Invisible chains
Bringing us together
In this quicksand
Struggling not to drown
Temptation is the wound that glitters, the flame that beckons even as it burns. Forbidden desire binds with cords unseen, clasping two souls in a clasp more absolute than iron. In its grasp, the mind reels, the body betrays itself, and the spirit falters, caught between hunger and ruin. Each glance becomes a summons, each touch a collapse into depths where reason dissolves. It is a drowning both feared and cherished, a fever where one drinks thirst itself. What cannot be held becomes the one thing needed…and the cycle of yearning becomes its own cruel sanctuary.
Forbidden is the title of the new single, video, and EP from Montreal darkwave outfit SEXSOMNIA. The EP, out today, arrives with a sharp visual counterpart: a video that finds the trio joined by special guest Marita Volodina of Poland’s Stridulum and her bewitching vocals.
SEXSOMNIA, founded in 2021 by Philip Faith, Pat Gaudette, and Michael K. Rien, have built a catalogue of EPs, singles, and 2024’s full-length Transcendent. Their collaborations stretch wide, and here Volodina proves essential.
“I first noticed Marita on her project Stridulum, who were signed to Manic Depression at the same time as SEXSOMNIA,” Frontman Philip Faith recalls. “I decided to contact her, and she loved the idea of a collaboration and accepted. Working with her, as much on the music as on the video, was pure symbiosis. Her voice and emotion blends perfectly on that song.”
The track’s core is feverish: dual basslines grinding beneath synthetic atmospheres, driven percussion, and a voice that slips between invocation and surrender. It is a song built on paradoxes, on hunger disguised as restraint, on the tremor of desire where control erodes. That sense of polarity: pleasure cut with danger, intimacy tied to exile, haunts the lyrics. They describe eyes that pierce, chains invisible but unbreakable, the quicksand pull of a kiss that cannot be held. Desire here is destructive and devotional, consuming yet seductive.
“…Forbidden was inspired by a strange déjà vu I had in the US about two years ago,” explains Faith. “The song explores polarities, temptation, lust and the eternal paradox of the spirit and the flesh. A dark descent in the lower realms of desire. For the video, it was quite challenging, since we filmed footage between Canada and Poland, we were very lucky to have an amazing team in Poland. Adam had a perfect understanding of the lighting set-ups I requested, it was a pleasure working with such a talented videographer. In this video we wanted a live band feel blended with various shots of Marita, we also used projections while filming.”
The accompanying video, directed and edited by Faith, heightens these tensions. Its montage of performance and vision – Volodina luminous, the band relentless – feels like a ritual spliced with cinema, a collage that glows, writhes, and erupts under projection.
Watch the video for “Forbidden” below:
Forbidden arrives after the July release of the stripped-back Shadow Mix. “The earlier Shadow Mix release of Forbidden is a deconstructed version of the original track, made for dancefloors,” Faith explains. “On the other hand, this ‘official’ EP version is more dark-rock oriented, with a hard beat and a spy/surf theme played on a Bass VI, and a focus on the driving bass, analogue keys and lush strings: more in line with acts like She Past Away, Bragolin, Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Syd Barrett. The male vocals are more present in this version, and there is a pre-chorus that is absent in the Shadow Mix.”
The Forbidden EP also hosts Isabelle Young on Vapor and Jacinthe Benoit on Nigrum Viduam, the latter remixed by UK industrial pioneers ATTRITION, with Martin Bowes overseeing mastering.
Listen to Forbidden below and order the EP here.
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