Unveiling the Abyss: O_U_T_R_E_N_O_I_R Premiere ‘It Is You’ | Dive Deep into ‘Insane Ghosts’ with David Fenech & Marie-Pierre Rixain
We’re premiering ‘It Is You’ by O_U_T_R_E_N_O_I_R, a track from the upcoming album ‘Insane Ghosts,’ out April 25 via Hublotone Records.
They deliver the abyss staring back, a sonic black hole swallowing every last beam of light. This is the sound of machines realizing they have souls, screaming through walls of distortion and void-scraped synths. Industrial without the factory floor, techno without the dancefloor—pure obliteration of form, the brutal poetry of sound as substance. Think Suicide trapped in a power outage or a signal beamed from the last radio tower on a dying planet. No escape, no mercy, just oblivion.
David Fenech, known for his experimental work across a variety of genres, teams up with Marie-Pierre Rixain, whose intimate vocal presence cuts through the darkness. More in the interview below.
“We were absolutely free to push our musical explorations further.”
Let’s start with the setting—recording this album in a bedroom. Did the space itself shape the sound, or did the sound mutate the space?
Marie-Pierre Rixain: More than anything else, the bedroom space gave us a kind of artistic freedom and a sense of intimacy. So we were absolutely free to push our musical explorations further.
David Fenech: It’s very important to be able to record in an environment that inspires us. I’ve had some bad experiences with this when playing in overly lit recording studios (I prefer nocturnal atmospheres for playing music). So I pay a lot of attention to the atmosphere of the recording location. In the case of this album, it’s “chamber music” in the literal sense. I believe you can almost clearly hear our great proximity—be it physical, musical, or intimate.
What initiated this joint project with Marie-Pierre Rixain? Was there a certain concept behind it?
MPR: No preliminary concept. David suggested it would be a good idea for me to make sounds with him and perform. It all started more or less in a playful atmosphere. We enjoyed playing and then started working more seriously, but without really planning what we were going to achieve. It all started more like a little game.
DF: This is the first time in 30 years of recording that I’ve actually reversed the chronological order: I first became intimate with Marie-Pierre before playing music with her, and not the other way around. So we went straight to the heart of the matter. I must add that I was very keen on this immediacy, as my previous album ‘Mountains of Night’ (Jelodanti, 2024) had taken 10 years to complete!
“Our role was to capture these airwaves transmitted from beyond!”
You’ve got dub echoes, industrial pulses, ghostly ambience—like an old pirate radio signal. What’s the emotional core of this album?
MPR: These are deep emotions that have been part of both of us for a long time, no doubt due to our similar tastes in music, film, and photography. All these vibes come from things that speak to us artistically and have shaped our cultural background.
DF: “Like an old pirate radio signal”—I really agree with your description. We have named our album ‘Insane Ghosts,’ and indeed, there is something like a ghostly presence, like capturing waves. Our role was to capture these airwaves transmitted from beyond!
Your collaborations read like a love letter to sonic adventurers—Kubín, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Nurse With Wound. How does working with someone new like Marie-Pierre Rixain compare? Was there an immediate telepathic understanding, or did the music have to wrestle its way into existence?
DF: I have indeed played or recorded with Felix Kubin, Cosey Fanni Tutti, and Nurse With Wound in the past… The experience of playing with these great musicians has infused my own way of playing and recording. I play music the same way with Marie-Pierre, even if it’s her debut in music. Surprisingly, Marie-Pierre may indeed be regarded as “new” to music, as these recordings are her first… but I don’t experience it that way. She has been listening to and assimilating so much post-punk and industrial music that she breathes naturally in this language.
The Bug meets This Heat is a wild reference point. There’s a deep rhythmic discipline in those sounds, a push-and-pull between structure and chaos. When you two started working together, were you mapping out sonic territory, or was it all instinct?
MPR: It was all done by instinct.
DF: We recorded in the moment, very spontaneously and instinctively. But afterward, these recordings had to be carefully post-produced by me in the studio to give them a singular form, movement, and atmosphere. I made a lot of use of musique concrète techniques, particularly in the use of field recordings—but often placed in a more rhythmic context!
Field recordings are artifacts of moments that don’t belong to anyone. How do you decide which found sounds become part of the music? Do they dictate the mood, or are they just another texture in the arsenal?
MPR: We have been listening to all our field recordings together, and some of them have served as inspiration for setting up a new piece. Once again, it was natural instinct and possibly also the atmosphere of the bedroom that led us to transcribe certain moods.
DF: It should be noted that these are not “found sounds” in the strict sense of the term, as we recorded them ourselves. The act of composition begins as soon as we record these field recordings. Their use is frequently a matter of decontextualizing these sounds, of eliminating any anecdotal or recognizable reference. The sound of a creaking boat, a water mill, or a microwave oven is no longer immediately identifiable but is instead transformed into real sound material for us.
Let’s talk about voices—Marie-Pierre’s is intimate… Were there moments where the recordings felt too vulnerable, too heavy? Did you ever pull back, or was the goal to push further into discomfort?
MPR: It’s precisely because of this bedroom that we’ve been able to be so comfortable in this intimacy. The most embarrassing aspect for me is my English, colored by my Southern French accent… Haha!
DF: I must add that some of the recordings were so intimate that they became shamefully indecent, impossible to publish. We threw them in the dungeon!
You’ve worked across jazz, rock, noise, and the unclassifiable. What’s the biggest lie people believe about improvisation? Is it ever really “free,” or are there always invisible rules?
DF: The biggest misconception about improvisation is that it’s totally “free.” In reality, it’s always part of a pattern, whether musical, social, or simply instinctive. Think of a conversation: it’s an everyday form of improvisation, yet we follow unspoken rules about timing, tone, and feedback. If someone ignores these rules, the whole conversation falls apart. The same goes for musical improvisation—there are always invisible patterns that guide it, even if they’re not written down. We are all improvisers in our daily lives.
What I like about improvisation is that it’s generally full of life. My concern is not to be too self-indulgent with what ultimately comes out of it. That’s why I often like to rework the recordings at the final mixing stage.
The album is called ‘Insane Ghosts,’ and you’ve summoned quite a few—Noel Summerville, Alexandre Berly, Antoine d’Agata’s imagery. Were you curating a spectral cast, or did these collaborators just manifest along the way?
MPR: These partners appeared along the way. We followed our intuition and our deep admiration for the work of these talented people.
DF: At one point, ‘Insane Ghosts’ felt like an open space, like an invitation for other artists to join in. Our track ‘Toi enmoi’ is very intimate and very erotic. It was a great idea to invite La Mverte (Alexandre Berly) to work on the mix and pass it to mastering genius Noel Summerville (I’ve been regularly working with him for the past ten years). We wanted to use a photograph by Antoine d’Agata, and by chance, we were able to meet him in Paris. Once again, it all happened very naturally… The cover photo is wonderful!
The Lynch comparison in the press release—was Lost Highway a touchstone while recording, or does that reference feel like someone else’s projection onto the music? If you could soundtrack a single film that’s never had music, what would it be?
MPR: We both really love David Lynch, but we didn’t really think about him while we were working. It’s an honor that our music has this echo for some people, but it wasn’t intentional. The last question is very tricky… Yesterday, we watched Victor Sjöström’s The Wind, a silent masterpiece that would be very inspiring.
DF: Who doesn’t love David Lynch? Well, this reference comes from the Hublotone label, who actually penned the press release. And we think it’s quite apt because our music contains a certain strangeness, a certain darkness, and an almost cinematic feel… which makes this association make sense. If I could soundtrack a single film that never had music… I wouldn’t look to the past. I’d choose a film not yet made and would simply love to work with Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Bringing our ‘Insane Ghosts’ to his movies would be a dream!
Klemen Breznikar
Headline photo: Philippe Levy
O_U_T_R_E_N_O_I_R Facebook / Instagram
David Fenech Website / Facebook / Instagram / YouTube
Marie-Pierre Rixain Facebook / Instagram
Hublotone Records Facebook / Instagram
