Árni Bergur Zoëga (b. 1990) grew up in Sweden where he studied the Viola at Gothenburg's Suzuki school of music. During his adolescence, he spent most of his time making film/video art, fine art, and experimental music as well as forming and participating in a myriad of bands and musical projects. He has worked with musicians from Iceland, Sweden and Germany, and has released various studio albums with record labels from both Europe and Asia in genres ranging from ambient/classical to folk music and black metal. More recent ventures include theatre, performance art and soundtrack music.
Árni Bergur's music is consistently characterized by a certain mystery and deep atmosphere, as well as maintaining a strong connection between the music and the underlying concepts of each individual piece. He has a great passion for esoteric/spiritual disciplines and works intently towards interweaving said passions with his artistic work.
The piece deals with the ancient practice of necromancy, or divining the dead, a 'katabasis' into the nether-realms for prophetic purposes, or, in this case, with the intention of initiating a particular alchemical transmutation of the soul. Granted, the subject and symbolism is dark, for it is essentially dealing with the less illumined crevices of reality – that of the supra-mundane, the Hadean, the profound underworld of the unconscious.
This distilled version of the piece excludes chapters I. and IV. and reverses the order in which the remaining chapters are to be played.