To listen to Igorrr is to submit to a kind of beautiful, meticulously orchestrated whiplash. A pristine baroque harpsichord melody, delicate as spun glass, is suddenly pulverized by a death metal blast beat. An operatic soprano’s aria soars, not over a symphony orchestra, but over a landscape of stuttering, convulsive breakcore rhythms. It is a sound that defies easy categorization, a musical language built from the rubble of demolished genres. For two decades, this has been the domain of Gautier Serre, the French composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist who is the singular mind behind the project. On September 19, 2025, Igorrr will release ‘Amen,’ its fifth full-length album and the next chapter in one of modern music’s most bewildering and brilliant sagas.

Serre has long cited his influences as a disorienting pantheon where Johann Sebastian Bach and Frédéric Chopin share space with Cannibal Corpse, Aphex Twin, and Meshuggah. He approaches these disparate traditions not as walled gardens but as colors on a limitless palette, tools for expressing a vision that is entirely his own. Yet, ‘Amen’ signals a profound shift. By Serre’s own account, this is a deliberately darker, more introspective work, possessing a “weighty and solemn vibe that has never been reached before in Igorrr.”

This turn is consecrated by the album’s title itself. For an artist whose work has often been labeled Dadaist for its gleeful absurdity and chaotic juxtapositions, the choice of a word like ‘Amen’—a term of solemn affirmation, of finality, of prayerful conclusion—is a potent declaration. His 2020 album, ‘Spirituality and Distortion,’ explicitly framed his music as a kind of dialectical struggle, a clash of opposing forces seeking balance. With ‘Amen,’ Serre appears to be moving beyond the conflict and toward a resolution, however unsettling it may be.

After 20 years of perfecting a unique brand of musical anarchy, Serre seems to be getting serious, and the result is his most challenging and potentially most rewarding work to date.

Igorrr: Deconstructing Anarchy

The story of Igorrr is one of relentless evolution, a journey from a singular, iconoclastic vision to a world-touring musical collective. The project began in 2005 as the solo endeavor of Gautier Serre, who self-released early demos like ‘Poisson Soluble’ (2006) and ‘Moisissure’ (2008) that quickly garnered attention in underground electronic circles. These initial recordings were chaotic, brilliant sketches, laying the groundwork for a sound that fused frenetic, programmed breakbeats with operatic vocals and shards of heavy metal.

This unique blend, which some critics hastily dubbed “Baroquecore,” caught the ear of the Berlin-based experimental label Ad Noiseam, which would release his proper debut, ‘Nostril,’ in 2010.

While “Baroquecore” provides a convenient, if reductive, entry point, the term fails to capture the sheer breadth of Serre’s sonic ambition. A more accurate descriptor comes from the artist himself. When asked in interviews to define his genre, his consistent, concise response is simply, “yes.” This is not merely a witty evasion but the most precise articulation of his artistic philosophy. It is a radical statement of inclusivity, a rejection of the generic pigeonholing that governs so much of the music industry.

The Igorrr sound is an affirmative answer to the question of whether black metal can coexist with classical music, whether trip-hop can merge with Balkan folk melodies, whether glitch electronica can provide a bed for guttural growls. Serre has often compared his compositional process to cooking, describing his music as a “Mezze” platter offering a vast array of tastes and possibilities, where disparate ingredients are combined to highlight and transform one another.

A crucial turning point in this process came with the 2017 album ‘Savage Sinusoid,’ Igorrr’s first release after signing with the long-standing label Metal Blade Records. It was on this record that Serre made a fundamental shift in his methodology, abandoning the use of samples entirely. This was not merely a technical adjustment but a profound change in the project’s ethos.

Early electronic music, especially the breakcore that informs part of his sound, is built on the art of deconstruction—the slicing, re-pitching, and re-contextualizing of pre-existing audio. By moving to record every sound with live, acoustic instruments, Serre shifted Igorrr from a project of deconstruction to one of pure construction. This demanded an extraordinary level of effort, bringing in a host of guest musicians to perform everything from drum parts to baroque vocal lines.

The 2020 follow-up, ‘Spirituality and Distortion,’ pushed this organic approach even further, eschewing artificial reverb effects in favor of capturing the natural acoustics of the recording space. This evolution towards a completely bespoke sound world grants Serre absolute control over the texture and emotional weight of his music. The chaos, once assembled from disparate sources, is now grown from a single, unified vision, making the stylistic collisions feel not just shocking, but inevitable and deeply authentic. It was also during this period that Igorrr transformed from a studio project into a formidable live band, capable of translating Serre’s intricate compositions to the stage with visceral power.

A New Voice for the Apocalypse

Just as Igorrr was solidifying its identity as a full-fledged band and a global touring force, the project faced its most significant upheaval. In July 2021, the band announced the departure of two of its most recognizable members: male vocalist Laurent Lunoir, who provided the unhinged, raw screams, and operatic soprano Laure Le Prunenec, whose voice had become a defining pillar of the Igorrr sound.

The split, which Serre acknowledged as the sad end of a chapter, occurred for distinct reasons. Lunoir’s departure was attributed to his personal decision not to receive a COVID-19 vaccination, a choice the band respected but which created insurmountable logistical challenges for international touring. Le Prunenec, meanwhile, informed the band that after the strange, isolating period of the pandemic, she wished to step back from the public demands of the project to focus on her private life.

The loss of these two vocalists created a massive sonic vacuum. Le Prunenec, in particular, was an almost irreplaceable talent, celebrated for her astonishing ability to navigate both the pristine demands of classical soprano singing and the ferocious intensity of metal shrieking, often within the same song. Her voice was the bridge between the baroque and the brutal, a core component on landmark albums like ‘Hallelujah,’ ‘Savage Sinusoid,’ and ‘Spirituality and Distortion.’ The music on those records was, in many ways, written specifically for the unique capabilities of her and Lunoir.

This was not a simple personnel swap; it was a forced reinvention. The lineup change became a primary catalyst for the artistic evolution heard on ‘Amen.’ Igorrr welcomed three new members: screamer JB Le Bail, guitarist Martyn Clement, and Greek soprano Aphrodite Patoulidou. Patoulidou has since been succeeded by Marthe Alexandre, who handles the clean and operatic vocals on the new album and upcoming tours. With drummer Sylvain Bouvier’s departure in 2024, the current touring and recording lineup has solidified around Serre, vocalists Le Bail and Alexandre, new drummer Rémi Serafino, guitarist Clement, and bassist Erlend Caspersen. These new musicians are not direct replacements but new instruments with their own distinct timbres and capabilities.

The change forced Serre out of a familiar compositional framework, compelling him to write for a new set of vocal colors and dynamics. This necessary adaptation is likely a key driver behind the “exploratory curveballs” and darker, more solemn atmosphere that defines ‘Amen.’

Inside the Mind of Gautier Serre

To understand the music of Igorrr is to attempt to understand the unique perceptual world of its creator. Serre experiences synesthesia, a neurological condition that causes a blending of the senses; for him, sounds evoke specific and consistent colors. This is not an incidental quirk but a foundational element of his compositional process.

He speaks of music in visual terms, conceiving of his tracks as “paintings” for which he must find the right sonic “colors.” This extends to his choice of collaborators, whom he sometimes selects based on the specific color their playing produces. He has described one of his guitarists, for instance, as having a “very specific colour… a kind of green-brown.”

This synesthetic approach, this obsession with achieving the perfect sonic texture, found its ultimate expression in a major practical development: the recent completion of his own custom-built personal recording studio. After three years of manual labor, Serre finally had a space where he could “apply no technical limitation on my obsession for the perfect sound” and fully “unleash my madness.” This studio is the physical manifestation of his artistic philosophy, a laboratory built for total sonic control where he could spend unlimited time going “way deeper on ideas.”

When asked about his inspiration, Serre demystifies the process, rejecting the notion of a single muse. His creativity is fed by a “cumulation of everything”: the complexities of human relationships, the simple presence of chickens, the experience of travel, the taste of Mediterranean food, the sight of rivers and olive trees. His brain, he claims, is constantly processing music, even composing entire concertos in his sleep. This holistic view reveals that his profoundly experimental music is not born from abstract intellectualism but from a deep and constant engagement with life itself.

This grounding in the tangible world creates a fascinating tension at the heart of the modern Igorrr project. On one hand, Serre embraces cutting-edge, controversial technology, most notably the use of AI to generate the surreal and disturbing visuals for the ‘ADHD’ music video. On the other hand, his musical process for ‘Amen’ is almost defiantly anti-digital, an exercise in sonic purism. He rejects samples, drum triggers, and artificial effects in favor of organic, physically created sounds. He goes to extreme lengths to capture these sounds, from smashing anvils with hammers to deploying heavy construction equipment as a percussive tool. This reveals a core duality in his artistic practice. For the music itself—the sound—authenticity is paramount.

Every element must be real, organic, and meticulously crafted. For the visuals, however, he is a pragmatist, willing to use any tool, no matter how modern or “inauthentic,” if it effectively serves the aesthetic goal. This compartmentalization is not a contradiction but a mirror of the thematic clashes within his music: a sonic purist and a visual experimentalist, a Luddite with a deep understanding of digital tools.

The Making of ‘Amen’

‘Amen’ stands as Serre’s most ambitious and emotionally resonant work, a culmination of what he describes as “long and meticulous work on the sound and the choice of instruments, and deep experimental research to create a unique sound design.” The album’s pronounced darkness and solemnity are not just matters of mood but are woven into the very fabric of its production. In a move that embodies this new gravity, Serre recorded a real choir in a church, lending the music a genuine, cavernous reverence that digital samples could never replicate.

This pursuit of sonic authenticity led him to even more unconventional methods. The album’s instrumentation includes the deep, haunting wail of a nine-foot Tibetan dung-chen horn, an instrument used in Buddhist ceremonies that Serre calls the “authentic sound of Tibet.”

For percussive textures, he experimented with a blacksmith’s anvil, smashing the snares on the track ‘Pure Disproportionate Black and White Nihilism’ with a giant hammer to make the sound more brutal. Perhaps most audaciously, to achieve the crushing finale for the track ‘Headbutt,’ he played a piano with an excavator. These are not gimmicks but evidence of a near-fanatical dedication to capturing unique, organic sounds, pushing the boundaries of what can be considered a musical instrument. Yet, for the first time on an Igorrr record, this sonic extremity is balanced by its opposite: a small, pure baroque piece, left untouched by distortion and drums. This moment of quietude, nestled within the maelstrom, highlights the album’s central theme of dynamic contrast.

The three singles released ahead of the album serve as distinct entry points into this complex world. ‘ADHD’ is presented as an “autobiographical piece of music,” a sonic representation of a mind moving from simple, isolated thoughts—symbolized by dots of sound in silence—to a state of “complex pathological chaos.” The track’s controversial music video, a collaboration with creative duo Meat Dept, deliberately employs a blend of 3D animation and artificial intelligence to cultivate an aesthetic of “mental cringe,” inspired by the surrealism of 1960s ‘James Bond’ films and the French cinematic villain ‘Fantômas.’ It is the album at its most frenetic and psychologically jarring.

In stark contrast is ‘Blastbeat Falafel,’ which Serre describes as a “shot of limoncello before the next meal”—a colorful, palate-cleansing burst of energy. The track features pivotal guest appearances from Trey Spruance of Mr. Bungle and Timba Harris of Secret Chiefs 3, finally cementing the long-held critical comparison between Igorrr’s “controlled musical anarchy” and that of the Californian avant-garde legends. The song’s narrative concept—a metalhead who loves traditional oriental music but tries too hard to fit in, loses his identity, and ends up in a psychiatric hospital—is both playful and tragic, a perfect encapsulation of the Igorrr ethos.

Finally, ‘Infestis’ embodies the album’s profound darkness. Serre describes the song as an exploration of the feeling of being “possessed and infested by a bad spirit,” a state where “no fight is possible; you have already lost.” Fusing black metal influences, the aforementioned Tibetan instrumentation, and “excessive distortion,” the track is a monument to resignation and internal horror. Together, these singles paint a picture of an album thematically focused on the internal struggles of the mind—from pathological chaos and identity crisis to spiritual defeat. Tracks like the percussive ‘Headbutt,’ the trip-hop infused ‘Ancient Sun,’ and the closing piece, aptly titled ‘Silence,’ promise to further explore this intense, introspective landscape.

Adrian Baxter and the Art of ‘Amen’

The visual identity of ‘Amen’ is as deliberate and layered as its sound, entrusted to the hands of United Kingdom-based artist Adrian Baxter. A highly sought-after illustrator within the international heavy metal scene, Baxter has become renowned for his meticulously detailed ink drawings that explore the intersections of life, death, nature, and the occult.

His work, which has graced the covers of albums by bands such as Paradise Lost, The Halo Effect, and Dååth, is a fitting visual counterpart to Igorrr’s sonic world. Baxter’s process is one of intense patience and precision; he works traditionally, creating intricate pencil sketches that are then painstakingly inked by hand using pigment liners. Only after the physical drawing is complete does he scan the work for digital coloring and adjustments, preserving the organic, hand-drawn quality of his impossibly fine linework.

This dedication to craft makes him a kindred spirit to Serre. Just as Serre abandoned samples for the authenticity of live instruments, Baxter grounds his fantastical imagery in the tangible reality of ink on paper. His art is steeped in esoteric and ancient symbolism, creating a dark, visual language that feels both timeless and deeply personal.

The symmetrical, mandala-like compositions that are a signature of his style evoke a sense of ritual and order within chaos, perfectly mirroring the structured madness of Igorrr’s compositions. The choice of Baxter for Amen is a declaration that the album’s visual presentation is not an afterthought, but an integral part of its solemn and multifaceted experience, a gateway into the album’s thematic depths.

The ‘Amen’ Tour on the Road

The release of ‘Amen’ will be heralded by the thunderous arrival of the band on the live stage, with an extensive tour set to bring the new album’s complex vision to audiences across Europe and the United Kingdom.

Billed as “Part 1” of a larger global campaign, this initial leg will see Igorrr, along with special guests Author & Punisher and Otto Von Schirach, embark on a month-long journey through the continent’s most storied venues. The tour commences in the band’s native France, with a performance at Le Rocher de Palmer in Bordeaux on October 1st, 2025, before moving south for shows in Toulouse, Bilbao, Barcelona, and Madrid.

From Spain, the tour caravan will travel north, stopping in Istres, France, and Lausanne, Switzerland, before cutting into the heart of Germany for dates in Frankfurt and Hamburg.

The new lineup will then bring its precisely calibrated chaos to the Netherlands for a performance at the Soulcrusher Festival in Nijmegen on October 10th. The tour continues its relentless pace through Brussels, Cologne, and Nancy, before returning to France for a string of highly anticipated dates, including a stop at the legendary L’Olympia in Paris on October 17th and a show in Nantes.

The European and United Kingdom tour will reach its crescendo in the United Kingdom, with a performance at Crane in Bristol, followed by a show at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire on October 22nd, and concluding with a final, explosive night at the O2 Ritz in Manchester on October 23rd.

This run of dates represents the first opportunity for many to witness the live translation of ‘Amen’’s solemn and weighty material, a crucial test for the new ensemble and a powerful statement of intent for the next era of Igorrr.

Conclusion

After a twenty-year career spent gleefully demolishing musical boundaries, ‘Amen’ finds Gautier Serre not mellowing with age, but focusing his power. The album represents a new peak of compositional maturity, where the project’s signature chaos is not diminished but refined, aimed with greater precision and devastating emotional weight. The madness is more methodical, the solemnity more profound.

Igorrr remains a vital and singular force in the landscape of experimental music, not only for its sound but for its ethos. The philosophy of “yes” is a powerful model for artistic freedom in an industry that increasingly demands categorization and conformity. The project’s global success stands as a landmark to the fact that there is a substantial audience for deeply personal, uncompromising art that trusts its listeners to navigate its complexities without a map.

With extensive European and United Kingdom tours scheduled for 2025 and 2026, and a planned return to the United States of America, audiences will soon witness how this darker, more compositionally dense material translates to the stage with the project’s reinvented lineup. The new ensemble has already been tested on the road, but ‘Amen’ represents their first full-length statement, a trial by fire and faith.

Ultimately, ‘Amen’ is the sound of an artist who has nothing left to prove. As Serre himself has stated, his ambitions are already fulfilled by the simple fact that his “very personal vision of the music has such a big impact around the world.” Freed from expectation, he is able to journey into the most challenging and shadowed corners of his sonic universe.

‘Amen’ is not just an album title; it is an invitation. An invitation to say a prayer, to embrace the beautiful, terrifying noise, and to affirm a singular, unrelenting vision.