Visual artist Jesse Draxler—who has worked with Nine Inch Nails, Daughters, Zola Jesus, Alexander McQueen and many others—has put together a new collaborative art project with the likes of Chelsea Wolfe, Greg Puciato, Trentemøller, Jaye Jayle, Ghostemane and more, called Reigning Cement.
Draxler gave each of his co-creators a set of 34 soundscape elements to assemble in any way they wanted. These recordings are industrial noises found in Draxler’s LA neighborhood and each artist was given the very same sonic toolbox to work with. Concurrently, Draxler created a visual component to go along with each of the tracks, which are incredibly varied. Reigning Cement pairs a 100-page book of Draxler’s art, photography and collage work with the audio portion of the project (see below for flipbook video).
Today we’re premiering the music video for Chelsea Wolfe & Ben Chisholm’s contribution to Reining Cement, a song titled “Valerian.”
Draxler comments:
“When submitting this track, Chelsea briefly mentioned how the lyrics are an ode to her relationship with Valerian root and its effects on sleeping habits and insomnia. With the video we wanted to echo this notion to create a morphing and echoing sleep-scape, straddling the line between dream and nightmare. The video was created by myself and Rizz (of the band VOWWS), while the footage of Chelsea was kindly given to us by herself”
Reigning Cement is released on Draxler’s Federal Prisoner label, on September 4, 2020.
Above, the video for “Valerian” by Chelsea Wolfe & Ben Chisholm.
Exploited Body’s track, “Your Stoic Gaze Changes States Of Matter,” provides the soundtrack for a flip-through of the ‘Reigning Cement’ book.