Extract of Interview in Khimaira magazine Issue #20, October-December 2003 Belgium

Interviewer: Frederic Cotton for Khimaira, ISSN: 1374-2167

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 synth strings and organ part, the highlights. We 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 … A white waterbird rose with Ophelia’s soul from the water, similar to a picture by Magritte you 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.