Quick Facts
Biography
Ian Dominick Fernow is an American electronic noise musician. A prolific artist recording under numerous aliases, Fernow is perhaps best known for his stage name Prurient.
Biography
Fernow was born in Wisconsin into a Roman Catholic household. Fernow recounts his entrance into public school and his exposure to death metal and tape trading as early sources of musical interest. In particular, Fernow cites the death metal band Deicide's album Once Upon the Cross as, "frightening ... A huge record for me, still to this day."
Fernow has resided in both New York City and Los Angeles, and runs the labels Hospital Productions and Bed Of Nails.
Career
In his early work as Prurient, Fernow worked primarily with a microphone and amplifier, and sometimes drums. He eventually began utilizing more electronics, and currently works primarily with laptop and synthesizers. He has collaborated with Ben Barnett, Richard Dunn, John Wiese, Jeff Plummer (Immaculate:Grotesque, Shallow Waters), Kris Lapke (Alberich, MCMS), Sickness, Wolf Eyes, Macronympha, Philip Best, Sutcliffe Jugend, The Hototogisu, Carlos Giffoni, Wilt, Grunt, Nicole 12, and Emily Salvatierra.
Fernow has also performed in various bands, such as Football Rabbit, Vegas Martyrs, Taylor Bow, Ash Pool (in which he also sings), and formerly as part of Cold Cave. Prurient has released material on numerous independent record labels, such as Hanson Records, RRRecords, Load Records, Troubleman Unlimited, Chrondritic Sound, Kitty Play Records, American Tapes, and his own label Hospital Productions. Fernow has also recorded music under a variety of aliases, including Vatican Shadow, Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement, Exploring Jezebel, River Magic, Winter Soldier, Window Cleaning By Ian, December Magic, Vegas Martyrs, and Tortured Hooker.
Prurient has been covered in outlets such as The New Yorker, Pitchfork Media and The Village Voice.
Partial discography
As Prurient
| Year | Title | Label | Format | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | A Simple Mark | Hospital Productions | Cassette | |
| Blades Steam Red Sweat, Inside The Things I Dread | CD-R | |||
| Persistence | Beeshu Records | Cassette | split with Potassium Cyanide Dogbane Sentiment | |
| 1999 | A Call For Help | Hospital Productions | ||
| Entrepreneur | ||||
| Model | ||||
| Prurient / Jon Borges | split with Jon Borges | |||
| O.C.D. | ||||
| Observer | ||||
| 2000 | Collaboration | Let It Rot | CD | with Richard Ramirez & Flatline Construct |
| Mundane | Ninth Circle Music | CD-R | split with Sickness | |
| Noise Split Tape Vol. 1 | Brainchaos | Cassette | split with Echo System | |
| Ornamentation | Zaftig Research | CD-R | collaboration with Goose | |
| Point And Void | Hospital Productions | 2xCassette | ||
| 2001 | Arbitrary Witness | Deadline Recordings | 2xCassette | |
| Body Language | Peel Back the Sky | LP | ||
| Collaboration | Hospital Productions | CD | with Diagram A and Furisubi | |
| Guide to Grooming | Monorail Trespassing | Cassette | ||
| Hunt in Couples | Hospital Productions, Anti-Everything | 7" | split with ASD | |
| Magnified Healing | Hospital Productions, T.E.F. | CD | split with T.E.F. & Richard Ramirez | |
| Mater Dolorosa | Hospital Productions | CD | ||
| Mummification and Prayer | Cassette | |||
| White Plains Leather: Black River Falls | Cassette | |||
| Valve Testing | Electronic Musik | Compilation: 1 track:Pastune as Well | ||
| 2002 | Live Prayer | Electronic Musik | 3", CD-R | |
| Something Terrible Has Happened and I Need Your Help | Monorail Trespassing | Cassette | ||
| The History of Aids | Hospital Productions/Armageddon | CD | ||
| 2003 | Recycled Music | RRRecords | Cassette | |
| Troubled Sleep | Truculent Recordings | CD | ||
| We Set off in High Spirits | Gods of Tundra | Cassette | ||
| 2004 | 60 Minutes of Silence | American Tapes | Cassette | |
| Fossil | Truculent Recordings | CD | ||
| Red Head | RRRecords | Cassette | with Pedestrial Deposit | |
| Shipwreckers Diary | Ground Fault | CD | ||
| Starvation | Hospital Productions | Cassette | ||
| Sexual Magic | 2xCassette | |||
| The Hidden Family/+White+ | Load Records | 12"/CD | with Kites | |
| White Magic | Hospital Productions | Cassette | ||
| 2005 | African Division | Hospital Productions | Cassette | |
| Akitsa / Prurient | Cassette | split with Akitsa | ||
| Black Vase | Load Records | CD/LP | ||
| Church of Ammunition | Troubleman Unlimited Records | 7" | ||
| Devil In Broad Daylight | Chondritic Sound | 2xCassette | ||
| Disappearance Of The Maya | Hospital Productions | 4xCassette | split with Aaron Dilloway | |
| In The Slaughterhouse | 7" | |||
| Love and Romance | LP | split with Nicole 12 | ||
| Macronympha + Prurient / Okha | Dada Drumming | 12" | split with Macronympha and Okha | |
| The Baron's Chamber | Nihilist Records | CD | ||
| The Warriors | Hospital Productions/Gods of Tundra | CD/LP | split with Wolf Eyes | |
| Vegas Martyrs - Choking Doberman | Kitty Play Records | 7" | ||
| 2006 | Cloven Spike | Hospital Productions | 7" | with John Wiese |
| Grunt / Prurient | Freak Animal Records | Cassette | split with Grunt | |
| Heavy Rain Returns | iDEAL Recordings | CD | with Carlos Giffoni | |
| Memory Repeating | AA Records | 7" | ||
| Pleasure Ground | Load Records | CD | ||
| Point and Void | Ninth Circle Music | CD | ||
| Snail on a Razor | Hospital Productions | CD | ||
| 2007 | All Are Guests in the House of the Lord | Hospital Productions | Cassette/CD | with Kevin Drumm |
| Caribbean Overdose | Cassette | edition of 200 | ||
| Cave Depression | No Fun Productions | 3x7" | ||
| Cocaine Death | Hospital Productions | Cassette | edition of 46 | |
| Colonialist Nature And Misanthropy | 2xCassette | |||
| Golden Swastika | Cassette | |||
| Prurient | Hanson Records | LP | ||
| Split | Important Records | with Mindflayer | ||
| Taylor Bow - Hate Fuck | Hospital Productions | 7" | ||
| Terminal Cases | aRCHIVE recordings | 2x3" CD | split with Death Unit | |
| The Golden Chamber | Hospital Productions | Cassette | ||
| 2008 | And Still, Wanting | No Fun Productions | CD + Shield 5" | |
| Arrowhead | Mego | CD | ||
| End Of Autumn | Troubleman Unlimited | 2xLP | split with Sutcliffe Jügend | |
| Ghosts Of Niagara | Hospital Productions | 10xCass | split with Burning Star Core | |
| Tylenol Murders | Cassette | edition of 20 | ||
| Cocaine Death | CD | |||
| Time Began in a Garden | 2xCassette, C10 + Box | edition of 100 | ||
| The Black Post Society | Cold Spring Records | CD | ||
| 2009 | Blood of the Lamb | BloodLust! | LP | split with Wilt ( edition of 100) |
| Palm Tree Corpse | Hospital Productions | 3xCassette/LP | ||
| Roman | Harbinger Sound | LP | ||
| Rose Pillar | Heartworm Press | 11" | with book (edition of 500) | |
| Stars Explode | Hospital Productions | Cassette/LP | with Cold Cave | |
| The Complete Kingdom Recordings | The Institute For Organic Conversations | 4xCassette | split with Wilt | |
| 2010 | Jesus | Hospital Productions | 2xCassette | split with Nico Vascellari |
| 2011 | Annihilationist | Hospital Productions | Cassette | |
| Many Jewels Surround the Crown | Hydra Head | 7" | ||
| Bermuda Drain | CD/LP/Cassette | |||
| Time's Arrow | EP | |||
| Stun Gun | Quasi Pop Records | 7" | ||
| Despiritualized | Hospital Productions | Cassette | ||
| 2012 | Of The Memories Of Friends | Hospital Productions | 2xCassette | |
| Oxidation | Cassette | |||
| Tiger Smells A Corpse | 3xCassette | |||
| Wrapped in the Flame of Illusion, Masked in the Clay of Behavior | Dais Records | 2x7" | ||
| 2013 | Through the Window | Blackest Ever Black | Cassette, Vinyl, CD | |
| Worship is the Cleansing of the Imagination | Hydra Head | 12" | split with JK Flesh | |
| 2014 | Washed Against The Rocks | Handmade Birds | 7" | |
| 2015 | Frozen Niagara Falls | Profound Lore | 2CD/3xLP | |
| Cocaine Daughter | Hospital Productions | Cassette |
As Vatican Shadow
Studio albums
| Year | Title | Label | Format | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Kneel Before Religious Icons | Hospital Productions, Type Records | Cassette, Vinyl LP | |
| Pakistan Military Academy | Hospital Productions | Cassette | ||
| 2012 | Atta's Apartment Slated for Demolition | Cassette, Digital | ||
| Ghosts of Chechnya | Cassette, Digital | |||
| Ornamented Walls | Modern Love Records | Vinyl LP | ||
| 2013 | Remember Your Black Day | Hospital Productions | CD, Vinyl LP | |
| 2014 | Games Have Rules | CD, Vinyl LP | with Function | |
| 2016 | Media in the Service of Terror | Digital, Cassette |
EPs and singles
| Year | Title | Label | Format | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Byzantine Private CIA | Hospital Productions | Cassette | 4-tracks EP |
| 2011 | Washington Buries Al Qaeda Leader at Sea - Deck 1 | Cassette | 2-tracks single | |
| Washington Buries Al Qaeda Leader at Sea - Deck 2 | Cassette | 2-tracks single | ||
| Washington Buries Al Qaeda Leader at Sea - Deck 3 | Cassette | 2-tracks single | ||
| The Serpent Carries Him Back Into Paradise | Cassette | 4-track split EP with Contrepoison (2 tracks each) | ||
| Mural of Saddam | Cassette | 3-tracks EP | ||
| Yemeni Commandos | Cassette | 2-tracks EP | ||
| 2012 | Kuwaiti Airforce | |||
| Operation Neptune Spear | Cassette | |||
| Iraqi Praetorian Guard | Vinyl 12" | 3-tracks EP | ||
| September Cell | Vinyl 12" | 4-tracks EP | ||
| Jordanian Descent | Cassette | 2-tracks single | ||
| 2013 | When You Are Crawling | Digital, CD, Vinyl 12" | 4-tracks EP | |
| 2014 | April Silencer | Digital | 2-tracks EP | |
| Easing of Our Task | Digital | 4-tracks EP | ||
| Elohim City | Digital | 3-tracks EP | ||
| Enduring Mysteries | Digital | 3-tracks EP | ||
| Fireball | Digital | 3-tracks EP | ||
| Oklahoma Military Academy | Digital | 4-tracks EP |
Compilations
| Year | Title | Label | Format | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Washington Buries Al Qaeda Leader At Sea: Decks 1-3 | Hospital Productions | Lossless Digital | |
| 2012 | It Stands to Conceal | Vinyl 12", Digital | Compilation of Jordanian Descent, Ghosts of Chechnya and Atta's Apartment Slated for Demolition | |
| 2014 | Death Is Unity With God | Hospital Productions, Modern Love Records | Cassette, Vinyl LP, CD | Compilation of Fireball, Enduring Mysteries, Easing of Our Task, Oklahoma Military Academy, Elohim City and April Silencer |