Rui Carvalheira: Let's start from the beginning - which was the initial proposal of Cyclic Law?
Frédéric Arbour: Cyclic Law was founded in January 2002 with the release of the Instincts/Bustum collaboration CD. This release was a joint project of my solo musical work as Instincts and the visual art of a friend of mine, Yvan Arsenault aka Bustum.
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Rui Carvalheira: In the beginning the project that you released was basically connected with Dark ambient soundscapes. Lately Karjalan Sissit and Sophia joined the catalogue; did the spirit change for harsher sonorities?
Frédéric Arbour: I would not say that the spirit changed, it just widened it’s horizons while never loosing it’s main focus, which is to release obscure quality music. I’ve always been a great fan of these acts and am grateful for having the privilege to release their work.
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Rui Carvalheira: What are your feelings concerning new projects? Do you already have new projects to release, or are you more interested in keeping your present catalogue working?
Frédéric Arbour: I’m always interested in new acts, there will be some new artists on the label in the next year or so, Sinke Dûs from Sweden and New Risen Throne from Italy to name a few. The current catalogue does not suffer from this either.
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Rui Carvalheira: One thing that I find curious about your label is that your releases are all from European acts [not counting your own project Visions]. Why is that so? Is it done intentionally or it just happens?
Frédéric Arbour: It just happens that way, there is one act from the U.S.A. named Invercauld that I’ve released an album form but so far I’ve yet to either received a worthy demo or approach another act that’s not from Europe, these types of sonorities are of course more popular in Europe and Scandinavia and most worthy acts are from there also.
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Rui Carvalheira: As far as I understand, your relation with your ‘artists’ is very close. Is that also a way to be in the market?
Frédéric Arbour: I’m not sure I understand your question correctly but having a close friendship with all Cyclic Law artists as well as our supporters is one of the most important things to me and is what makes it all worth while, it has nothing to do with the market, it is simply a genuine friendship that has developed from having like minded people join forces on an artistic level.
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Rui Carvalheira: Another very impressive thing in your label is the packaging. Do you do that yourself or you’re working with some graphic designers?
Frédéric Arbour: I do most of the layouts and conception of the covers, size, type of paper etc… my self but always in accord with the artist’s vision, they in turn provide the images and main visuals.
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Rui Carvalheira: In spite of the listeners being much more open to buy vinyl again you released only one 12inchLP by Sophia. Was that a bad experience?
Frédéric Arbour: Well on a financial level I would say it was, the problem is the shipping cost of these 12inch vinyl which turned out to be more than the actual LP, so I had to cover a big part of these shipping costs and the whole thing ended up being a costly experience.
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Rui Carvalheira: One of the latest releases by Arcana ‘The New Light’ was released together with Erebus Odora. Why that collaboration?
Frédéric Arbour: After leaving CMI, Peter wanted to release Arcana’s material on Erebus Odora and asked me if i would be interested in co-producing this release, this to help getting his label going again.
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Rui Carvalheira: I noticed that your mailorder catalogue is also growing every day. Is that a good support for your releases?
Frédéric Arbour: Yes the Online Mailorder part of Cyclic Law is getting bigger and it is not only a good support for my releases but a great place to discover quality music from various worthy labels that I support.
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Rui Carvalheira: Do you think that selling records is a growing market?
Frédéric Arbour: There is for sure is a growing number of cds being released as well as small labels being established every day so I think that despite all the allegations that the mp3 boom has affected the music industry, I think more cds are being sold everyday now than ever before.
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Rui Carvalheira: Some of your releases are already sold out. Do you intend to keep those like that or they will be re-released?
Frédéric Arbour: The main part of the catalog will be kept available, depending on the demand but the pressing/format might change with a repress but those that are now sold out were planned as limited editions.
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Rui Carvalheira: For those who don't know Cyclic Law, what record do you recommend they buy in order to understand the concept of the label?
Frédéric Arbour: Well if you can track down the now sold out compilation Nord Ambient Alliance I think this is the perfect representation of the musical and artistic direction of Cyclic Law yet all releases are in a way a continuation of the artistic vision of the label so I’d have to recommend them all!
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Rui Carvalheira: The news section in your website is already announcing four new releases. It looks that Cyclic Law is becoming very strong. How do you see these last years of activity?
Frédéric Arbour: These last years have been simply amazing, the response to the artists and the label has been but positive and this beyond all my expectations. The growing interest is quite welcomed as the label’s artists greatly deserve it.
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Rui Carvalheira: On the 7th of June the first Cyclic Law festival happened in Finland. How did it turn out? Did you have good reactions?
Frédéric Arbour: I think it all turned out quite well considering the time of year and the numerous other events going on in that period, the reactions from the audience was great and we for sure had a really great time, it was great to have most of the artists on the label together at the same place, it was a memorable family reunion. More European events are planned for the coming year to.
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Rui Carvalheira: During that event, a new Cyclic Law act played, VISIONS, which is your 14th Cycle. What can you tell us about that project?
Frédéric Arbour: This is my solo project, I’ve been working on this since last year, I felt my work with my other project Instincts was in a way confined to a more structured way of composing and needed to explore another way of working with sounds and so Visions was born. The sound is in a more “Space/Ritual Ambient” vein for lack of better words, intense, evolving moods with think layers of abstract sounds, the first album titled “Lapse” has just been released.
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Rui Carvalheira: And the end – any thoughts for the future?
Frédéric Arbour: I hope that things will keep evolving positively as they have for the 4 years with more great artists and wonderful releases from our current roster. Although the music will remain obscure, the future is bright!
Thank you Rui for your interest and support,
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