LUSTMORD – new single out

Credit: Tracey Roberts

Dark ambient pioneer Lustmord shares latest glimpse of forthcoming full-length, ‘Much Unseen Is Also Here’

‘THEIR SOULS ASUNDER’ IS AN EXHILARATING, UNSETTLING EVOLUTION OF THE ARTIST’S ICONIC SOUND

Industrial music icon Lustmord has shared ‘Their Souls Asunder’ as the second preview of his forthcoming, solo full-length release, ‘Much Unseen Is Also Here’, out on March 15th, via Berlin’s Pelagic Records.

Urged by Throbbing Gristle’s Cosey Fanni Tutti to make music that reflected his unique aura, Brian Williams assumed the title of Lustmord in 1980 and began working with sound because the music he wanted to listen to simply did not exist. Now, after a formidable 40-year career spanning groundbreaking solo work, acclaimed collaborations with the likes of Tool, John Balance (Coil) and Melvins as well as scores and soundtracks for TV, film and video games, ‘Much Unseen Is Also Here’ seeks to return to heavy, hallowed grounds.

 Lustmord’s 1989 and now cult classic album ‘Heresy’ became a milestone of the industrial scene and is universally regarded as the origin of the dark ambient genre. Honouring the legacy of ‘Heresy’, ‘Much Unseen Is Also Here’ is sequenced in three distinct parts, echoing its predecessor’s enthralling narrative arc. As with much of Lustmord’s music, the new record is meant to be experienced in a single, undisturbed sitting, so as to transport listeners away to a liminal space that exists only within the music before casting them back out at its conclusion; forever marked by the encounter.

As part of the album’s second movement, ‘Their Souls Asunder’ is a masterstroke of atmospheric suspense. The composition appears, at first, to be centred on a chorus of voices; a vital glimpse of warmth and humanity in the darkness. However, as it continues, these voices wane, wither and warp until all we’re left with is something akin to the harrowed cries of a wounded animal, which begs the stomach-churning question: ‘were the voices we followed blindly into the night ever human at all?’

This sense of uncertainty and the terrifying unknown is an important and recurring theme within Lustmord’s work; “I choose to let the sound talk for me” says Brian. “My music is not meant to be explained – only listened to as a means of exposing the sheer insignificance of our primitive thoughts and actions within the vast scale of the cosmos – a scale which we as a species are ill equipped to comprehend.” Proof that he can still chill listeners to the bone, ‘Their Souls Asunder’ serves as both a retrospective gateway to Lustmord’s groundbreaking dark ambient origins as well as a tantalising taste of what Williams is capable of now; what is still yet to come. 

Having performed live just 39 times throughout his entire career, perhaps Lustmord is ready to share the cosmic secrets hidden within ‘Much Unseen Is Also Here’ in the flesh; whispered from atop his inimitable, timeless throne of earth-shaking sub bass, spine-tingling ritualism and inescapable, existentialist dread.

‘Much Unseen Is Also Here’ arrives on March 15th, 2024.

‘Their Souls Asunder’ is out now.

Brian Williams on Lustmord:

“I try to create music that is timeless, not tied to a specific period or style and which sounds as different and original the first time it’s heard as it does the last. I very deliberately try to tap into a primal energy and a sense of place. Some people tend to consider the results dark, but I disagree. I believe that response speaks more of them than my music; I consider it deep, as it was always meant to be.”