View source for Lustmord

{{short description|British musician}}
{{About|the Welsh musician|the crime|Lust murder}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2019}}

{{Infobox musical artist <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Musicians -->
| name        = Lustmord
| image        = Lustmord cropped.jpg
| caption       = Lustmord playing at [[Norbergfestival]], 2011.
| image_size     =
| background     = non_vocal_instrumentalist
| birth_name     = Brian Williams
| birth_date     =  
| origin       = [[North Wales]]<ref name="guardian">{{cite web | url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/mar/16/lustmord-adelaide-festival | title=Lustmord: ambient's dark star | work=[[The Guardian]] | date=16 March 2013 | access-date=12 March 2014 | author=Needham, Alex}}</ref><ref name="p4k-welsh">{{cite web | url=http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/15590-lustmord-chorazin-extract/ | title=Lustmord – "Chorazin" (Extract) | work=[[Pitchfork Media|Pitchfork]] | date=12 June 2013 | access-date=12 March 2014 | author=Neyland, Nick}}</ref>
| instrument     = Synthesizer, [[Programming (music)|programming]]
| genre        = [[Dark ambient]], [[industrial music|industrial]]
| occupation     = Musician
| years_active    = 1980–present<ref name="p4k-welsh"/>
| label        = [[Hydra Head Records|Hydra Head]], [[Soleilmoon Recordings|Soleilmoon]]
| associated_acts   = [[Tool (band)|Tool]], [[Isis (band)|Isis]], [[Puscifer]], [[SPK (band)|SPK]], [[Melvins]]
| website       = {{URL|lustmord.com}}
}}

'''Brian Williams''' is a Welsh [[industrial music|music]]ian, [[sound design]]er and composer.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Brian Williams {{!}} Music Department, Composer, Sound Department |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0930168/ |access-date=2024-04-14 |website=IMDb |language=en-US}}</ref> He has released albums under the name '''Lustmord''' starting in the 1980s and through the present.

Williams began as a recording artist within the [[Industrial music|industrial]] genre, working with [[Chris & Cosey]] and [[SPK (band)|SPK]]. Shifting his work to Lustmord, Williams continued to employ the threatening aesthetics of industrial, while employing [[Reverb effect|reverb]] and similar effects to evoke an atmosphere of [[cosmic horror]].<ref name="oxhand">{{Citation |last1=Richardson |first1=John |title=The Oxford Handbook of New Audiovisual Aesthetics |page=367 |year=2013 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y8JpAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA367 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-973386-6 |last2=Gorbman |first2=Claudia |last3=Vernallis |first3=Carol}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Quietus {{!}} Features {{!}} Strange World Of... {{!}} Mysterium Tremendum: The Strange World Of Lustmord |url=https://thequietus.com/articles/18402-lustmord-interview |access-date=2024-04-14 |website=The Quietus |language=en-us}}</ref> Starting with the 1989 album ''Heresy'', Lustmord albums have been centered on manipulating [[Sampling (music)|sampled]] recordings with a computer. These samples infamously included [[field recording]]s made in locations such as crypts, caves, and slaughterhouses. Williams now downplays the sinister connotations of these locations and says they were picked for "acoustics".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lustmord Discusses Three Decades of Dark Ambient Music |url=https://getcentered.io/2018/09/08/lustmord-interview/ |access-date=2024-04-14 |website=self {{!}} centered |language=en-US}}</ref>

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 music|ambient]]."<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2024-03-26 |title=Where to Begin With Lustmord’s Cosmic Ambient |url=https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/lustmord-albums-list |access-date=2024-04-14 |website=Bandcamp Daily}}</ref>

== Biography ==

Williams was raised in the town of [[Bethesda, Gwynedd]] in Wales in a family of [[British working class|working class]] origin. He moved to London, living in a [[London Borough of Lambeth|Lambeth]] [[Squatting in England and Wales|squat]].<ref>{{Cite interview |last=Williams |first=Brian |interviewer=Joshua Minsoo Kim |title=Tone Glow 080: Lustmord |url=https://toneglow.substack.com/p/tone-glow-080-lustmord |access-date=2024-04-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927065806/https://toneglow.substack.com/p/tone-glow-080-lustmord |archive-date=2021-09-27 |publisher=Tone Glow |via=[[Substack]] |date=2021-09-27}}</ref> There he befriended [[Throbbing Gristle]] members [[Cosey Fanni Tutti]] and [[Chris Carter (British musician)|Chris Carter]], who urged him to make his own music.<ref name="guardian"/>

=== As Lustmord ===
Williams began releasing records as Lustmord with a self-titled debut (as "''Lustmørd")'' in 1980.<ref name="fact-1">{{cite web |date=3 November 2010 |title=Lustmord: The Last Heretic |url=http://www.factmag.com/2010/11/03/lustmord-the-last-heretic/ |access-date=12 March 2014 |publisher=[[Fact (UK magazine)|Fact]]}}</ref> "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 amorality of the [[interwar period]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bender |first=Stephanie |date=2011 |title=Lady Killers and Lust-Murderers: The Lustmord Paintings of Weimar Germany |url=https://journals.flvc.org/athanor/article/view/126704 |journal=Athanor |language=en |volume=29 |pages=77–83 |issn=2690-0181}}</ref>

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''<nowiki/>'s success to his use of an [[Atari]] computer as a [[digital audio workstation]].<ref name=":1" /> In retrospectives of Lustmord's work and the [[dark ambient]] genre, critics have called ''Heresy'' a milestone.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0">{{cite web |date=26 October 2009 |title=Lustmord – Heresy (album review) |url=https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/33091/Lustmord-Heresy/ |access-date=3 April 2011 |work=Sputnikmusic}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-01-14 |title=What is Dark Ambient? |url=https://microgenremusic.com/genres/what-is-dark-ambient/ |access-date=2024-04-14 |website=Micro Genre Music |language=en}}</ref>

Lustmord has extracted field recordings made in [[crypt]]s, caves, and [[slaughterhouse]]s, and combined it with occasional ritualistic incantations and [[Tibet]]an 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 (musician)|Robert Rich]] on the critically acclaimed<ref>{{cite web|last=Brenholts |first=Jim |url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/stalker-r227131 |title=Stalker – Lustmord |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=3 April 2011}}</ref> ''Stalker'', [[Jarboe]], [[John Balance]] of [[Coil (band)|Coil]], [[Monte Cazazza]], [[Clock DVA]], [[Chris & Cosey]], [[Paul Haslinger]], and experimental [[Sludge metal|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"<ref name=oxhand /> and occasionally as an additional composer on 44 Hollywood film soundtracks, most notably on ''[[The Crow (1994 film)|The Crow]]'' and ''Underworld''.

{{Listen
| filename= LustmordBlackStar.ogg
| title=Black Star
| description= Sample of "Black Star", from ''Strange Attractor'' ([[extended play]] – 1996) also on the compilation album ''Purifying Fire'' (2000)}}

Lustmord worked on [[Tool (band)|Tool]]'s DVD singles and remixed versions of "[[Schism (song)|Schism]]" and "[[Parabola (song)|Parabola]]," which were released on 20 December 2005. Lustmord also contributed to Tool's 2006 album ''[[10,000 Days (Tool album)|10,000 Days]]'' with the atmospheric storm sounds on the title track, "10,000 Days". He later worked again with Tool vocalist [[Maynard James Keenan]], collaborating on Keenan's project [[Puscifer]] debut album ''[["V" is for Vagina]]'', as well as providing several remixes for ''[["V" is for Viagra. The Remixes]]''. Lustmord eventually generated a collection of [[dub music|dub]] remixes of several tracks from ''[["V" is for Vagina]]'' known as ''"D" Is for Dubby - The Lustmord Dub Mixes''. The nine-track LP was released as a digital download on 17 October 2008, available directly from the Puscifer website. He also did some additional music including the track "The Western Approaches" feat. [[Wes Borland]] on guitar for the documentary ''[[Blood into Wine]]''.

Lustmord released the album ''[ O T H E R ]'' on California-based label [[Hydra Head Records]] in July 2008. It features guest appearances by [[Adam Jones (musician)|Adam Jones]], [[King Buzzo]], and [[Aaron Turner]].

===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.<ref name="guardian" /><ref>''Lustmord Rising'', 26 June 2006. {{cite web |url=http://www.toolband.com/news/news_archive.php |title=Tool : News |access-date=20 April 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921223820/http://www.toolband.com/news/news_archive.php |archive-date=21 September 2013  }}</ref> 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".<ref name="residentadvisor">{{cite web|url=https://www.residentadvisor.net/features/1579|title=Lustmord: By the throat|website=Resident Advisor}}</ref>

Lustmord performed for the second time in 29 years at [[Unsound Festival]] Kraków on 22 October 2010.<ref name="Unsound">[http://unsound.pl/en/general/news/show/lustmord-to-perform-for-the-second-time-in-29-years-at-unsound-festival-krakow Lustmord to perform for the second time in 29 years at Unsound Festival Krakow] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100709153846/http://unsound.pl/en/general/news/show/lustmord-to-perform-for-the-second-time-in-29-years-at-unsound-festival-krakow |date=9 July 2010 }}. Retrieved 19 July 2010.</ref>

Lustmord performed at Art's Birthday celebration (initiated by [[Robert Filliou]]) at Södra Teatern in Stockholm, Sweden, on 15 January 2011.<ref name="Art's Birthday, Stockholm 2011">[http://sverigesradio.se/sida/default.aspx?ProgramId=3676 Lustmord performance, recorded by Swedish national radio]. Sverigesradio.se, Retrieved 19 January 2011.</ref> He performed in New York for the first time on 9 and 10 April 2011 at the [[Unsound Festival]], coming to the attention of the ''[[New York Times]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://unsound.pl/en/festival/program/schedule/unsound-festival-new-york-2011 |title=Unsound |publisher=Unsound.pl |access-date=3 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110311110318/http://unsound.pl/en/festival/program/schedule/unsound-festival-new-york-2011 |archive-date=11 March 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=":0" />
Lustmord's first performance in the Netherlands was in September 2011 at the [[Incubate (festival)|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 ''[[Planescape: Torment]]''—his work eventually went unused when the project changed direction.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lustmord.com/interview_seven.html |title=L U S T M O R D |publisher=L U S T M O R D |date=31 July 2001 |access-date=3 April 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090504010117/http://www.lustmord.com/interview_seven.html |archive-date=4 May 2009 }}</ref> He provided music and sound design for a variety of other projects since, such as ''[[Far Cry Instincts]]'', ''[[Underworld (2003 film)|Underworld]]'' and [[NVIDIA demos]], many of which include collaborations with Haslinger.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lustmord.com/news_archive.html |title=L U S T M O R D |publisher=L U S T M O R D |access-date=3 April 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110522070500/http://www.lustmord.com/news_archive.html |archive-date=22 May 2011  }}</ref> He was also involved with the 2003 game [[Master of Orion III|Master of Orion]]. In 2015 he composed the soundtrack for ''[[Evolve (video game)|Evolve]]'' with [[Jason Graves]].,<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.lustmord.com/evolve/ | title = Lustmord: Evolve | author = <!-- staff writer(/s); no author by-line --> | date = 24 September 2014 | access-date = 6 January 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141011171937/http://www.lustmord.com/evolve/ | archive-date = 11 October 2014 | url-status = dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = https://blog.2k.com/index.php/home/single/lustmord-on-creating-evolve-soundscape-and-the-state-of-game-audio | title = A Conversation With Lustmord, The Man Behind The Unique Soundscapes For Evolve. | author = <!-- staff writer(/s); no author by-line --> | date = 10 January 2014 | access-date = 6 January 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150318071804/https://blog.2k.com/index.php/home/single/lustmord-on-creating-evolve-soundscape-and-the-state-of-game-audio | archive-date = 18 March 2015}}</ref> and composed the soundtrack of the horror game [[Scorn (video game)|Scorn]] together with [[Billain|Aethek]].

===Films===
Lustmord composed the soundtrack of the 2017 film ''[[First Reformed]]''<ref>{{cite web|author=Samuel Wigley |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/experimental-music-film-scores |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721013345/http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/experimental-music-film-scores |url-status=dead |archive-date=21 July 2018 |title=How experimental musicians are reinventing the film score |website=Bfi.org.uk |date=2018-07-19 |access-date=2020-03-14}}</ref> and the 2020 film ''[[The Empty Man (film)|The Empty Man]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://rue-morgue.com/movie-review-the-empty-man-goes-to-strange-unexpected-places/ |title="The Empty Man" Goes to Strange, Unexpected Places |website=[[Rue Morgue (magazine)|Rue Morgue]] |last=Gingold |first=Michael |date=October 22, 2020 |access-date=October 23, 2020}}</ref>

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 [[Legacy Effects]]. He is an [[atheist]]<ref name="guardian" /> and has noted that while his ominous music gives an impression to some people that he's "somehow dark and [he] live[s] in a castle or in a dungeon", and that although he's "very serious about certain aspects of [his] work", he's "not that serious about [himself]".<ref name="residentadvisor"/>

== Discography ==

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Year
!Title
!Label
|-
|1981
|''Lustmørd''
|[[Sterile Records]] SR 3
|-
|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 (Lustmord album)|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 Observatory|Arecibo]])
|
|-
|1995
|''[[Stalker (album)|Stalker]]'' (with [[Robert Rich (musician)|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 (artist)|Hecate]])
|
|-
|2004
|''Carbon/Core''
|
|-
|2004
|''[[Pigs of the Roman Empire]]'' (with [[Melvins]])
|
|-
|2007
|''Juggernaut'' (with [[King Buzzo]])
|
|-
|2008
|''[[O T H E R| [ O T H E R ]]]''
|
|-
|2008
|''"D" is for Dubby – The Lustmord Dub Mixes'' (by [[Puscifer]])
|
|-
|2010
|''[[Heretic (Lustmord album)|Heretic]]''
|
|-
|2011
|''Songs of Gods And Demons (Collected Works 1994–2007)'' (Compilation)
|
|-
|2013
|'' Things That Were ''(Compilation)
|
|-
|2013
|'' [[The Word As Power (album)|The Word as Power]] ''
|
|-
|2016
|''Dark Matter''
|
|-
|2020
|''Trinity''
|
|-
|2020
|''The Fall / Dennis Johnson's November Deconstructed'' (with [[Nicolas Horvath]])
|[[Sub Rosa (label)|Sub Rosa]]
|-
|2021
|''Alter'' (with [[Karin Park]])
|[[:de:Pelagic Records|Pelagic Records]]
|-
|2024
|''Much Unseen Is Also Here'' (LP)
|
|-
!colspan="3"|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 [[Steve Von Till|Harvestman]])
|
|-
|2022
|''Prime'' ''(Single)'' (with [[Zola Jesus]])
|
|-
|2022
|''Primal (State of Being)'' ''(Single)'' (with [[The Ocean (band)|The Ocean]])
|
|-
|2023
|[[Paradise Lost (band)|Host]] - ''Hiding From Tomorrow (Lustmord Remix)''
|
|-
!colspan="3"|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
|-
!colspan="3"|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)
|
|-
!colspan="3"|Soundtracks
|-
|2002
|''[[Zoetrope (album)|Zoetrope]]''
|[[Nextera]]
|-
|2003
|''[[Master of Orion III|Master of Orion 3]]''
|[[Infogrames]] / [[Quicksilver Software|Quicksilver]]
|-
|2017
|''[[First Reformed (film)|First Reformed]]''
|
|-
|2020
|''[[The Empty Man (film)|The Empty Man]]''
|
|-
|2022
|''[[Scorn (video game)|Scorn]]'' (with [[Billain|Aethek]])
|
|}

== See also ==
*[[List of ambient music artists]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{official website|http://www.lustmord.com}}
{{Lustmord|state=autocollapse}} {{SPK}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Dark ambient musicians]]
[[Category:British experimental musicians]]
[[Category:British industrial musicians]]
[[Category:Welsh electronic musicians]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Soleilmoon artists]]
[[Category:Welsh keyboardists]]
[[Category:Welsh atheists]]
[[Category:Welsh expatriate musicians in the United States]]
[[Category:British sound designers]]
[[Category:Welsh film score composers]]
[[Category:British male film score composers]]
[[Category:Third Mind Records artists]]
[[Category:Audiovisual artists]]
[[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]]