Australian James George Thirlwell, alias Foetus, is a role model for many great artists and entire genres. His style has shaped industrial, EBM, electropunk and, accordingly, countless bands. However, his musical works go far beyond this. His musical career spans over 30 years and includes everything from pop to post-punk and jazz. It is very difficult to find a common thread in his many projects and collaborations with other musicians. A precise classification is impossible, if only because of the frequent breaks in style, which sometimes even occur in one and the same song. He himself does not want his music to be categorized.

At his first gigs in New York in the early 80s, Thirlwell clearly stood out from the local no-wave scene. The trashy sound elements paired with disturbing lyrics (themes such as incest, pedophilia and abuse) earned him the reputation of a “perverted psychopath”. As a result, curiosity attracted many visitors to his gigs. Even then, he used various pseudonyms for his recordings, which always revolved around the term Foetus. In order not to distract from the music, he avoided printing his face on the covers. The trained graphic designer took over the cover artwork himself in the 1980s and has become just as style-defining and popular as his music.

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