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WATCH: Cultus Sabbati Morgue Film Layla
John Doran , March 22nd, 2012 15:31

Drifting into the kaleidoscopic realm of the NSFW with anonymous occult power electronics and vintage autopsy footage

Ritualistic and mysterious noise outfit Cultus Sabbati have given us a glimpse into their world of art and horror.

Beyond The Walls Of Layla thankfully has nothing to do with Eric Clapton and is instead the kaleidoscopic film of something that looks altogether more unpleasant (even if it's quite hard to determine what exactly is going on).

The film is actually compiled from documentary footage of autopsies so comfortably falls in the NSFW category, even though footage is quite striking and almost beautiful to look at.

The band recorded three of their ritual performances, with this being the first. The next ritual, The Hagiography Of Baba Yaga will be released in Summer with the third part following in Winter.

A nameless spokesperson for the band said: "In some ways this is a bit of a departure for us, primarily because we did the recording in more of a studio setup. We also had guests with us that assisted with the rituals, though only on the longer two as this was recorded before anyone else arrived.

"Once we had the material mixed we started thinking of video, initially for just a single track. But once we got our hands on the source footage we decided we had to use it all, especially as it was almost exactly the same length as the album. The source for the film material is an obscure documentary by the American filmmaker Stan Brakhage called The Act of Seeing With One's Own Eyes. It is a silent document of a days work at a morgue with forensic pathologists perform autopsies. We had the footage edited to create the effect of symmetrical patterning that gives it a more kaleidoscopic look than the original, which is more blunt and abrupt."

Read our Cultus Sabbati feature and listen to their last album, The Garden Of Forking Ways here.