Here's a true bullshit story about how the sound of Her Ethic came about: When I was young, I loved seeing nature take back land that had once been industrial parks, garages or even houses. Whenever I would skip school, I would go into the forest and find a house that was totally gone except for the concrete, and that would be my sanctuary for the day.

If you had asked me twenty-four times how and why Her Ethic came to an end you'd probably get twenty-four different answers. At one point I thought Sti was going to his compulsory military service, but I could also say the project was abolished because I was tired of people misspelling the name, and that would be true as well. We agreed that we wanted to do new music with only live instruments, but we no longer lived in the same city. Maybe work or family or school is what arose. Maybe the transition from being a psychedelic forest dweller to adapting to the city by never sleeping changed how I approached the music. Maybe one shouldn't do a concept album on death or stillbirth. Maybe we had used all of our sounds. Sti and Thomas went to Batboner, I went to River to Aintry and Loveplanet. Then Sti and Thomas quit Batboner, and I joined instead. But I digress. By the time I had finished "Spoiler Warning: YOU DIE," the lack of Sti from more than half the album could be truly felt, and even though I still enjoy the dark atmosphere, there's something about this record that I still experience as disturbingly wrong.

Whatever it was that made it happen, on May 23, 2011, I announced the end of Her Ethic without even talking to Sti about it first. It may have been in the cards, but it still felt like something that was somewhat inspired and even a bit random - celebrating 5/23 by killing off the vehicle that had been my main outlet for five years. Starting with its predecessors Indecent Exposure and Zoroaster, Her Ethic had documented my path from a bored and angry minister's son into whatever it was I was remodeled as after being exposed all these new psychedelic surprises, complex quasi-religious jokes, altered states of doom and splendor, and generally just growing up. Looking back while listening to the tracks today, I realize I probably regret the decision a bit, but on the other hand, maybe it was just time. The final release, MachineXus, consisted of the first two ideas I had for this project, and even though we sort of lost an album or two after recording them, we weren't really interested in keeping the project sounding the way it was and it was probably time to do something else anyway. It seemed more or less wrapped up. Perhaps Chance or Circumstance had already made some decision for us, and I did nothing but confirm it. I sure as shit miss those days, though. How often do you find a bandmate who will go into the forest with you in the middle of a studio day and make crop circles?
(Found a fawn inside that fucker, we did.)

Other than a very few people that I can count and name, Her Ethic never made any fans. Hence the title of this release. We never played that many shows either. I've counted nine (not including the two sextet-performances as Zoroaster). Most of these were carried out as a three-piece, first starring Jami Heikkinen, then Nikolai Vikene, and then Thomas Svendsen. None of these shows were great, except maybe the Edge of Wrong show at Podium in 2008 with Nikolai, where we also had Kristin Sigvathsen doing our visual profile. We never had a stage look so in tune with what we were aiming for musically as we did that night. Photos from the show and more have been added added as bonus material for this download.

In the end, I think I'm just confused about the entire project. And that makes perfect sense, because confusion is what it feels like was all about. I'd actually forgotten about that.

-Fredrik Falk, December 23.