There’s a small – but growing – circle of artists exploring the pain and horrors of existence by marrying performance art, electronics, and extreme music. Cathartic, experimental, and crushing, artists like Mirrored Fatality, V.E.X. Vortex Empath Xen, and RECTRIX shine a light on the most terrifying aspects of life with experimental works of art. Coming tomorrow via Ratskin Records, RECTRIX delivers a nightmarish journey on The Bell That Never Stops Ringing.
Building on her experiences in experimental metal bands Bonedust and Vvltvre, interdisciplinary artist Pippi Zornoza created RECTRIX to use the human body as her own personal catacomb to create space for audio-visual horror. The Bell That Never Stops Ringing is an archive of her “lost” work, which was recorded over an eight year span, almost deleted due to technical issues, and rediscovered by Zornoza.
In contrast to Mirrored Fatality and V.E.X., RECTRIX embraces a minimalist palette punctuated by harsh noise, shrieks, and reverb. Plundered samples from 80s horror films form the bloodcurdling base of The Bell That Never Stops Ringing, subverting familiar memories to create a horrifying sonic tapestry. Through plundered artifacts from former worlds, RECTRIX creates an absorbing realm that forces us to confront our own nightmares and question our reality. Like a horror movie, the album creates tension by juxtaposing stillness and destruction, lingering atmospheres and torrential sounds. Listen carefully, and you’ll be rewarded with a soul-purging journey of nightmares and catharsis.
Zornoza shared:
“Composed almost entirely of samples from iconic horror films, the songs from these years mark a preoccupation with horror and what it means to be a body. Where pretensions and posturing of ‘evil’ within the extreme genres of metal, power electronics abound, TBTNSR flips the tropes of what images and sounds are used to signify power, and who wields it, on its head — making something that is genuinely horrifying, a haunting and a meditation the incessant toll of mortality.”
Stream The Bell That Never Stops Ringing in its entirety before it’s released via Ratskin Records on April 18th.