Bridging Opposite Extremes: In Conversation with Igorrr
- Heaviest of Art
- Sep 24
- 5 min read
The multi-instrumentalist has reached his highest point (yet).
The art of crafting an avant-garde body of work that feels cohesive rather than forced is a difficult feat not many excel at. When achieved, the musical (and visual) results are compelling. On September 19th, Gautier Serre, mastermind behind the musical collective that is Igorrr, did just that in the form of AMEN — a grand body of work that strays far from a linear, conventional path. It's unconventional in all the right ways and leaves audiences revisiting the album time and time again, allowing new layers to unfold with each passing listen. This is not a new characteristic of Igorrr's discography, but one that has culminated astoundingly with its sometimes classical, sometimes deadly soundscapes.
Much like the album it represents, AMEN's cover illustration is as mesmerizing as the sum of its parts. Illustrator Adrian Baxter, who was tasked with putting art to music, compiled it all digitally using separate traditional illustrations, rather than being one full original piece. In doing so, Baxter was able to experiment with various hand arrangements beneath the cover's central protagonist and have everything work well together compositionally, all the while meeting Gautier's request for an old paper/manuscript aesthetic feel. Per Baxter himself, "All the paper folds and textures were created by folding and toning (with pencil lead shavings) sheets 0f parchment paper and scanned into Photoshop."
There's much to uncover, and to dive deeper into the madness of AMEN, we welcome Igorrr to an insightful Q&A:
Igorrr has been around for two decades now, and each album is “bigger” than the last, which is an obvious result of your wide range of influences and driving creative purpose. Instead of remaining complacent, you challenge yourself for more and the result is a grand record in “AMEN”. What do you take from your musical journey as you’ve reached this point in your career?
Every record is an occasion for me to express and free myself from what I have inside me, but also a way of questioning myself again. If I had stayed in the same place musically, Igorrr would have died years ago.
What I take from the past twenty years is that I see no limits—neither in sound, nor in genres, nor in the way we should approach music. The more I experiment, the more I realize that the only rule worth following is « is the music good? ». "AMEN" is the sum of those years of exploration: I know how to use my tools better now, but I still feel the same curiosity I had when I was starting out.
Expanding on that point a bit more, where is your headspace as you enter such a significant and culminating album cycle in your discography?
It feels like I just climbed Everest in flip flops and my legs hurt. "AMEN" is a very accurate picture of what’s happening right now in my head, because it gathers everything I’ve been building musically these past years. It’s also the very very best I could give on an album. This process has taken years and that has been exhausting.
My headspace is pretty focused at the moment because we are going on tour very soon and I’m still trying to perfect every aspect of the live show with the guys.
“AMEN” is unconventional yet seamless and cohesive, classical yet aggressive. There are many competing elements that shouldn’t work together but somehow do. How does this synchronicity happen from a compositional standpoint?
The opposites have always inspired me. The silence is never as silent than when you confront it with noise, and the noise is never as noisy as when you confront it with silence.
This is the same with classical music. I love classical and baroque music, some of the best sounding music in the world. It’s the same with death metal, where there are absolutely genius tracks that have been written there. However, when I’m listening to baroque music, I sometimes miss that powerful and physical vibe that there is in death metal, and the other way around when I’m listening to death metal. I sometimes feel it’s missing some beauty, the delicacy and fineness that there is in baroque and classical music.
So, I think the synchronicity comes from treating every element as they really are and try to find the link they might have between each other. For me, real baroque music and real death metal doesn’t need a real effort for getting along together, it’s almost made for that.
At first listen, “AMEN” can be overwhelming for someone unaware with your discography, but it’s rewarding for those engage with the material with patience. There’s much to uncover, and it all shows itself from one passing listen to the next. In an era of hypercommercialized, “fast”, and digestible music, is the intention to be a contrarian and create something that encourages a deeper listen?
Not really, I actually do music for myself. I'm still in this endless quest of finding my personal perfect music, which I found temporarily with "AMEN", but I’m not trying to create a change.
However, I would be happy if it’s really the case to provoke a different way to listen to music in a more careful and attentive way as I really think there are a way too many uninteresting choices of music that pollute the space. They don’t respect the people’s attention that is given to it.
Visually, you’ve gone from Metastazis to Fortifem, to now Adrian Baxter for a brilliant cover illustration that fits well with the album’s overarching tone. Hands are raised worshipping a central deity at the forefront, all beautifully detailed by Adrian. What inspired you to seek out Adrian’s work for this album cycle?
I’m a big fan of Adrian’s work. I’m extremely enthusiastic about his work and I thought "AMEN" was the perfect moment to work with him. Adrian’s work is very elegant and stylish, he does everything by hand and that fits the mood of "AMEN" when I tend to have a maximum of things organic.
For example, the reverb of the choir in the church that you hear on the album is made with real mics placed in different distances from the choir itself to give that length without artificial effects. There are also almost no triggers and no edit on the drums, etc. Everything in this album has been pushed to be authentic, organic, and as human as possible, and following this mood, I felt comfortable working with Adrian and his pencils.
On top of that, again, his work fits 100% the mood of "AMEN".
Where did you find common ground with him in terms of artistic interpretation for “AMEN”?
We connected on the idea of duality: sacred versus profane, beauty versus destruction. His visual language already speaks in contrasts, which is exactly what I do musically and what I love in his work. I didn’t need to explain much—he understood that “AMEN” was both reverence and blasphemy at the same time and we reached that incredible cover step by step.
As mentioned, you’ve had a strong array of artists bring Igorrr’s visual identity to life. This applies to the music video element as well. How significant are visual arts to Igorrr?
I’m using visuals first of all to have fun but also to try to explain in images what I’ve tried to express with music. I see around me that my music is often qualified as complex and sometimes inaccessible, which is difficult for me to understand because Igorrr’s music is to me perfectly logical and clear.
However, doing visuals with different artists as part of Igorrr has brought very interesting things, and I can’t wait to do it again.
Amen is available now via Metal Blade Records (Listen).
