Cult Black Venus “Burial Roses”

Cult Black Venus is the solo project of Anastasia Zelinskaya, a new emerging artist in the gothic-folk/doomgaze scene.

Anastasia was born deep in Siberia in the family of a lumberjack, she lived in the taiga until she was 6 years old. Anastasia says, that her childhood was reminiscent of the “Reflecting Skin” movie – but instead of the great plains of “Southern Gothic,” there were impenetrable and mystical forests of harsh Siberia, for many kilometers around Anastasia’s house. Russian taiga is the place, where old legends are still alive, and finding a shaman is more accessible than going to the hospital – this is how the icy and pine taste of “Siberian Gothic” soaked songs of Cult Black Venus.

“I was an only child and my childhood was painfully lonely. Forest became my best friend, I loved contemplative walks through the swamps, deer paths, monumental rocks, and silence. There was no one in the world except me – and melancholy settled in my heart forever,” says Anastasia, recalling her years in the taiga. – “Loneliness, the inability to speak about my emotions, the piercing beauty around me and the mysticism of my childhood formed what is now called Cult Black Venus. I was looking for an instrument that can convey the sadness and beauty of my world – I studied painting, literature, and filmmaking, but in the end, I found myself in music.”

This is how Anastasia’s first releases “Vines and Strips” and “Lullabies for Monsters” were born, recorded with children’s musical instruments, field recordings, and a guitar, and published under the name La Barbe Bleue. These songs became popular in gothic VK public pages (analog for Reddit in Russia); listeners liked the mystical introversion and ethereal minimalism: listening to Anastasia’s voice, enhanced by the natural reverberation of abandoned houses, is like peering into the darkness, they said.

In 2020 Anastasia found her sound, she renamed her project to Cult Black Venus and began recording her debut album. “Perfume” was inspired by old horror films, the poetry of William Blake, and the paintings of Austin Osman Spare. Eight tracks from this LP are woven into the perfect soundtrack for walking through a cemetery, or for lonely thoughts with a bottle of absinthe.

“I chant the feeling of melancholy, often touching on the theme of death, loneliness, and love. I played all the instruments myself, and the sound seems to be a little heavier now,- it seems, made my music became even darker,” says the new “femme fatale” of the gothic scene about the new album. The thick sound of “Perfume” is like a witch’s brew of overdriven guitars, measured tribal drums, and almost whispering Anastasia’s voices. Get ready to inhale “Perfume”

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