Oh come on, just look at that title: could this have been released on anything other than Miasmah? Certainly not with that cover, a wisp of green smoke picked out by the faintest beam of light, like moonlight sneaking in through the roof of an underground tomb. With the extraordinarily-titled, beautifully-packaged and exquisitely-realised L’Autopsie Phénoménale De Dieu, Erik Skodvin’s Miasmah label reaches the tenth in its series of quasi-classical, spooked-electronic and jaw-dropping masterworks.

Kreng is Belgian Pepijn Caudron, who provides the strings and battery of found sounds, supplemented on this release by a pianist (Satie-esque flickers and prepared sounds) and percussionist (ominously ticking rhythms, hellish kettle drum), ghostly voices and weeping women (this was never going to be an easy listen, was it?). He works closely with the theatre company Abbatoir Ferme, which explains the dark and twisted theatricality on show here. At times this sounds like Ennio Morricone or Bernard Herrmann scoring a horror movie directed by David Lynch; on other occasions it heads even further out into the avant-classical territory of a Ligeti or Grisey. Three pieces are knitted together into the brooding “Suite Voor Scenes Met Mist”, a nightmarish, brass-bottomed, clanking crackle which slowly dissolves to leave solo violin. Mixed in with the album’s black rumble are disturbing vocal samples: a man accuses a woman of being the devil (to be fair to him, she probably was), a blues singer wails “oh lord!”, and that woman weeps…it all adds up to something that will leave hideous, slow-healing scars in your mind.

L’Autopsie Phénoménale De Dieu est un début phénoménale. You’ll probably tell me that I’ve said this 9 times before, but this latest release on Miasmah may well be their best yet. Listen to some clips on the Miasmah website if you aren’t convinced. The gorgeous green vinyl edition is out now (and sold out now, most likely); a CD version is released on 22 June. Check Boomkat for a copy.

Erik Skodvin himself is playing at the Luminaire on 3rd July with fellow Miasmah types Simon Scott and The Sight Below. DJ set by Xela too. Tickets here.