Subverge interview: ‘I want to explore the darker shades of the human psyche’
Subverge - Henrik Karlsson
The name Henrik Karlsson may ring a bell for some listeners, as he is best known for the Swedish Dark-Electro project Seven Trees. It has been since 2022 that Seven Trees last released new material. About a year later, Henrik unveiled the debut album from Subverge, his solo project. As he explains in this interview, he no longer felt compelled to adhere to the familiar structures of Dark-Electro and EBM. Instead, inspired in part by the legacy of Cold Meat Industry, he began exploring a very different sonic landscape. Subverge merges Dark-Ambient and Experimental music with slow, hypnotic rhythms, resulting in a sound that is both immersive and distinctive.
To date, four albums have been released through Henrik’s own label, Arcane Dirge. Earlier this year, he teamed up with Alien Productions to issue two compilation releases, bringing together a carefully curated selection of album tracks, compilation contributions, collaborations, remixes, and previously unreleased material. These collections provide an excellent introduction to a remarkable project that transforms its influences into something deeply personal and creative. I spoke with Henrik Karlsson about the evolution of Subverge, his creative philosophy, and the musical path that led him there. (Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)
Subverge interview
Q: It strikes me that the first Subverge album was released after Seven Trees’ last activity to date. How did Subverge come about, and to what extent is Seven Trees still active today?
Henrik: Although the first Subverge album was released in 2023, I have silently been trying various Subverge sound designs and concepts since around 2016. I did a couple of compilation tracks in 2016-2017 together with Worms Of The Earth, but aside from that I wanted to take my time to refine the sound and was also busy working on Seven Trees material. Alternative versions of the aforementioned compilation tracks are available on my latest compilation, “Sequenced Suffering”. Those were early experiments, but both me and Dan (WotE) were really happy with how they turned out so I decided to include them on the release.
As for Seven Trees; although we have talked a lot about making new material for the past 2-3 years, we have been pretty much inactive as a team since our latest release, the remix album “End/Dead” (December 2022). Earlier this year, however, we decided to start working on new material. We have a few tracks that we’re working on, and that are quite close to completion, but have not decided what to do with them yet.
We have mixed feelings about being on a label since you always have to wait far too long from when the material is finished until it is released, to fit the label’s release schedule. This is only natural of course, but it can be quite frustrating. So, we are looking to do some kind of self-release first, probably a single or EP to start with. We are eager to get some material out there and I don’t think we will be working towards an album right now. If things work out well with these tracks, we might consider it in the future.
Q: Musically, Subverge takes a very different direction from Seven Trees. What led you to this shift in composition? What were your initial influences and references, and what are you trying to express musically and artistically through Subverge?
Henrik: I was honestly rather tired of working with the typical verse/chorus/verse/chorus layout of tracks that’s in Industrial and most other genres, and felt like experimenting with a whole different more ‘free’ structure. I started out doing a lot of Death-Industrial and Power-Electronics, but ultimately felt like something more Dark-Ambient-esque was closer to what I wanted to express as Subverge.
With Subverge I want to explore the darker shades of the human psyche, to stir up excentric emotions and to hopefully have the listener indulge in the pitch black soundscape shaped during profound rituals. I don’t feel like I have any particular influences that SUBVERGE draws on, but as for DI/PE some of my favorite acts are Brighter Death Now, Genocide Organ and Control.
I started listening to Dark-Ambient in the early 90’s -mainly buying albums from Roger Karmanik – so of course Raison D’être, Morthound, In Slaughter Natives and Arcana are some given subconscious debris. I actually made a playlist called “Zechrum Roots” (“Zechrum” being my first album) on Spotify which contains a lot of what was probably going on deep in my mind when composing that album. Aside from CMI related acts, and other Dark-Ambient projects, I seem to gear towards early Delerium quite often, according to others.
Q: Subverge’s music sounds like a kind of legacy of the Swedish Dark-Ambient scene, yet it also seems to go a step further, as it incorporates more Electronic elements and even rhythmic structures. How do you perceive your own music, and can you give us some insight into your compositional process versus your studio setup and capabilities?
Henrik: My compositional process is very unorthodox. For the past 3-4 years, I have challenged myself basically every day to do these ‘90 minute flow sessions’ where I as quickly and focused as possible enter a flow state and make as much music as is possible in 90 minutes. These 90 minute ‘flow embryos’ typically turn out well, and I later on often make complete songs out of them. Most of what’s on my latest albums started out as 90 minute embryos, just polished and developed on later.H
When it comes to ingredients (electronics, rhythm) -unless I make more of a ‘concept album’ such as “Triox Rudna”, I really have no boundaries of what to use as long as it fits the track in question. I don’t like to only use what’s traditionally used in a specific genre, I want to inject some of my own ideas, even if the foundation might be close to Dark-Ambient. For example, I feel that “Etterath” is the opposite of “Triox Rudna” with more explorative and experimental soundscapes.
Q: In the meantime, you have already released four studio albums on your own label, Arcane Dirge, and this year two compilation releases appeared on Aliens Production. How do you look back on these different releases and the overall growth process behind them? And what do these compilations mean to you?
Henrik: Well, personally I think these 4 albums are rather different from one another, while still staying within the same realm. “Zechrum” is a bit more Martial and Neo-Classical, “Etterath” is rather Experimental, “Xoubec” is somewhere in between, and “Triox Rudna” is made to be more towards the meditative and contemplative form of purer Dark-Ambient. The latter is the album I am most satisfied with so far.
As for growth I do think that certain aspects of my composing, mixing and production have become better and better as time has gone by. The 3-4 years of daily ‘90 minute flow sessions’ have become detrimental for my output these days – they lead to a lot of music being made and a lot of finished tracks.
As for the compilations, the first one – “Select”, is a release I wanted to make as an introduction to the more meditative and contemplating side of Subverge, for people who haven’t heard my stuff before. I picked what I feel are the most appropriate tracks from the albums and sequenced them accordingly, and threw in 3 unreleased tracks as well.
“Sequenced Suffering” on the other hand is more of an album really than a compilation, since it has no previously released material, and it flows like an album. But, since it consists mostly of alternate versions and remixes of tracks from previous releases, aside from the 4 new tracks, it felt most appropriate calling it a compilation. I am really happy with how these turned out and I feel both were necessary for me to make before proceeding with new material.
Q: On several of your albums, you seem particularly focused on the human inner self and psyche. Which aspects of this fascinate you most, and how are they translated into music—or vice versa?
Henrik: I think I’ve always had a fascination for the human psyche, as in states that fall outside ordinary experience – trauma, addiction, the ways people get caught and can’t move forward. For example, in Seven Trees a lot of the lyrics are about getting caught in various forms of abuse – such as doing hard drugs, or just being unable to strive in life due to whatever reason. I think Subverge is not so different from this, it’s just that there are no vocals, so the music itself gets to be in the very forefront of describing these topics.
I think this comes through largely because of how I work – in those focused flow sessions I mentioned, I’m not consciously setting out to depict these states. They simply surface. The process seems to bypass the deliberate, planning part of the mind and lets whatever is underneath come through more or less directly, which is probably why the music ends up where it does emotionally rather than where I might have ‘designed’ it to go. As a reflection of this I mainly like to name my songs in an unconventional way for being Dark-Ambient, such as “I Failed” and “One Last Embrace”, because I think it fits the song and what I’m trying to project using them.
Q: To my ears, the Subverge music also has a strong cinematic quality. Have there already been projects—or are there any in the pipeline—that combine your music with visual art? And which film, book, or even event/disaster would you choose as a conceptual backdrop for your work?
Henrik: On the visual side, the artwork for my releases is a genuine collaboration rather than something added on afterwards. They’ve mostly been done by Ville Hising, who has an eye for translating what I do into visual art. But also -my partner, Jeannie Nadeau, is a photographer. The cover and digipak for “Triox Rudna” was designed by her and was made largely based on photography with a custom-built camera that captured the path of the sun over an entire year — a single long exposure spanning twelve months. She’s now also working on the visual world for my new project, Hierophania. So in that sense music and visual art have been intertwined in what I do.
As for what’s still ahead, making music for a movie or short film is actually high up on my list. I have done two tracks for horror book YouTube launch trailers, which was quite difficult, compressing my composing style to just 1:30 a track in length. One of these ended up finishing off the “Xoubec” album. I would love to make music specifically for somewhat deranged and just plain weird movies. As a backdrop I would love for certain tracks to be played alongside really introspective and bleak movies such as “The Lighthouse”, “Eraserhead”, “Stalker”, or “Kafka”.
Q: What does the future hold for Subverge and any other projects you are currently working on?
Henrik: Right now I am aiming to release an album with the new project I mentioned that I just started – Hierophania. It’s more of a somewhat droney Dark-Ambient style, with a different layout and experimentation compared to Subverge. The first track with this project will appear on the Santa Sangre annual compilation in mid July, and I expect the full-length, “Naos Tenebrae” – which is 100% finished – to be released sometime this fall.
The latest stuff I’m working on sounds closest to this new project, so I might do another full-length as Hierophania. I haven’t decided where to take the next Subverge yet. I make a ton of music, so a new album might surface in late 2026 or early 2027. I expect the new Seven Trees material to be released in September, or in case life happens or we decide to do a few more tracks: late 2026.
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