The sounds of Roto Visage seep into the celluloid and flicker with the moving images of what has been argued as being the first surrealist film, Antonin Artaud and Germaine Dulac’s “La Coquille et le Clergyman” (The Seashell and the Clergyman, 1928). Implementing a phantasmagorical approach towards construction, a boundless number of sound sources and arrangement techniques were fused together to create this soundtrack. Roto Visage and Kikapu would like to thank Transflux Films for providing the film footage.

“The film is so cryptic as to be almost meaningless. If there is a meaning, it is doubtless objectionable.” – British Board of Film Censors

In the most simplistic terms, The Seashell and the Clergyman concerns a clergyman who is obsessed with a general’s woman; he has strange visions of death and lust, struggling against his own eroticism. To be sure, there are established characters and a general storyline, but these are quickly forgotten by the audience as the film casts its strangely hypnotic spell.

Although accounts differ, it seems that Artaud disapproved of Dulac’s treatment of his scenario. The version of the film presented here, for lack of a better choice of words, is the “director’s cut.” When the film was originally distributed in the States, the film canisters were mixed up and the resulting sequence was not what was intended by Dulac. Most commercial versions of this film, including those found on YouTube, are of improper sequence.

Transflux Films originally commissioned Roto Visage to create the soundtrack for a version of the film that was edited in accordance to Artuad’s screenplay, though that version never materialized. Roto Visage ultimately wrote material to two different versions of the film, one of which is presented here.

Further reading

The Lost Prophet of Cinema: The Film Theory of Antonin Artaud – Senses of Cinema
La Coquille et le Clergyman – Forgotten Classics of Yesteryear
Kikapu
Transflux Films

Video

La coquille et le clergyman – 720p mp4 (mirror)
La coquille et le clergyman – 480p mp4 (mirror)

Audio

La coquille et le clergyman – 320kbps mp3 (mirror)
La coquille et le clergyman – VBR mp3 (mirror)
La coquille et le clergyman – FLAC (mirror)
download .zip archive

stream audio

Reviews & Coverage

disquiet

subliminal distortion organ.

From the label: After a long break Kaos Ex Machina comes back, to present you with our 100th release, titled ‘Strange Attractor’. The album is a compilation of work created especially for this occasion by artists from around the world. None of the tracks were previously published. We would like to invite you to discover how different artists approached the theme of the chaos theory, and the extraordinary sounds they created. Carefully selected and mastered full length cds, available to download completely free.

Released on: Kaos Ex Machina

Available for free download.
Download the entire album.

Compilation includes work by:
Darkness And Silence, New Risen Throne, Deadhorsemort, Subinterior, Inner Vision Laboratory, Stereocaine, Svart1, Krzysztof Stanisławski, Roto Visage, Wach, CrepusculaR, TSIMDZ, Dream Of Nothing, Pharmakustik, Luciftias, In Cognitus, Lord Kula, Aurea Hora, Experimental Subjekt.

Memories for your consumption. 

Well it’s official. I am absolutely terrible at promoting myself and others. Here’s a nice free compilation that was released whilst I was in the midst of traveling. I’m sure some of my listeners were able to catch its release despite my minimal efforts to get the word out. Nonetheless, if you don’t have this compilation, you should. 

From the label: To celebrate one year of Twilight Luggage, and wrap it up in a seasonably fitting package we are now releasing our first compilation album, “Winter Solstice”. 9 artists from this years releases, and 3 gifted composers we hope to work more with shortly, contributed exclusive tracks to what ended up as a quite varied and highly engaging album of experimental wonderfulness!

And the best thing about it: It’s totally free! Happy Winter Solstice!

Released on: Twilight Luggage

Available for free download.
Download the entire album.

Psychic surgery.

Brothers, Roto Visage and Jugular Notch come together in a collaboration amounting to five atmospheric tracks of epic length to accompany one’s inner dialog. As an incredibly personal endeavor for both artists, “Everything Is Brown” captures and documents moments in time and every area of the psyche, from birth and childhood to death.

“Everything is Brown” spawns from the entanglement of many sources, including field recordings in unsettling environments, home-made analog synthesizers, virtual synthesizers, vocal sampling, unconventional experimentation with vinyl records, improvisation, and an overall mental regurgitation of sound and emotion.

Released on: Kaos ex Machina

Available for free download.
Download the entire album.

Tracklist:
1. Air Filled Injection
2. Shot Glass Soil
3. Descaled Misease
4. Phonetiskope
5. How I Miss My Father

The sick psyide of Roto Visage and Jugular Notch.

Wounds of the Earth Compilation I is the first compilation to be released by webzine Wounds of the Earth. It features a number of incredible underground bands spanning the genres of industrial, power noise, terror ebm, aggrotech, ambient, idm, breakcore, and even psytrance. This compilation is a must have for any fan of dark electronic music.

Released on: Wounds of the Earth

Available for free download:
Download the entire album.

Eleven artists come together to reinterpret, reinvent, and reconstitute the work of Roto Visage.

Released on: Kaos ex Machina

Available for free download.
Download the entire album.

Tracklist:
1. I.V.Lab – Somnambulsit Carving
2. Pocka – Smudge
3. Ahasverus – Somnambulist Carving
4. Conversations About The Light – The Children Are Time Machines
5. Defractory – Arme God
6. Calyx After This – Into Transformation
7. Defractory – Children Und Broken
8. Retro – Amgod
9. Still Inertia – Smudged
10. Worms of the Earth – Scratch Spit
11. Anything In Wire – Ketias
12. Nostalgia – Am God

A compilation for the damaged.

We are immersed in the ocean of madness.
Featuring: Roto Visage, Dossier Lomokome, Burma Project, Hoarfrost, Nebel, Roberto Maldoror Manfredini, Belltonesuicide, Schlafwagen, Tiara, Heiliges Licht, I.V.Lab, Background Projection, Sektionine, Gabinetto di Guerra, Karsten Hamre, Rapeshower, Technology of Silence, Abandoned Asylum, K., CausaliDox, Mrcien, Voyvoda, Retro.

Released on: Kaos ex Machina

Available for free download.
Download the entire album.

Featuring the infamous:
Roto Visage – Splintered Mistress

This compilation is dedicated to our Mother… Europe.

Released on: Kaos ex Machina

Available for free download.
Download the entire album.

All nine have died.

file under: dark ambience, elegance, density

From the label: Roto Visage returns with another incredible full-length of dark, experimental ambience, titled la muse cachée. For this, our 99th release, Roto Visage takes you into the darkest recesses of your mind, and won’t let go. Really fantastic stuff, frightening at times, serene at others. This is a must-listen.

Released on: kikapu net.label

Album free for download.
Download the entire album.

Tracklist:
01. spiral ignite flesh
02. somnambulist carving
03. our very own
04. scratch spit
05. her veil projected
06. into transformation
07. smudge
08. (ab)normal cell growth
09. the children are time machines

Reviews:
Judas Kiss Magazine
Heathen Harvest
Blood Ties Webzine
Evening of Light

Beneath many layers.

This compilation marks first year of Far From Showbiz’s existence. You’ll find here projects which have released their music on FFS, and a few tracks of people who’ve never shown on FFS, and finally 30 min. audio material from gig that DJ RedSkeye played at some club in USA in april of 2006. All the artists who are a part of this work play in various genres and moods.

Released on: Far From Showbiz

Available for free download:
Download “The Purro.”
(right-click, save as)