermit, this time as Penumbral Aethyr, will be released on a Dark-Ambient cult label (TBA soon). Empusae finished another collaboration with another Dark-Ambient artist from the States, to be released somewhere next year. I’ve licensed music for the next film of Belgian director and very good friend, Karim Ouelhaj (2026). I composed an original Soundtrack for his next movie, in post-production (2027), which is the best music I’ve ever written so far. Besides that, I’m licensing and composing music for a video game (2026–2027) and working on a new album by Empusae, connected to my latest voyage to Japan (which will probably end up being a collaboration as well). So yeah, we’ve been busy, we still are, and we will be even more so!
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