With 2017’s Savage Sinusoid, Igorrr more than proved to be a truly unique musical force – and 2020’s Spirituality And Distortion cements that well-earned reputation. Slamming together disparate musical styles ranging from death and black metal to breakcore, Balkan, baroque and classical music in a manner that is as unconventional and unpredictable as it is thrilling, Igorrr are unlike any other act, and Spirituality And Distortion displays just as broad a range of emotions as sounds. “Getting stuck in only one emotion is very boring to me; life is a wide range of emotions – sometimes you’re happy, sometimes you’re sad, angry, pissed off, nostalgic or blown away” states mastermind Gautier Serre. “Life is not only one color. These 14 tracks are a journey through different states of mind I’ve been through.”

At no stage was there any plan, embracing the freedom offered in the wake of achieving Savage Sinusoid and going wherever ideas took him, embracing a small army of specialist musicians to help him attain his vision. Importantly, like its predecessor, this is not a predominantly electronic record.

“The organization part has been more complicated as we had to fly traditional instrumentalists to our studio, so, lots of planes, trains and cars were involved to make it happen, but all the acoustic instruments have been recorded traditionally, with no help of the computer.”

These included violinist Timba Harris, bassist Mike Leon, pianist Matt Lebofsky, Oud player Mehdi Haddab, accordion player Pierre Mussi, Kanoun player Fotini Kokkala and harpsichordist Benjamin Bardiaux, among others. Vocally, the most prominent performer is Laure Le Prunenec, whose operatic strains are a longtime part of the Igorrr mix, while regular collaborator Laurent Lunoir also appears on a few tracks. Serre also invited Pierre Lacasa and Jasmine Barra back to the studio (known from their appearance on previous tracks like “Vegetable Soup” and “Cheval”) to appear on “Kung-Fu Chèvre” and got to realize a dream with one guest performer. “We had the honor to welcome my personal favorite musical hero on this album: George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher of Cannibal Corpse. He screams on the track “Parpaing”, and his legendary voice brings the heaviness this track deserved. George is like the final boss of death metal. Like on a video game you have the final boss who is the strongest, George is the best in death metal singing. Due to the extreme heaviness and violence of his voice, I found it very much coherent to contrast it with a cheap tune of 8bit music which is the least heavy music on earth. The contrast is beautiful to my ears.”However, lyrics are less important when he is creating, and often these are delivered in languages he does not even speak.”

“As with the previous albums, I’m entirely focused on the sound itself and how the sonorities of the voice speaks to the heart, not the intellectual meaning of the words.”

This album features a great number of talented guests such as :

Laurent Lunoir – vocals
Laure Le Prunenec – vocals
Sylvain Bouvier – drums, percussion
Benjamin Baŕdiaux – harpsichord
Erlend Caspersen – bass
Mike Leon – bass (track 3)
George Fisher – vocals (track 6)
Diego Delgadillo – lyrics (track 6)
Fotini-Asineth Kokkala – qanun
Alexandre Peronny – cello
Mehdi Haddab – oud
Pierre Mussi – accordion
Antony Miranda – sitar, percussion
Nils Cheville – classical guitar
Martyn Clément – electric guitar
Matt Lebofsky – piano
Benjamin Violet – strings
Timba Harris – strings

On June 16th, Igorrr – the brainchild of French musician and eclectic composer Gautier Serre – will release their new album, Savage Sinusoid, via Metal Blade Records. On this record, electronic manipulations, accordion, saxophone, sitar, harpsichord, mandolin and strings sit comfortably alongside ruthless blastbeats, chunky riffs, death grunts and soaring operatic vocals – and as chaotic as this might sometimes seem, there is no lack of heart behind everything thundering from the speakers.

Savage Sinusoid can be ordered in the following formats:

— Digipak CD
— Pale skin clear vinyl (limited to 500 copies)
— Cream/white splatter (limited to 200 copies – EU exclusive)
— Golden yellow vinyl (limited to 100 copies – Bandcamp exclusive)
— Tan-marbled vinyl (limited to 200 copies – US exclusive)
* Exclusive bundles with a shirt, plus digital options are also available!

To realize Savage Sinusoid as a completely sample-free record, Serre reunited with vocalists Laurent Lunoir and Laure Le Prunenec, along with drummer Sylvain Bouvier, and collaborated with more musicians than on any of his previous releases – one of those guests being Cattle Decapitation’s Travis Ryan, who lends his vocals on “Cheval”, “Apopathodiaphulatophobie” and “Robert”. “Viande” also sees Teloch (Mayhem) contribute some guitar/bass work, while “Houmous” features accordionists Pierre Mussi and Adam Stacey (the latter of whom is in Secret Chiefs 3 – a project by Mr. Bungle’s Trey Spruance).

While Savage Sinusoid draws from a plethora of genres, Serre has no intention of baffling or alienating potential listeners. As he explains:”I just want to make the music I love, without asking myself if it’s gonna be too complex or too far from what people like. I want to make the music which has sense to me, with no restrictions, like a big party with metalheads, electronics nerds, classical and baroque-heads and gypsy violinists getting drunk and joining together to bring the best of every genre.”

Igorrr will give European fans their first taste of new songs this spring/summer, with more shows to be announced soon.

Born as a distorted and angry extension to extreme drum’n’bass, the always-changing genre known as breakcore later evolved into a dark and freakish companion to hardcore. Two decades after its first steps, it is again undergoing a transformation. Combining post-IDM production, humour and rave-like energy, current breakcore artists such as Igorrr and Ruby My Dear are at the forefront of a musical style which defies the year as much as it avoids the limelight.
There is no better pair than these two to explain where breakcore stands in 2014. On the one hand, Igorrr is undoubtedly the best known name for the genre, his tracks played far outside of its boundaries and his name spreading around every music scene. On the other hand, Ruby My Dear’s morphing of the hardest and trickiest tones with a rare human touch is leaving a mark on his peers. Their collaboration is a match made in a heaven for fans. It makes sense (and happened before with Ruby My Dear remixing Igorrr’s Whourkr project on the “4247
Snare Drums” album) and takes this sound forward.

“Maigre” (French for “thin”) is dense, varied and sharp, accurately symbolized by the sighthound on its cover. It took some time for its authors to mix their respective talents, but they managed to combine Ruby My Dear’s rapid-fire rhythms with Igorrr’s multi-instrumental madness. Add to the mix a heavy dosage of the former’s sub-basses and the latter’s disorientating metal riffs, you’ll get a record which accomplishes a lot in a surprising short amount of time, helped in this by the participation of Laure Le Prunenec and Laurent Lunoir (both Igorrr’s live singers) and of a few other well selected guests.

Igorrr and Ruby My Dear have come up with something fun and hard, but also impressively well recorded and produced, which asks for repeat listenings and which will clearly leave its mark on the scene.