Gautier Serre, better known by his stage name Igorrr, is a French musician. Under the Igorrr alias, he combines a variety of disparate genres, including black metal, baroque music, breakcore, and trip hop, into a singular sound. Serre is also part of the groups Whourkr and Corpo-Mente. In 2017, the Igorrr project itself became a full band with the addition of vocalists Laurent Lunoir and Laure Le Prunenec and drummer Sylvain Bouvier.
History
Solo work (2005–2016)
Serre plays piano, drums, guitar and primarily uses Steinberg Cubase for recording. He named his band after a pet gerbil Igorr he had as a child, adding the extra "r" to "make pronunciation more difficult." Serre claims to have synesthesia, in his case perceiving music as colors. In 2011 interview, he spoke of the origin of his solo project: Igorrr self-released a demo album, Poisson Soluble and Moisissure, which gained the attention of label Ad Noiseam. His debut albumNostril was released in 2010, alongside a companion EP Baroquecore. Both demos were reuissued in 2011. Igorrr's second albumHallelujah was released in 2012. It featured collaboration from Mayhem guitarist Teloch as well as classical singer Laure Le Prunenec. Igorrr's pet chicken, Patrick, gained notoriety for "playing" the piano Serre won a GoPro award for film making for a video of Patrick playing filmed with a GoPro.
Igorrr's sound combines breakbeats, heavy metal riffs, extreme tempo changes, and operatic singing coupled with screaming/growling, among other elements, to create what AllMusic describes as "an intense, disturbing, and undeniably distinct experience". The project's musical sources include black metal, death metal, industrial metal, progressive metal, classical music, Balkan music, breakcore, and trip hop. It has provoked labels such as "Baroquecore" and been described as Dadaist. In a 2017 interview, Serre said of the origin of Igorrr: "It started when I was a teenager looking for a band or an artist destroying all the limits of music, a band able to bring what all the boring mainstream bands could not bring." Serre listed classical composers Frédéric Chopin, Johann Sebastian Bach, Jean-Philippe Rameau, and Domenico Scarlatti, alongside contemporary acts Taraf de Haïdouks, Cannibal Corpse, Meshuggah, Aphex Twin, Mr. Bungle, and Portishead as influences in the early days.
Collaborations
With other musicians
Serre was part of Whourkr from 2005 up until 2013 when the group split up into their individual projects. Nonetheless, Igorrr still works closely with Öxxö Xööx for studio engineering. In 2014, Igorrr released the Maigre EP, a collaboration with French artist Ruby My Dear. In 2015, Serre is part of Corpo-Mente, where he works with vocalist Laure Le Prunenec. Their first self-titled album was released for free and recorded at Improve Tone Studio in Lezoux, France. He also collaborated with fellow breakcore artist Bong-Ra, and musician Nicolas Sénac in a project called Pryapism. Serre worked with The Algorithm on Brute Force. Serre has remixed songs for Morbid Angel and Meshuggah.
''Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc''
Igorrr also composed half of the soundtrack to the musical film directed by Bruno Dumont. The film was screened at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. The soundtrack was nominated for Best Music at the 23rd Lumières Awards. According to Serre, his initial compositions had a "medieval atmosphere", before the director told him to "just do Igorrr". The score is described as "electro-pop with a dose of heavy metal" and techno-pop.
