Throbbing Gristle co-founder Genesis Breyer P-Orridge has died at the age of 70 following a battle with leukemia that began in 2017.
P-Orridge's death was announced in an Instagram post by Dais Records, on which P-Orridge released material under a variety of projects including Psychic TV, COUM Transmissions and Thee Majesty. The label shared a statement by the musician's daughters Genesse and Caresse P-Orridge, who announced that P-Orridge died earlier this morning (March 14).
"It is with very heavy hearts that we announce thee passing of our beloved father, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge," says the statement. "S/he will be laid to rest with h/er other half, Ja[c]queline 'Lady Jaye' Breyer who left us in 2007, where they will be re-united. Thank you for your love and support and for respecting our privacy as we are grieving."
Genesis P-Orridge was born in Manchester in 1950. P-Orridge demonstrated a proclivity for experimentalism and an anti-establishment bent from their earliest days as an artist, founding British art collective COUM Transmissions in 1969.
Four members of COUM Transmissions — P-Orridge, Cosey Tutti, Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson and Chris Carter — formed experimental band Throbbing Gristle in 1975. Early Throbbing Gristle live performances featured controversial imagery including pornography and photographs of Nazi concentration camps, while the music featured tape-based samples and special effects on top of spoken word performances.
Throbbing Gristle would later be considered to have established the industrial music genre, with members of the band founding Industrial Records in 1976.
Following the first breakup of Throbbing Gristle in 1981, P-Orridge founded acid house band Psychic TV and occult group Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth, and left the latter in 1991. P-Orridge and wife Jacqueline "Lady Jaye" Breyer moved to New York City in 1993 where they began the "Pandrogyne Project," undergoing body modification and plastic surgery to resemble each other and identifying as a single being named Breyer P-Orridge.
In 1995, P-Orridge was injured in a fire at producer Rick Rubin's home. After the fire broke out, P-Orridge escaped through a second-storey window, suffering a broken wrist, broken ribs, a pulmonary embolism and a shattered elbow. P-Orridge sued Rubin and his American Recordings label, and was awarded over $1.5 million USD in 1998.
Over the years, P-Orridge continued making music with various iterations of Psychic TV and Throbbing Gristle. In October 2007, Lady Jaye died of stomach cancer. P-Orridge continued recording music until they were diagnosed with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia in 2017.
P-Orridge's death was announced in an Instagram post by Dais Records, on which P-Orridge released material under a variety of projects including Psychic TV, COUM Transmissions and Thee Majesty. The label shared a statement by the musician's daughters Genesse and Caresse P-Orridge, who announced that P-Orridge died earlier this morning (March 14).
"It is with very heavy hearts that we announce thee passing of our beloved father, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge," says the statement. "S/he will be laid to rest with h/er other half, Ja[c]queline 'Lady Jaye' Breyer who left us in 2007, where they will be re-united. Thank you for your love and support and for respecting our privacy as we are grieving."
Genesis P-Orridge was born in Manchester in 1950. P-Orridge demonstrated a proclivity for experimentalism and an anti-establishment bent from their earliest days as an artist, founding British art collective COUM Transmissions in 1969.
Four members of COUM Transmissions — P-Orridge, Cosey Tutti, Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson and Chris Carter — formed experimental band Throbbing Gristle in 1975. Early Throbbing Gristle live performances featured controversial imagery including pornography and photographs of Nazi concentration camps, while the music featured tape-based samples and special effects on top of spoken word performances.
Throbbing Gristle would later be considered to have established the industrial music genre, with members of the band founding Industrial Records in 1976.
Following the first breakup of Throbbing Gristle in 1981, P-Orridge founded acid house band Psychic TV and occult group Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth, and left the latter in 1991. P-Orridge and wife Jacqueline "Lady Jaye" Breyer moved to New York City in 1993 where they began the "Pandrogyne Project," undergoing body modification and plastic surgery to resemble each other and identifying as a single being named Breyer P-Orridge.
In 1995, P-Orridge was injured in a fire at producer Rick Rubin's home. After the fire broke out, P-Orridge escaped through a second-storey window, suffering a broken wrist, broken ribs, a pulmonary embolism and a shattered elbow. P-Orridge sued Rubin and his American Recordings label, and was awarded over $1.5 million USD in 1998.
Over the years, P-Orridge continued making music with various iterations of Psychic TV and Throbbing Gristle. In October 2007, Lady Jaye died of stomach cancer. P-Orridge continued recording music until they were diagnosed with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia in 2017.
