Igorrr to release new album ‘Amen’ and share first single

French multi-instrumentalist and producer Gautier Serre has been operating under the name IGORRR for twenty years now, yet each new record still resounds with a startling freshness and radical vitality. Steadfastly unclassifiable fifth album Amen, set for release on September 19th via Metal Blade Records, maintains this impact, blindsiding the listener with a new set of exploratory curveballs and continuing to surprise and unnerve even the most attuned enthusiast.

Since signing to Metal Blade in 2017, the IGORRR name has expanded from one man’s pseudonym to become a full group identity, but Gautier remains the project’s guiding light and mastermind, so he’s the best man to ask to describe the indescribable. “This album is definitely darker than its predecessors; it has such a very weighty and solemn vibe that has never been reached before in IGORRR,” explains Gautier. “The fact that I recorded a real choir in a church helped this a lot, but above all there has been very long and meticulous work on the sound and the choice of instruments, and deep experimental research to create a unique sound design. Of course, because it’s an IGORRR album, there are some more colorful tracks, like ‘Blastbeat Falafel,’ ‘ADHD’ etc… They contrast very much with the ambient heaviness. I need tracks like these on an album, it helps to really get through it fully focused, like a shot of limoncello before the next meal.”

With an urge to continually take IGORRR‘s multifaceted and challenging sound further forward with each release, Gautier has spent a lot of time cultivating multiple new modes and methods of working since 2020’s breathtaking, critically acclaimed opus Spirituality And Distortion, which even reached number twelve on the official German album chart. Gautier has always made clear that IGORRR is as much about the influence of Bach and Chopin as it is about Cannibal Corpse, Aphex Twin, and Meshuggah, but the source of specific stimuli gets harder to ascertain as the process is refined.

“It’s always difficult for me to know from where the inspiration comes,” he muses. “Music is an expression of life, and everything, even what seems the most insignificant thing, can be a source of inspiration. I would say there hasn’t been one event or one experience that has led me on a creative process, it’s more like a cumulation of everything. I love making music. My brain processes music all the time. You cannot imagine the amount of albums and concertos I create during my sleep. The challenge is more how to sort these ideas to keep the ones with the best potential, the ones that I won’t get bored of, the ones that I really Love, with a big letter L.”

In anticipation of the upcoming release of Amen, IGORRR unveiled the record’s first single, “ADHD,” alongside an accompanying video.

Gautier comments, “‘ADHD’ is kind of an autobiographical piece of music starting from one point and moving to another, with no clear link except for the person itself. From simple thoughts, symbolized here as simple dots of sound in the silence, to a complex pathological chaos that somehow still stands. It’s getting worse and worse until the final giant lets go.” Gautier continues, “we know the use of AI in art might be polemic right now, plus we with Meat Dept actually started the clip in 3D, like we did for ‘Very Noise,’ but at some point we were laughing so hard trying to do creepy things in AI that the clip ended as a mix of both technologies. The music, however, is 100% homemade.”

Adds Meat Dept, a creative duo known for their unique style of hyper-realistic CG animations, “After ‘Very Noise,’ we explored the possibilities of AI for this new IGORRR music video, ‘ADHD.’ We embraced almost all existing tools, both proprietary and open source, diverting and mixing them with our 3D tools. This video is a symbolic journey into an experimental therapy for treating a patient with ADHD, brimming with nods to ‘Very Noise.’ The ambition was to push further into the ‘mental cringe,’ with an aesthetic that blends 1960s James Bond and the ineffable charm of the Fantômas universe. We pushed the discomfort dial even further into a pleasurable realm, and we hope the audience will watch the video on repeat, like an addictive treat.”

Stay tuned for more info on Amen to be revealed in the coming weeks.

Amen Track Listing:
01. Daemoni
02. Headbutt
03. Limbo
04. Blastbeat Falafel
05. ADHD
06. 2020
07. Mustard Mucous
08. Infestis
09. Ancient Sun
10. Pure Disproportionate Black and White Nihilism
11. Étude n°120
12. Silence

IGORRR:
Gautier Serre – machines
Jb Le Bail – vocals
Marthe Alexandre – vocals
Remi Serafino – drums
Martyn Clément – guitars