Insane Ghosts is the first album by O_U_T_R_E_N_O_I_R, the duo formed in 2024 by David Fenech & Marie-Pierre Rixain.
This LP is released on the Hublotone label on April 25 2025
This is the press release from the label :
Marie-Pierre Rixain and David Fenech form an unexpected and captivating duo, pushing the boundaries of alternative music. Together, they embark on an unclassifiable sonic journey, blending industrial downtempo, steady kicks, cold percussion, field recordings, and electric guitar feedback. Their music, often dark, carries flashes of warmth inspired by British dub-like an imaginary collaboration between The Bug and This Heat. At times, it echoes the world of La Perversita by Hector Zazou & Co. At 57, Marie-Pierre Rixain is stepping into the spotlight with a mesmerizing debut album. Long a discreet presence, she dedicated herself to organizing concerts and photo exhibitions centered on countercultures. Now, she reveals herself through a voice that is both raw and intimate, carried by bold sonic textures. She is also involved in the composition of the tracks, using field recordings and sampling. Parisian musician and improviser David Fenech brings his unique touch to this project. Known for his work at the crossroads of rock, jazz and improvised music, he has collaborated with iconic figures such as Felix Kubin, Tom Cora, Pierre Bastien, Nurse With Wound, Rhys Chatham, and more recently, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Jah Wobble, and Jean-Hervé Peron. His career has led him to prestigious labels such as Cold Spring, Blackest Ever Black, and Akuphone. After several trio albums with Jac Berrocal and Vincent Epplay, he now surprises us with a captivating creation. Their debut album, Insane Ghosts, due out in spring 2025 on the Parisian label Hublotone, was recorded in 2024 in the intimate privacy of the bedroom. Mixed by David Fenech, it also benefits from the participation of Alexandre Berly (La Mverte) on the track ‘Toi en Moi’, adding a sub and experimental touch. The mastering was handled by the legendary Noel Summerville, whose sonic signature graces iconic albums by The Clash, My Bloody Valentine, Kraftwerk, Aphex Twin, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Founded in 2024 by Hugo Sampeur and Adrien Lepape, Hublotone is the result of a bold vision from these two independent distributors, who also created the Kuronekool festival. This release reflects their commitment to promoting innovative artists. The album cover features a striking work by French photographer and filmmaker Antoine d’Agata (Magnum Photos). His poetic and abstract image adds another layer to Insane Ghosts, a project already shaping up to be a must-have for fans of introspective, dark and cold music. Like if Lost in Highway from David Lynch had a new soundtrack.
Tracklisting :
A1. Anybody Else Awake
A2. Toi en Moi
A3. In a Vast Ocean
A4. Paradise Party Life
B5. It Is You
B6. Insane Ghosts
B7. Take
B8. Des soupirs en pointillé
MP Rixain – voice, field recordings, percussion
David Fenech – electric guitar, synthesizer, sampler, drums
All tracks written by O_U_T_R_E_N_O_I_R (MP Rixain + David Fenech)
Recorded and mixed by David Fenech, Paris, 2024
With the help of Alexandre Berly (La Mverte) for the mix of track A2
Mastered by Noel Summerville
Photos with courtesy of Antoine d’Agata, Magnum Photos
Design by Elodie Boissau
Thanks Hugo & Adrien at Hublotone Records, Nova Materia, Philippe Levy, Sandrine Boulet & Jean-François Sanz
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.
Klemen Breznikar – It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine – March 2025 (link)
O_U_T_R_E_N_O_I_R est le binôme formé par Marie-Pierre Rixain (ici en charge de l’apport vocal et des field recordings, ainsi que du sampling, jusqu’alors personnalité de l’arrière des scènes, connue des milieux professionnels et artistiques par son travail d’organisation de concerts et d’expositions photo en lien avec les contre-cultures) et un certain David Fenech (Pierre Bastien, Nurse With Wound, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Jah Wobble;, Jac Berrocal…) : deux activistes au service d’un sound design atypique, et qui se lancent en 2025 dans une “exploration sonore inclassable, mêlant downtempo industriel, kicks droits, percussions froides, field recordings et larsens de guitare électrique.”
Il y a un minimalisme, une rigueur, mélange de rugosité et de substances aquatiques (“In a vast Ocean”). Art de suggestivité : c’est un voyage, des paysages sans trait d’horizon définis en fermeté. Vous les dessinerez vous-même. Insane Ghosts, enregistré en 2024, est annoncé pour le printemps 2025 chez Hublotone, label créé par Hugo Sampeur et Adrien Lepape. Pour sa pleine finition, les deux protagonistes principaux ont invité Alexandre Berly (La Mverte) sur “Toi en moi”. Et la maison de disque entend rendre les choses belles. Regardez la pochette. L’artwork part d’une œuvre photographique du photographe et cinéaste français Antoine d’Agata (Magnum Photos). Beau, non ?
Emmanuel Hennequin – Obsküre magazine – March 2024 (link)
O_U_T_R_E_N_O_I_R n’est pas rose, son univers fantomatique vaut toutefois et largement le détour. Hybride, il emprunte à moults mouvances mais Marie Pierre Rixain et David Fenech, en duo imaginatif, s’affairent d’abord à creuser leur propre glaise. Insane Ghosts, en huit titres qu’il faut aller chercher, me fait songer, dans un premier temps, aux travaux récents de Kim Gordon. Non pas dans la similarité, en termes de contenu, mais dans l’esprit et dans la texture des sons et atmosphères. Anybody Else Awake ouvre dans le noir, des lézardes indus s’en échappent et le tempo, low, obsède. Dub, dirait-on, mais pas tant. La voix susurre, l’indus est de mise mais là encore, non exclusif. Les sons en décor vrillent, entêtants eux aussi. Le piège est refermé. Des guitares de nacre soufré s’illustrent. Captivant. Toi en Moi, plus lent encore, également grisé, brumeux dans le chant, se souille avec marque. Les climats attirent, on y reste figé. Pénétrant, Insane Ghosts déferle sans vitesse et n’a pas d’égal. Il bruisse, accentuant l’emprise.
Avec In a Vast Ocean, au pouls haletant, électro-dark, indus rythmiquement marqué, le projet largue un dub aux pouvoirs psychotropes certains. La recette erre, portant vite ses fruits. Elle s’emporte, sans trop en faire, puis pointe Paradise Party Life. Strié, céleste. Sans hâte il se déploie, s’étire, hausse la cadence. C’est dans le brouillard, socle efficient, que le tout prend vie. Noel Summerville – mastering, Antoine d’Agata – photographie et Elodie Boissau – graphisme, à l’appui des deux têtes pensantes, consolident le travail. Le morceau lâche des giclées, d’acide. O_U_T_R_E_N_O_I_R invente, défriche, en arrive à des contours inédits. It Is You, de voix cinglées, fait grandement effet. Insane Ghosts est maladif, psychiatrique, génialement délirant. La deuxième moitié du track accélère, vive. Excellent.
On ne ressort pas indemne, vous l’aurez saisi, de ce disque-risques. Insane Ghosts, éponyme, à peine perceptible, mutant, le prouve. O_U_T_R_E_N_O_I_R se vit, autant qu’il s’écoute. Il pourrait nous perdre, mais au final nous gagne. Ici des corbeaux croassent, serait-ce la fin? Heureusement non puisque Take, de ses soubresauts nuptiaux, relance la machine. Son « Take » répété entre en tête, y demeure. Ses chapes aussi. C’est sur Des Soupirs en Pointillé que l’ouvrage prend fin, les textes un dernière fois titillent l’esprit. O_U_T_R_E_N_O_I_R, sans crier gare, jetant là les bases de créations en marge et hautement addictives.
Will Dum – Muzzart, March 2025 (link)
Another record I’ve been trying to get in for a while is OUTRENOIR’s ‘Insane Ghosts’ (Hublotone). They’re French duo of Marie-Pierre Rixain and David Fenech, whose name you might recall from the ‘Broken Allures’ album on Cold Spring last year. David teamed up there with Jac Berrocal and Vincent Epplay with guest appearances from Jah Wobble and Cosey Fanni Tutti. So anyway, this is what he gets up to with less people involved. I guess you’d call it dark ambient, it’s very brooding and it helps that the spoken-word vocals from Marie-Pierre are in French. It lends a certain je ne sais quoi. I like their description of what they do. “Industrial downtempo, steady kicks, cold percussion, field recordings, and electric guitar feedback,” the notes say, “punctuated by flashes of warmth inspired by British dub – evoking the spirit of an imaginary collaboration between The Bug and This Heat.” I like that comparison. The whole thing is deliciously wobbly, it kind of flutters, shivers almost, with quality. It’s so listenable, yes it’s dark, but there’s a calm to it, a real peacefulness. I particularly like the funky percussion on ‘In A Vast Ocean’ and the drum machine groove on ‘It Is You’ is especially cool. Really nice work.
Neil Mason – Moonbuilding Weekly Issue 66, May 2025 (link)
Another duo/couple, O_U_T_R_E_N_O_I_R areDavid Fenech, who has previously featured in this column as a solo artist and as part of a trio with Jac Berrocal and Vincent Epplay, and Marie-Pierre Rixain (not to be confused with a centre-right French politician of the same name). United by, among other things, a love of heavy, industrial-leaning acts like Young Gods, Nurse With Wound, Throbbing Gristle and Einstürzende Neubauten, as well as Little Annie Anxiety and Siouxsie Sioux, their debut album on new label Hublotone features Rixain on vocals, percussion and field recordings while Fenech supplies atonal guitar noise, synths, samples and drums. Rixain’s intensely dispassionate speak-singing is mostly delivered in charmingly, heavily accented English, apart from the whispered French of closer ‘Des Soupirs En Pointillé’, but on ‘It Is You’, the vocals break down into effected shrieks and rhythmic ‘uh’’s that track the motorik rhythm. The latter is a compellingly skeletal take on krautrock – it’s mostly just drums, bass and voice – but elsewhere the songs plug into and revivify (if that’s the right word for such spectral music) the dub/post punk interface: ‘Toi En Moi’ is early PiL via The Bug while the drums on ‘Take’ are like ‘She’s Lost Control’ performed in an empty water tank.
David McKenna – The Quietus, June 2025 (link)