raison d'être ‎– Alchymeia

Finally back to it's roots. Fans of old/earlier albums of this artist will love this album, because after harsh/noisy style artist had later (which I didn't like) went back to it's old style (chants, church bells and more atmospheric). Really good work, I would say masterpiece & I hope Peter will continue same style and don't go back to noisy/harsh style.

Much better than anything he has released after 2003. It's very close to the early 2000's style, which is his strongest period.

I would say, that’s an absolutely new level in a dark ambient music genre ever. And I was waiting for it.
Still remember, about 10 years ago, how people were bored or disappointed by Peter’s live albums on CMI. And weeping for old “The Empty Hollow Unfolds“ times. Even, solemnly stated that dark ambient is dead. F*** you guys! Raison D’etre always been light-year ahead of everything.
Alchymeia is a pure masterpiece. Cinematic, majestic, transcendental and insanely deep. The sound of the bending skies. Pure audio drugs.
And Alchymeia have everything to become a cult album in the future.
Everyone should enjoy this work of art!! Congrats to the artist and label!!

This is raison d'être's... raison d'être.
If anyone has/had thought Peter has/had lost 'it', this album will convince you otherwise. This album takes some of the great elements from his early works and merges them seamlessly with his more recent works.
I hope this is not Peter's final raison d'être release but no matter a telling masterpiece regardless.

Masterpiece. No other raison d'etre album impressed me so much, and I've been listening to him for a couple of decades now.

Alchymeia contains four lengthy tracks with the intention of “scrutinizing the paths of Carl Gustav Jung’s notions of archetypes and the individuation process.” What Raison D’être does is create four scenes that feel partially and personally cinematic but also transcendent in the same light. This would be appropriate considering the artist’s Jungian angle. With Alchymeia, Raison D’être creates atmospheres that sound both organic and ethereal. Natural sounding textures in the immediate foreground are mixed with rich, vast, sometimes dense ambient waves that give a sense of transcending the conscious and going to the subconscious.

Two things occur in this album which Raison D’être has done previously but shine exceptionally well here and very much provide a cinematic sense. Moreover, they are often done simultaneously herein. Raison D’être creates a balance not only between constancy in the listener’s point of view but a sense of movement and development in the distant scenery. We are also often witness to an ebbing and flowing of sounds that rise with the vigor of a cresting wave and drift with the delicacy of a fading liturgical chorus.

It’s no surprise that Alchymeia is a fantastic release which is obviously the product of intensive thought and reflection. It is also no surprise that it is a release that provokes similar density in the imagination of the listener. But what Mr. Andersson continues to do is pursue the dynamics and dimensions of sound, merging with the concepts of conscious vs. subconscious and immediacy vs. vastness. Moreover, he again blurs the line of what is of our conscious imagination, what is our subconscious and perhaps what is purely cinematic.
(https://noisebeneaththesnow.com/2018/01/12/raison-detre-alchymeia-album-review-dark-ambient-drone/)