In early 2011, when Witch House was still promising and full of interesting artists ready to punch the boundaries, I was contact by Cosmotropia De Xam (Mater Suspiria Vision, Pwin Teaks, and a few other bands) , like many Witch House artists to release a record on his own label, Phantasma Disques. The offer cover 100 copies, a sleeve and a video done by The WitchMaster himself.
After a few e-mails, I send him a sort of template for the album, a mix between what seems to me the highlight of my demo album (Data Ghosts) and some tracks I was then working on.

For unknown reasons (was it of because of financial problems, dislikes of material and/or not enough time for running a small label), Cdx never released the album. As Phantasma Disques give to the artist the right to keep the ownership of their material, I finally decided to give a chance to The Blank Rites Of The Lost Girls.
Since, my music have change a lot, due a growing disinterest in the Witch House scene.
If I never been attract by the dance scene nor the current electro scene, I always been attract by early electronics in any of its forms (progressive, musique concrète, contemporary composition, library music, early industrial sound such as Cabaret Voltaire's early works) and its contemporary followers (namely Ghost Box label and musicians, Cafe Kaput, Finders Keepers, Pye Corner Audio, Trunk Records and free-minded artists like Broadcast and Stereolab).
For me, what Simon Reynold named after Gilles Deleuze, Hautology was the real forerunner of Witch House subgenre along side some contemporary dark psych bands (Psychic Ills, Indian Jewelry or Excepter). Unfortunately to my taste, the Rave and 90's nostalgia took over the "scene".

I believe the follow-ups to The Blank Rites Of The Lost Girls (BL▲CK▲MIRROR NOTEBOOK and HAUSU for the netlabel ODDOT) and my one-shot side project (The Pripiat Ghost Tapes) translate more this hauntologic obsession than the former, even if you can hear a clear Delia Derbyshire/Daphne Oram influences in a few songs. The british thematic (mostly inspired by history and productions of the British Broadcasting Corporation) running through the album also show an obvious influence of it.

For the songs itself, it relies heavily on samples: Rites of Maida Vale contains some percussions from Crackbusting Angels of Mater Suspiria Vision, The Wartimes Broadcast, an excerpt of The Bird by the amazing swedish artist Scout Klas, The Carrousel mash-up both the fourth movement of Messiaen's Quator Pour La Fin Des Temps and the "Kaze no Tani no Naushika" soundtrack and finally The Day The World Died (05261984) use somes of Delia Derbyshire sound manipulation made for the BBC Workshop and (if I remenber well) a heavily transform sample from Dans Le Club from the french hip hop band TTC.
For the most obvious, !tsirhC suseJ hO !droL hO use the end scene of "The Wicker Man" (actually sampled from Blood Axis' The Gospel Of Inhumanity), Valerie the beautiful soundtrack Luboš Fišer made for "Valerie A Týden Divů", Frozen Warnings (Harvested) samples Nico's Frozen Warnings. Finally, She Brings the Rain, already released on the single Covers WIP, is a Can song.
All the rest is original material, mixing old sound I made years ago, Chopped & Screwed techniques, synth wave manipulation and pitched up/down vocals.
The album was made using GarageBand, I only used the reverse effect from the Audacity freeware.

As for the inspiration, music apart, the album reference numerous movies from the 70's and early 80's: Miyazaki's "Kaze no Tani no Naushika", "Valerie A Týden Divů", "The Wicker Man", as noted above, but also, the classic Doctor Who serial "The Deadly Assassin" (Ecstasy & Rapture In The Eye Of Harmony), the 1984 BBC film "Threats" (The Day The World Died (05261984), "Logan's Run" in The Carrousel, and finally, both "2001: A Space Odyssey", its follow-up "2010: The Year We Make Contact" and The Doctor Who Chrismas Special "Voyage Of The Damned" are reference in Sol-5 Moon 6.
Obviously, Blood On Santa's Claw is a hommage to the cult british folk horror film "Blood On Satan's Claw".

A last word on the sound of the album: originally exported from GarageBand as low-rate mp3 and artificially transform as AIFF, it was not a mastering mistake but a real intention to provoke slight gliches to the general sound of the album. Consequently, the streaming of the album might be awfully bad.

That about what I have to say on this album. Take it as an archive of what Marzip☭n! could have been, as it is now far from this type of sound.

YM Marzip☭n!