Raison d'être represents the signature endeavor of Swedish sound artist and composer Peter Andersson, generating somber, deathly atmospheres by blending synthesized layers, traditional instruments, and environmental captures. Early efforts with stronger industrial leanings, such as the 1992 cassette Aprés Nous le Dèluge, found Andersson combining disturbing found sounds over programmed percussion patterns. Across numerous recordings issued by the esteemed Cold Meat Industry imprint and his personal Yantra Atmospheres label, he gradually stripped away beats while introducing neo-classical elements. Works including the 2000 release The Empty Hollow Unfolds feature choral-style singing alongside metallic strikes and altered acoustic sources. Though projects like the 2014 album Mise en Abyme leaned into abrasive, disquieting electro-acoustic textures, Andersson revisited the shadowy tunefulness and medieval-style chanting characteristic of his middle era on 2018’s Alchymeia.
Andersson first began composing in 1988. His initial efforts emerged under the playful, bodily-humor project Grismannen. In 1991 the 8-bit endeavor Dementia took shape, drawing from techno, synth pop, and EBM. That same year he launched raison d’être, issuing the debut Aprés Nous le Dèluge on cassette in 1992. Cold Meat Industry released the project’s first compact disc, Prospectus I, in 1993, then Enthraled by the Wind of Lonelienes (later corrected in spelling on reissues) the following year. Subsequent Cold Meat Industry titles included In Sadness, Silence and Solitude in 1997 and the widely admired The Empty Hollow Unfolds in 2000; limited cassettes appeared via smaller outlets, while Reflections from the Time of Opening (1997) and Collective Archives (1999) assembled scattered material. The 2002 double-CD Lost Fragments expanded an earlier CD-R edition.
Studio efforts Requiem for Abandoned Souls (2003) and Metamorphyses (2006) led to the first concert recording, 2008’s The Luminous Experience. Both The Stains of the Embodied Sacrifice and the digital-only Spiraal surfaced in 2009. Infinite Fog presented Live Archive, a three-disc set of previously digital-only performances, in 2010. The 2012 live album When the Earth Dissolves in Ashes marked the project’s last appearance on Cold Meat Industry. Collected Works (2013) gathered additional compilation and side-project tracks, while Tales from the Tabula Rasa (2014) compiled Andersson’s earliest pieces from 1988 through 1991. That year also saw the drone-focused studio album Mise en Abyme alongside the live set Feasting in Valhalla.
The initial Troum collaboration, De Aeris in Sublunaria Influxu, arrived in 2015, followed by XIBIPIIO. In and Out of Experience in 2017. Cyclic Law issued the solo studio album Alchymeia in 2018. The limited cassette edition of live collection Anima Caelum came out via Old Europa Cafe the same year before receiving a CD pressing in 2019.
