Lustmord
Lustmord | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Brian Williams |
Origin | North Wales[1][2] |
Genres | Dark ambient |
Occupation(s) | Musician |
Instrument(s) | Synthesizer, programming |
Years active | 1980–present[2] |
Labels | Hydra Head, Soleilmoon |
Website | lustmord |
Brian Williams is a Welsh musician, sound designer and film score composer.[3] He has released albums under the name Lustmord starting in the 1980s and through the present.
Williams began as a recording artist within the
The influence of Williams work on subsequent artists has led critics to call him "a reluctant pioneer of the dark ambient genre who regards his music as neither dark nor ambient."[7]
Biography
Williams was raised in the town of
As Lustmord
Williams began releasing records as Lustmord with a self-titled debut (as "Lustmørd") in 1980. [9] "Lustmord" in German translates literally as “lust murder,” and alludes to a painting tradition in Weimar-era Germany, in which artists like Otto Dix and George Grosz painted scenes of rape and mutilated female bodies that captured the nihilism of the interwar period.[10]
Williams released Lustmord's sophomore album Paradise Disowned in 1984 on which he continued to refine his sound. Critics and Williams himself considered his Lustmord third album, 1989's Heresy, to be his breakthrough work. Williams has attributed Heresy's success to his use of an Atari computer as a digital audio workstation.[7] In retrospectives of Lustmord's work and the dark ambient genre, critics have called Heresy a milestone.[7][11][12]
Lustmord has extracted field recordings made in crypts, caves, and slaughterhouses, and combined it with occasional ritualistic incantations and Tibetan horns. His treatments of acoustic phenomena encased in digitally expanded bass rumbles have a dark-ambient quality. Some of Lustmord's most notable collaborations include Robert Rich on the critically acclaimed[13] Stalker, Jarboe, John Balance of Coil, Monte Cazazza, Clock DVA, Chris & Cosey, Paul Haslinger, and experimental sludge group Melvins on Pigs of the Roman Empire. He worked with Tool again in 2019, providing the ocean and wave sound effects on the track "Descending" on their album Fear Inoculum.
Williams collaborated with Graeme Revell and Paul Haslinger to contribute as "musical sound designer"[4] and occasionally as an additional composer on 44 Hollywood film soundtracks, most notably on The Crow and Underworld.
Lustmord worked on
Lustmord released the album [ O T H E R ] on California-based label
Live performances
Lustmord appeared live for the first time in 25 years as part of the high mass observance by the Church of Satan. The ceremony took place on 6 June 2006.[1][14] A recording of the performance titled Rising was released. Lustmord himself noted that the offer was "one of those things that was just too funny to say 'no' to".[15]
Lustmord performed for the second time in 29 years at Unsound Festival Kraków on 22 October 2010.[16]
Lustmord performed at Art's Birthday celebration (initiated by
Lustmord's first performance in the Netherlands was in September 2011 at the Incubate Festival.Lustmord played for the first time in Moscow, Russia, on 8 April 2012, at Cinema 35mm. Bad Sector played the first act of the show.
Video games
Around 1999, Lustmord was also involved with the video game
Films
Lustmord composed the soundtrack of the 2017 film First Reformed[23] and the 2020 film The Empty Man.[24]
Lustmord had two songs used in the TV show Vikings: Valhalla seasons one and two: “Babel” and “Y Gair.”
Personal life
In early 1990s, Williams relocated to California from London with his wife Tracey, who is a fabricator at
Discography
Year | Title | Label |
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1981 | Lustmørd | Sterile Records SR 3
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1982 | Lustmordekay | Sterile Records cassette SRC 6 |
1984 | CTI (with Chris & Cosey) | |
1985 | Vhutemas / Arechetypi (with Graeme Revell) | |
1986 | Paradise Disowned | Soleilmoon |
1990 | White Stains (as T. G. T.) | |
1990 | Heresy | Soleilmoon |
1991 | A Document of Early Acoustic & Tactical Experimentation | |
1992 | The Monstrous Soul | Soleilmoon |
1992 | Psychological Warfare Technology Systems (as Terror Against Terror) (originally recorded in 1989, not released until 1992) | |
1993 | Crash Injury Trauma (as Isolrubin BK) | |
1994 | The Place Where the Black Stars Hang | Soleilmoon |
1994 | Trans Plutonian Transmissions (as Arecibo) | |
1995 | Stalker (with Robert Rich) | Fathom/Hearts of Space |
1996 | Strange Attractor/Black Star | |
1997 | Lustmord vs. Metal Beast (with Shad Scott) | |
2000 | Purifying Fire (collected Works 1996–1998) | Soleilmoon |
2001 | Metavoid | Nextera |
2002 | Law of the Battle of Conquest (with Hecate )
|
|
2004 | Carbon/Core | |
2004 | Pigs of the Roman Empire (with Melvins) | |
2007 | Juggernaut (with King Buzzo )
|
|
2008 | [ O T H E R ]
|
|
2008 | "D" is for Dubby – The Lustmord Dub Mixes (by Puscifer) | |
2010 | Heretic | |
2011 | Songs of Gods And Demons (Collected Works 1994–2007) (Compilation) | |
2013 | Things That Were (Compilation) | |
2013 | The Word as Power | |
2016 | Dark Matter | |
2020 | Trinity | |
2020 | The Fall / Dennis Johnson's November Deconstructed (with Nicolas Horvath) | Sub Rosa |
2021 | Alter (with Karin Park) | Pelagic Records |
2024 | Much Unseen Is Also Here (LP) | |
Singles | ||
1988 | Machine Gun (as T. G. T.) (single) | |
1989 | Revo (as T. G. T.) (single) | |
2021 | Twin Flames (Single) (with Karin Park) | |
2021 | Hiraeth (Single) (with Karin Park) | |
2021 | Song Of Sol (Single) (with Karin Park) | |
2022 | Ashen (Single) (with Godflesh) | |
2022 | Plateau (Single) (with Bohren & der Club of Gore) | |
2022 | Dark Awakening (Single) (with Ihsahn) | |
2022 | Testament (Single) (with Harvestman) | |
2022 | Prime (Single) (with Zola Jesus) | |
2022 | Primal (State of Being) (Single) (with The Ocean) | |
2023 | Host - Hiding From Tomorrow (Lustmord Remix) | |
Remix albums | ||
2009 | [ THE DARK PLACES OF THE EARTH ] (remixes) | |
2009 | [ T R A N S M U T E D ] (remixes) | |
2009 | [ B E Y O N D ] (remixes) | |
2009 | [ O T H E R D U B ] (remixes) | |
2015 | Vampillia Meets Lustmord (remixes) | |
2022 | The Others (Lustmord Deconstructed) | Pelagic Records |
Live albums | ||
2006 | Rising (live album) | |
2013 | Kraków (22 October 2010) (live album) | |
2014 | Stockholm (15 January 2011) (live album) | |
2017 | Hobart (12 June 2011) (live album) | |
2017 | Maschinenfest (2 October 2011) (live album) | |
2020 | Lublin (10 December 2016) (live album) | |
2020 | Berlin (25 March 2018) (live album) | |
Soundtracks | ||
2002 | Zoetrope | Nextera |
2003 | Master of Orion 3 | Infogrames / Quicksilver
|
2017 | First Reformed
|
|
2020 | The Empty Man | |
2022 | Scorn (with Aethek) |
See also
References
- ^ a b c d Needham, Alex (16 March 2013). "Lustmord: ambient's dark star". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
- ^ Pitchfork. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
- ^ "Brian Williams | Music Department, Composer, Sound Department". IMDb. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-973386-6
- ^ "The Quietus | Features | Strange World Of... | Mysterium Tremendum: The Strange World Of Lustmord". The Quietus. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
- ^ "Lustmord Discusses Three Decades of Dark Ambient Music". self | centered. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
- ^ a b c "Where to Begin With Lustmord's Cosmic Ambient". Bandcamp Daily. 26 March 2024. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
- ^ Williams, Brian (27 September 2021). "Tone Glow 080: Lustmord" (Interview). Interviewed by Joshua Minsoo Kim. Tone Glow. Archived from the original on 27 September 2021. Retrieved 14 April 2024 – via Substack.
- ^ "Lustmord: The Last Heretic". Fact. 3 November 2010. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
- ISSN 2690-0181.
- ^ a b "Lustmord – Heresy (album review)". Sputnikmusic. 26 October 2009. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
- ^ "What is Dark Ambient?". Micro Genre Music. 14 January 2024. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
- ^ Brenholts, Jim. "Stalker – Lustmord". AllMusic. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
- ^ Lustmord Rising, 26 June 2006. "Tool : News". Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 20 April 2010.
- ^ a b "Lustmord: By the throat". Resident Advisor.
- ^ Lustmord to perform for the second time in 29 years at Unsound Festival Krakow Archived 9 July 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 19 July 2010.
- ^ Lustmord performance, recorded by Swedish national radio. Sverigesradio.se, Retrieved 19 January 2011.
- ^ "Unsound". Unsound.pl. Archived from the original on 11 March 2011. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
- ^ "L U S T M O R D". L U S T M O R D. 31 July 2001. Archived from the original on 4 May 2009. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
- ^ "L U S T M O R D". L U S T M O R D. Archived from the original on 22 May 2011. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
- ^ "Lustmord: Evolve". 24 September 2014. Archived from the original on 11 October 2014. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
- ^ "A Conversation With Lustmord, The Man Behind The Unique Soundscapes For Evolve". 10 January 2014. Archived from the original on 18 March 2015. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
- ^ Samuel Wigley (19 July 2018). "How experimental musicians are reinventing the film score". Bfi.org.uk. Archived from the original on 21 July 2018. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
- ^ Gingold, Michael (22 October 2020). ""The Empty Man" Goes to Strange, Unexpected Places". Rue Morgue. Retrieved 23 October 2020.