Cold Spring Reissues Complete Decoder Film Score September 2025
Cold Spring will issue the complete ‘Decoder’ soundtrack on CD and digital formats on 19th September 2025. The release marks the first standalone CD pressing in 33 years of the industrial compilation that accompanied Klaus Maeck and Muscha’s 1984 film.
Release Date: 2025-09-19
Genres: Ambient, Avant-garde, Darkwave, Electronica, Experimental Music, Industrial Music
Label: Cold Spring: Industrial, Dark Ambient & Ritual Music News
Description: Decoder 1984 industrial soundtrack returns on CD featuring Genesis P-Orridge, Einstürzende Neubauten, Dave Ball, William S Burroughs. Complete edition.
The soundtrack brought together Genesis P-Orridge, Dave Ball, Einstürzende Neubauten members, and William S. Burroughs for a project that crossed punk, industrial, and experimental territories. FM Einheit from Einstürzende Neubauten handled dual duties as both lead actor and score contributor, while Christiane Felscherinow took the other principal role.
Soft Cell provided ‘Seedy Films’ for the compilation. Matt Johnson delivered ‘Three Orange Kisses From Kazan’ under The The moniker. Einstürzende Neubauten contributed ‘Compressed Metal’. Dave Ball, Jon Caffery, and Genesis P-Orridge composed the remaining tracks.
The film cast Genesis P-Orridge as a priest within the narrative’s Black Noise faith. William S. Burroughs appeared as an audio equipment salesman with insurrectionist tendencies, also contributing spoken word elements to the soundtrack. American actor Bill Rice played a detective role. Production took place across Hamburg and Berlin locations.
‘Decoder’ operated as both science fiction and practical application of concepts from Burroughs‘ ‘The Electronic Revolution’ text, which outlined methods for audio-based mass manipulation and social disruption.
Genesis P-Orridge formed Throbbing Gristle in 1975 and later established Psychic TV in 1981. P-Orridge developed the pandrogyne concept and underwent gender reassignment procedures in the 1990s alongside partner Lady Jaye Breyer. The artist worked across music, performance, and visual art until death in 2020. Dave Ball co-founded Soft Cell with Marc Almond in 1977, achieving commercial success with electronic pop before pursuing solo work and collaborations with Psychic TV and other industrial acts.
William S. Burroughs published ‘Naked Lunch’ in 1959 and developed cut-up writing techniques with Brion Gysin. His work influenced punk and industrial music scenes through the 1970s and 1980s. Einstürzende Neubauten formed in Berlin in 1980, incorporating construction tools and found objects into their sound. FM Einheit joined the group in 1982 and remained until 1995.
The Hamburg-shot film emerged from the German punk scene that had connections to both Maeck‘s film work and the industrial music networks spanning London and Berlin. Muscha had previously documented punk culture through several films before collaborating on ‘Decoder’.
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