Extract of Interview in Elegy Magazine #40, Novembre 2005, Paris, France

Interviewer: Yannick Blay for www.elegy.fr

Apple Pentacle is about the Green Man. What does this figure represents to you?

Apple Pentacle explores a range of imagery and themes: parallel lives, thunder, love … faerie trysts, dreams, phantoms, puppets, passing of seasons and caravans in the dawn. Central focus is the Green Man and his consort, representing creative energy and rebellion.

Apple Pentacle deals with matters close to paganism, wicca… what is paganism for you? 

I like to be free of categories, and do not belong to any coven. Whilst I’ve dabbled in Tarot, astrology and numerology, I prefer poetry and novels… this year, the author who impressed me most is Balzac. Classical Greek/Roman gods are metaphors for aspects of the psyche. I also feel close to Celtic Druidism / Animism and Aboriginal Dreaming for their nature spirits …

Nowadays there’s a kind of fairy fashion, but this fashion hides the malicious, violent and ferocious part of the fairy world. What do you think about that?

It seems… that every view holds potential for darkness. (E.g.) Christianity has a peaceful aspect, but has caused crusades, persecutions and inquisitions. It also seems… that gothic fashion has some unhealthy components (e.g. neo-Nazism)… How can anyone find glamour in iconography of the Holocaust? On the opposite side (ethereal, romantic, pre-Raphaelite, new-age… neo-classical) are other types of elitism, like purist notions of virtuosity, or idealism in relationships… There is a Hasidic proverb I like: “He who seeks friends with no flaws shall find none.”

There’s a lot of musical styles in the Apple Pentacle and you play a lot with your voice. Did you change your way of singing and composing? 

Some pieces returned to old ways: ‘Escalder’s Tree Ride’ was composed nearly 20 years ago.

You made a lot of collaborations, the last with Oophoi. How did you come to work with him? 

Gianluigi Gasparetti contacted me with a review… My husband recognised the email as he collected Gigi’s CDs. I stayed with Gigi and his wife Alessandra in Italy: they live in a medieval castle, visited by an owl, a ghost and a white wolf.

‘Which of these Worlds’ seems to deal with the imagination and fantasy worlds. What would be the world of your dreams? 

It’s also about this world; Mark and I were exploring the idea of a soul moving through incarnations or alternate realities, as well as other dimensions. I feel it is possible to live several lives, not only in linear progression but also in parallel. In dreams or trances, can we move between them? If I had to choose one place to rest in for a long time, it might be the Mag Mell or Tír na nÓg, a Celtic paradise similar to the Norse Valhalla or Greek Elysium.