Sculpting Sonic Horror

Over the last couple of decades Wisconsin native, Clay Ruby has been creating some of the world’s finest dark electronic music under the Burial Hex moniker. These shadowy horror soundscapes form the basis of what has come to be known as “horror electronics”, the genre named by Ruby himself. It was a tremendous pleasure when Musique Machine were invited to sit down and chat to this prolific creative genius about Burial Hex, his creative processes, his other projects and what the future might look like for him and his projects.

M[m]: I first heard Burial Hex when Book of Delusions was released and was instantly hooked on your horror electronics soundscapes. I guess I’d like to know, how you came to be making this kind of music in the first place?

Clay In 2004, inspired by the atmosphere of Black Metal, myself and a small circle formed the project called Wormsblood and set about holding some improvisational recording sessions where we'd scare ourselves making noises in the dark. Eventually the group improv aspect of the band ran out of steam and I found myself mostly working on the project alone. I quickly found making all the requisite spooky intros and segues to be more engaging than making anything that resembled "Metal". This impulse evolved into its own project, flush with the haunted attitude and atmosphere of Black Metal, but created primarily via the tools of Post Industrial music. At the time, I was not aware of much else like it, aside from certain Les Légions Noires demos, a few select Cold Meat Industry albums, and some other rare outliers. This approach seemed well within the zeitgeist when SNSE released the debut Burial Hex album simultaneously with the first album from Neuntöter Der Plage. Both of our albums featured organic-sounding Death Industrial, but with Black metal-inspired vocals and occult themes.

M[m]: Who were your key influences when you were developing your sound? Did you have an initial vision of how your music should sound or was it something that grew and evolved organically?

ClayIn the mid-00's, I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time making music with an artist calling itself The Mumber Toes. We often discussed creating an aural depiction of primordial ooze out of which appears a wide array of musical forms which would arise and then disappear back into the formless chaos of sonic potential; a concept album that would feel like a musical equivalent of the alchemical process known as  "solve et coagula".  As time wore on, I carried this inspiration with me and poured it into Burial Hex. If you lay out the entire Burial Hex cycle end to end, it will reflect this vision. There is an ebb and flow from disembodied abstractions which ferment into more identifiable musical forms, only to dissolve back into an amorphous void. The forms coagulate into anything from mirages of structure to intensely overwrought compositions, often the instrumentation is dreamlike and mutated, the mixes are prickly and surreal, because it is all envisioned as materializing from this perpetual morphological subconscious process. No matter what shape the music takes, the composition cycle always returns to dissolve into its nebulous source. As the cycle carries on in this manner, we hear an increasingly harmonious relationship between the expansive evaporation out into the periphery of the cosmos and the condensing contractions down into the tiny realms of the human heart. These oscillations result in a slow transmutation, refining both the ingredients and the practitioner.

Reaching back into my childhood, I clearly see two albums which laid the foundation for what would develop into Burial Hex and what I termed "Horror Electronics". The first one being Skinny Puppy's Last Rights. I purchased it on cassette right when it came out, in 1992, taking a chance on it simply due to the stunning cover art. It was touching, it was genuinely scary, it was mind-bending and, as far as my 13 year old self knew, there was nothing else like it.

A few years later, a friend gave me a dubbed copy of Coil's Love's Secret Domain. This was a similarly impressive experience, in terms of the depth and breadth of the music. I listened to that tape over and over again until it rotted away. Just a couple years later, in 1999, Coil released Musick To Play In The Dark Volume One and sealed their place as one of my greatest influences. Coil's best works became thee gold standard for my creative drives for the next two decades, mainly due to their ability to encode genuine occult mystery into their music, or so it seemed.  My great mission became the dreaming up of ways to make adventurous and even spiritual music sing forth through limited technical means, at the time having only a few cruddy effects pedals, some cassette decks and very little experience making music.

It was a pleasure to unfold this work inside of the Post Industrial spirit, whose axiom should be something like: nothing is true, everything is permitted. Yet, this sense of artistic freedom is not restricted to any particular era or genre. I continue to admire artists in every medium, who work without boundaries, letting evolution and wildness be a defining characteristic of their output. Both Goblin and Popol Vuh were such artists, and both featured soundtrack artists for films that inspired me. I also count the likes of Sun Ra, Olivier Messiaen, Hermann Nitsch and Harry Partch on my short list of musical heroes, and there is no end to this research. My fascination with sound dives ever deeper and deeper into all innovations of the past, in every place on the Earth, continuing all the way back to the first moment a human being imbued his mantras with melody. As I have grown older, my focus has zoomed out to reach far beyond the trappings of recorded artifacts of music or other media (preferring live acoustic sound as the superior experience of the sound arts anyway) I have come to realize that my life is simply full of fascination over everything that is invisible and vibrating through the air, be it: sound, light, aether, spirit, warmth, resonance and radiance of all kinds. For me, creativity is no longer about art but about generating and strengthening life forces.

 

M[m]: Your music has a strong cinematic feel to me, would you say that the visual content of specific movies played a role in developing that sound, not just their soundtracks?

Clay Yes, especially in the early days of Burial Hex, I was deeply inspired by a variety of directors, especially: FW Murnau, Werner Herzog, Federico Fellini, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Sergei Parajanov, Tobe Hooper, Fritz Lang, Andrei Tarkovsky, Dario Argento, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Stanley Kubrick. Any cinema that felt expansive, surreal and haunted, I was gobbling it all up in the early 00's.

 

M[m]: As a listener, it’s quite gratifying to read that your cinematic influences are the people I would have predicted were big influences on Burial Hex. With that in mind, I am so pleased to see you mention Tobe Hooper’s influence, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has always been a very special movie for me. It was the movie that started my obsession with horror cinema, its gritty low budget visuals and Marilyn Burns’ tour de force performance, that feels so believable, were the tip of the iceberg. However, it was the creepy, atmospheric score by Hooper and Wayne Bell that had the biggest impact on me, proving to be a huge influence on my own musical projects. Would you agree, this was a hugely impactful score, that had a huge and far-reaching influence on future horror movie scores?

Clay Thinking back on my history with Texas Chainsaw Massacre reminds me of another pivotal moment in my musical biography. In 2003, Wolf Eyes came to town. Their influence in those days, on myself and the entire American experimental scene, cannot be overstated; those early tours were so impressive. They offered something that felt as exciting as the thrills of getting into Punk Rock for the first time. It was very liberating, their instruments clearly homemade, everything was pulsing with life in a way that I had never before witnessed in a noise performance. Looking back, many details from that night were a major inspiration for me. Aaron Dilloway was wearing a decaying black duster with a Darkthrone backpatch, and I got from him a bootleg cassette of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which he clearly made with pause-button edits dubbed straight off his old VHS of the film. I have spent many hours pondering the score and foley art of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it is very special. Like those early Wolf Eyes gigs, Chainsaw contains a morbid, handmade American maverick vibe that cannot be matched. Reading interviews with Wayne Bell certainly paints a picture of that attitude as well.

M[m]: I’d like to ask you about one of the other projects you’ve been involved in, in the past. I have enjoyed the music of Totem/ Jex Thoth a great deal and wondered how your involvement in that project came about?

Clay These connections mostly evolved out of with the Post-Industrial Free Folk collective called Davenport Family - and later Second Family Band. From that unit came many great collaborators and relationships with similar-minded folk like Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice, Jewelled Antler Collective and Funeral Folk.

Totem / Jex Thoth developed out of working with James Toth (aka Wooden Wand), and one of the side projects which developed out of this relationship was called Zodiacs (featuring James on bass, myself of drums and Keith Wood, from Hush Arbors, on guitar). Zodiacs was strictly improvised Acid Rock in a traditional power trio format. Realizing we had the bones of a decent rock band, James Toth collaborated with his then wife Jessica, to craft some pop songs which harken back to the early days of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Jessica had a great voice for this music and both James and Jessica had a knack for writing catchy songs. We started off calling ourselves Totem, and made a debut EP under this name. We brought in Glenn Donaldson, from Jewelled Antler Collective, on lead guitar and songwriting for the self-titled full length album. I stayed on with the band as organ player through the first three line-up changes, and I produced the debut Totem EP, the Jex Thoth LP and the Witness EP. Though we had a wonderfully wild time, after three recording sessions and two European tours, it became apparent that I could not sustain a relationship with this project. After this period, Jessica has continued to record and tour as Jex Thoth, but I am unfamiliar with who is in the band or what they are up to.

Of all these good people, I have continued to remain very close with Glenn Donaldson, we spent many years co-producing a Post Punk band called Horrid Red. We are still in near daily contact and I occasionally contribute co-writing songs for his band The Reds Pinks and Purples.

I have been fortunate to work with many people, both on Burial Hex and on a huge array of other projects over the years, and I am very grateful for all of these experiences.

 

M[m]: Getting back to Burial Hex, your most recent album, In Hiding is a masterpiece of dark electronica. In my recent review of the album, I described it as being the closest thing I’ve ever heard to a soundtrack to hell. It’s an intense listening experience that I can’t get enough of. What were your intentions with this release? Was this the sort of experience you wanted others to draw from the album, or did you have something else in mind?

Clay In terms of intention, I would only want the listener to experience a vision of Hell on the long and complicated road to redemption and liberation. The entire Burial Hex project, from the beginning, has been a Work of exorcism and initiation. It is a composition cycle that depicts my own chapel perilous, separating the workings of organic spiritual forces from the hauntings of a violent and traumatic childhood. It has become a portrayal of a romantic quest of healing, the burning away of the dross of biographical trauma (and its resulting chaos and materialism), and holistic reintegration via theurgic operations, sacrificing some inkling of light back unto the source of all emanation. In offering these pictures of my own spiritual processes through music, it could possibly encourage others along their own path of Initiations.

 

M[m]: It's a remarkable record and considering each piece, with the exception of Penitential March, was originally written and recorded for older releases is all the more impressive considering how cohesive it feels as an album. Was there a process by which you worked on these tracks to kind of bring them that cohesivity or was it there before you began the process of putting the tracklisting together?

Clay All tracks on In Hiding were composed within the context of being a contribution for a compilation, which is really the only thing they have in common. Otherwise they are distinct and separate in context, inspiration, environment, equipment, etc. I am very happy that they sound as though they belong on one record together. When considering which compilation tracks to include on this album, I felt empowered to go back into the original mix sessions and do some refining. It was quite fun to go back in and tinker with a piece of music that I have not worked on in many years. I was able to make some changes which pleased me and made the compositions feel more complete, but nothing was done specifically to make them more cohesive with each other. After I had my fun, all tracks were sent to Nathaniel Ritter for mastering, which is a technical process which results in some sonic cohesion, and this helped a great deal to bring everything together.

"Penitential March" was also written for an older release, a third volume of the compilations from Le Label Noir, but it never came out. Each artist was commissioned to contribute a march for it. It seemed like a cool idea, I wonder what ever happened to Le Label Noir. For "Penitential March", my inspiration was Henry Purcell's "The Queen's Funeral March". It was a unique challenge, as themed compilations often can be. The most richly unique compilation theme we've participated in must be Mysterium Lunae: A Requiem For The Invasion Of The Moon, which was a concept compilation released in protest of the 50th anniversary of the invasion of the moon on 20th July 1969.  Contributing to compilations is a special process, it can be an opportunity to open yourself up and try something new, especially if the compilation has an inspiring theme.The most recent Burial Hex compilation track, which was too fresh to make the cut for In Hiding, is covering "The Masks/Hobby Horse" for Ballads of Seduction, Fertility and Ritual Slaughter. This is a project curated by Ned from Was Ist Das?, wherein 17 artists were assigned the songs from the Wicker Man soundtrack. It must have been great fun for Ned, dreaming up who he'd like to cover which song from that amazing film. I admit it was quite difficult, but luckily Troy Schafer and Nathaniel Ritter worked closely with me to re-make this iconic bit of soundtrack, it was an interesting challenge balancing between self expression and a desire to be faithful out of so much love for the original.

 

M[m]: Can I ask you about your recording process? Do you have specific ideas in place before you head into the studio or do you just  get in there and see what comes out of it?

Clay There has never been a consistent process to speak of. Each piece has come about via recording in different locations, working with equipment, instruments and collaborators being totally unique to that composition. Even my lyric process varies wildly, sometimes the words are my own, sometimes they are borrowed from the poetry or liturgies of others, sometimes they have been gibberish and glossolalia. The only consistent aspect of my process is forming or finding a concept to create music about. It is a bit like a hypothesis which is proposed and thereby inspires a specific set of experiments. Once I have a muse to chase down, all other details fall in line exclusively for the achievement of that one particular purpose. This helps keep the work feeling fresh to me, because the concept will drive my excitement to find a suitable location, and choose the mediums, arrangements and collaborators necessary to create the most enchanted realization of that inspiration. This is one reason why it takes me so long to complete anything, because I am constantly starting over again in terms of process. However, in this way I feel very free, as the methods are devised to suit the concept and not the other way around, which I reckon is how most musical artists are confined. When I am not working on a specific piece, I do not have a music studio set up anywhere. In my private space, I only have a piano and some other small acoustic instruments to play around with, but there is no recording equipment or any electronics set up there at all. I have a small piano repertoire that I practice just for fun, and to keep music alive in my fingers, but otherwise I am not typically playing around with music unless I have a particular inspiration driving me to work with something.

 

M[m]: Thinking about your future plans for Burial Hex, have you ever been offered/ considered recording the soundtrack to a movie? Which movies would you have liked to have recorded a soundtrack for and do you have any other plans that have yet to reach fruition?

Clay I have not been to a movie theater since 2019. That year, I went to see Midsommar, Joker and The Lighthouse, it felt like a pretty good year for mainstream cinema. All three movies were very well done, all featured excellent sound design and soundtracks, and I could cite threads of those inspirations as they were woven into my work as I was in the process of finishing the album Gauze at the time.

Since then, I have cut myself off from screens almost entirely, I don't own a cell phone, I have not watched any motion pictures (movies nor TV, Netflix, etc) in these past five years, I'm pretty out of touch.

If I had to choose a modern film that I would have loved to work on, A Field In England comes to mind. I was really inspired by it and adored the sound design. Ben Wheatley seemed like a real gem, especially given Sightseers which had just come out the year before.

I was so thrilled to see Cold Spring begin their campaign to issue movie soundtracks, another characteristic that helped fortify my loyalty to the label. I love being among the milieu which appreciates the medium of film. Making physical and poignant sound design which can capture and enchant specific moments in a story arch, this is exactly what I strove to do with Burial Hex. I would be very enthused to entertain prospects of working directly on soundtracks for films.

In the meantime, I continue composing and recording for a Burial Hex album to be titled Final Mysteries, which is a two-hour long setting of a liturgical text, so it is kind've like scoring for theater.

 

M[m]: Ben Wheatley has been terrific for fans of cult cinema and his soundtracks, particularly A Field in England and Kill List are superbly creepy. I would really love to see Burial Hex score one of his future movies, as I think you and he would find a lot to bond over. Are there any other movie makers who you would like to work with?

Clay It occurs to me it would be great to collaborate with new unknown (to me, at least) directors. Hopefully there is a lot of exciting work coming from underground film these days, given how accessible the technology is. It has been some time since I checked out new directors but, when I did, I found that Carlos Casas' work really struck a chord and reminded me of a continuation of the immense spirit of Herzog. At this point in my life, I live in a rural area and have very little exposure to media, so it is nearly impossible for me to know about what is happening in this medium, but I suspect there are some wildly creative projects out there and I'm open to considering new commissions.

 

M[m]: It's interesting that you should mention Cold Spring and their first forays into reissuing classic movie soundtracks. I managed to pick up their lovely release of George Fenton's brilliant Company of Wolves soundtrack album and was suitably impressed. Would you ever consider re-recording the soundtrack to a favourite movie, something akin to what Demdike Stare did with Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages? If so, which film would you like to create an alternative score for?"

ClayYes, Cold Spring has been making great strides lately, really happy for them. They reissued Don Bradshaw Leather, which is a record very near and dear to my heart. Their reissue of SPK's Zamia Lehmanni (Songs Of Byzantine Flowers) is an incredibly important reissue of a tragically underrated milestone. The range and quality of the Cold Spring catalog makes me feel very comfortable as an artist, free to experiment and chase down all wild muses.

By the way, I think Haxan was scored best by Art Zoyd, during their charming era of re-scoring classic silent films (Haxan, Faust, Nosferatu, Metropolis).

Nathaniel Ritter and I did play at this idea a bit when making promo videos for a few Burial Hex tracks, many years ago. Our video edit for the song Book of Delusions is an attempt to re-score a scene from Federico Fellini's Roma. We also did an edit of Maya Deren's Divine Horsemen for the song Hunger and used excerpts from Derek Jarman's 'Sebastiane' to make a video for The Tower. I think there are a few other Burial Hex videos like this as well, they are good cheap thrills.

"Ballads of Seduction, Fertility and Ritual Slaughter" is kind've like this too, I was thinking it would be fun to see a new edit of the Wicker Man film with this new soundtrack in place.

Difficult to say which favorite movie I would like to re-score, it would be good fun taking a shot at Aleksei German's Hard To Be A God.

It doesn't need a new soundtrack but, just for the record, my favorite film since childhood has always been Apocalypse Now!

 

I’d like to thank Clay for agreeing to answer my many and varied questions, it really is very much appreciated, especially in light of how much time he has devoted to his answers. Clay’s music has been hugely influential to me and many others working within the field of noise and electronic music over the years and I’m so grateful to have had this opportunity to talk to him about his music and find out a little more about his creative processes. Not only do I feel that I’ve learned a lot more about one of the most creative talents working within electronic music, but I have a better understanding of his music.