We are proud to announce the long-awaited release of The Formless Irregular, the definitive Babs Santini book.
Conceived by Andrew Thomas and developed over twelve years in close collaboration with Steven and Sarah Stapleton, this catalogue raisonné offers a profound exploration of Santini’s singular œuvre.
Besides the Standard Edition which includes no music, a Deluxe Edition and a Collectors’ Edition are available containing exclusive new material by Nurse with WoundConceived by Andrew Thomas and developed over twelve years in close collaboration with Steven and Sarah Stapleton, this catalogue raisonné offers a profound exploration of Santini’s singular œuvre.
This substantial volume — a 10” x 10” hardback weighing 3.2 kg — spans 560 pages in full colour, elegantly arranged across 17 thematic chapters, and is strictly limited to 800 copies. Covering over five decades of creation, the book presents an exceptional body of work, including the iconic imagery for Nurse With Wound as well as artwork for Coil, Current 93, Stereolab, Whitehouse, Sand, and many others.
Enriched by previously unseen pieces and thoughtfully curated texts, it stands as the most comprehensive visual archive of Steven Stapleton’s artistic output to date. Also featured is an extensive discography and a complete archive of United Dairies releases — the seminal label founded in 1979 by Stapleton and John Fothergill. The first 200 buyers of the book will also receive an exclusive card — featuring a design distinct from those included in the other editions — personally signed by Steven Stapleton.
A Way To Die is composed of archival footage filmed by John Balance and Peter Christopherson, founders of the cult project COIL: it encompasses testimonies, short films, and moments captured on 8 and 16 mm film, from the 1970s to the 1990s.
Restored by Timeless Editions, these images were then selected and edited into a film by Maxime Lachaud—journalist, essayist, and connoisseur of alternative music and cinema—and Reivaks Timeless, a Toulouse-based publisher emerging from the world of fanzines and often associated with industrial music.
Constantly oscillating between sensuality and violence, this unsettling, haunted work highlights Eros and Thanatos, while also offering a testimony of the industrial scene in England and that mythical underground era marked by AIDS.
Naturally, music is omnipresent in this project, and COIL’s compositions accompany the viewer from the first to the last minute of the film.
During these two exceptional evenings, the filmmakers Maxime Lachaud and Reivaks Timeless will introduce their approach before the screening of the film—shown for the first time in its complete version in Paris. A discussion will follow, giving the audience the chance to question them about the genesis of this moving document.
⚠️ Warning: the film contains difficult scenes and is restricted to audiences over 18.
Au-delà du Silence and Le Club de l’Étoile present:
Kosmo Kino Plaza – Cycle XXII: A Way To Die (The Films of John Balance and Peter Christopherson)
We are thrilled to announce the publication of HARDCORE, a striking new photobook by Eric Kroll, featuring rare and intimate photographs taken during the shooting of Paul Schrader’s cult 1979 film — and much more beyond.
This book takes you deep into the world behind the camera: the set, the atmosphere, and the many individuals — technicians, casting director, actors and non-actors alike — who accompanied or inspired Kroll throughout the shoot.
More than a simple behind-the-scenes document, HARDCORE also includes the photographer’s own reflections, commentary and a recent interview he conducted with adult film actress Serena.
The book is also accompanied by a foreword from Paul Schrader and a rare text he penned in 1978 for a publishing project about the film that was never completed.
Together, these elements reveal a deeply personal and unexpectedly intimate perspective on the film and on the porn film industry at the end of the 1970s.
We were invited for a presentation of a screening of A Way To Die at Rock This Town a music documentary festival in the city of Pau (Fr)
Translated from the program:
A dive into the trashy, radical, SM, and experimental universe of two filmmakers who founded the group Coil. Sensitive souls, beware!
After paying tribute to the photographic and pictorial work of Peter Christopherson (1955–2010) and John Balance (1962–2004), founding members of the cult formation Coil, Timeless Editions restored the duo’s filmed archives, ranging from their first teenage experiments in the early 1970s to their more accomplished works of the 1980s and 1990s, in order to highlight a body of cinematic work of the highest order.
Between medical art, homoerotic performances, and body horror, these short films and other moments captured on 8 and 16 mm testify to an aesthetic sensibility that resonates with the concerns surrounding the rise of the industrial scene in England.
At the crossroads of Eros and Thanatos, these images, brought together by Maxime Lachaud and Reivaks Timeless into a raw, hallucinatory, and immersive film, evoke as much Georges Bataille, J.G. Ballard, Jean Genet, Derek Jarman, as the Viennese Actionists.
Carried by a number of previously unreleased compositions by the duo, A WAYTODIE is a unique document—sensual, disturbing, and profoundly haunted.
Maxime Lachaud, Reivaks Timeless
France / 2023 / 1h42
OV with French subtitles / Fiction
— Thu. May 8, 5:45 pm, in the presence of directors Maxime Lachaud and Reivaks Timeless
Event by Anima and Cinéma le Sémaphore in Nîmes, France
A Way to Die: The Films of Peter Christopherson and John Balance
A film by Maxime Lachaud & Reivaks Timeless
With the directors in attendance
2023 | FR | 1h45 | Rated 18+
Le Sémaphore (Nîmes) | €9 / €6
The screening will be preceded by “Shock Factory, Around Industrial Cultures”, a lecture by Nicolas Ballet at ESBAN at 4 pm (free entry).
Founders of Coil and cult figures of English experimental industrial music, Peter Christopherson and John Balance also made films between 1970 and 1980, which Timeless unearthed and restored. Shot on 8mm and 16mm, these unclassifiable and subversive works—disturbing, mesmerizing black jewels steeped in gay and masochistic aesthetics—oscillate between home movies, performance art, medical art, body horror, and urban nightmare.
Carried by a number of previously unheard Coil compositions, these short films and captured moments, brought together here in a unique document, are above all marked by a tortured imagination under the sign of Eros and Thanatos… with an irrepressible fascination for death.
There was a vacant place alongside Antony Balch, Derek Jarman, and Jean Genet: it is vacant no more.
With A Way to Die, Maxime Lachaud and Reivaks Timeless deliver a unique document, carried by the bewitching notes of the duo, for a one-way journey into the limbo—where they were recently joined by Monte Cazazza, father of the very concept of industrial music, who passed away not long ago.
An unflinching photographic journey into the heart of Asia’s most intense and sacred rituals.
Over the course of a year-long odyssey from Indonesia to Japan, and onward through the Trans-Siberian Railway, Belgian photographer Vincent Peal immersed himself in communities where devotion runs deep and tradition holds firm. From the trance-induced self-mutilations of the Tatung in Borneo, to the searing acts of sacrifice during Malaysia’s Thaipusam festival, to the haunting cremation rites on the banks of the Ganges—this book captures ceremonies where the body becomes a vessel for faith, pain, and transcendence.
Combining anthropological insight with raw, journalistic presence, Rites and Ceremonies of South East Asia offers a powerful visual exploration of belief, sacrifice, and spiritual ecstasy.
A WAYTODIE had its second screening in Brussels last weekend, this time in its full version, following the previous work-in-progress presentation in May2024.
Held at the renowned art house cinema Nova, the evening was unforgettable, with a sold-out crowd of 250 people. A highlight was Jean-Claude Wouters’ insightful Q&A, where he shared memories of working on Sleazy’s late ’70s short film, his friendship with Lindsay Kemp, and connections with Derek Jarman and Throbbing Gristle. Another key contribution came from Marc Monin of Laylah Antirecords, who curated a mini-exhibition featuring rare artifacts of his label (including Coil items) in the entrance of the cinema and helped recontextualize the film’s historical and artistic significance during the Q&A.
Beyond the screening, it was a great opportunity to reconnect with friends and meet new, fascinating people.
Timeless Editions is proud to present Domestic, a relentless and unflinching collection of lyrics and texts by Kevin Tomkins of Sutcliffe Jugend.
Raw, brutal, and unapologetically intimate, this work lays bare the psychological terrain of control, submission, and the darker sides of human desire and detachment.Split into six visceral parts, Domestic explores themes that shatter societal norms, piercing through the polite veneers of domesticity and intimacy to expose the ugliness and beauty that lie beneath.
For those familiar with his work, Domestic is a natural extension of Sutcliffe Jugend’s sonic provocations, pushing further into the abyss of human experience. This is not a book for the faint-hearted.
Celebrating the Legacy: Extended Reprint of Bright Lights and Cats with No Mouths by John Balance (COIL) Timeless Editions is excited to announce the re-release of Bright Lights and Cats with No Mouths in a reformatted and largely redesigned edition. Now is your chance to own the much-sought-after art book by COIL’s John Balance at an affordable price, just in time for the 20th anniversary of his untimely passing and an unbelievable 10 years after its first edition. This new expanded edition features not only 40 pages of new art, including some never-before-seen works but also a magico-critical appreciation of Balance’s creations by our friend BC.Collector’s Editions Available :
- Special Edition: Limited to 50 copies, this version includes four numbered and stamped prints.
- Deluxe Edition: Limited to just 40 copies, this edition includes a luxurious silk scarf (40 x 60 cm) crafted in Lyon, France, incorporating several of Balance’s original creations .
Availability Regular and Special Edition: Launches on December 9.
What could be more fitting than a screening of “A Way To Die” on the eve of All Saints’ Day in Barcelona, just steps away from the Gothic Quarter and the Sagrada Familia… what an experience! High-quality projection on a gigantic screen, powerful sound, and a very responsive audience. Thanks to everyone who came, with a special mention to Isaac of Death Cult Rising, Victor Dunkel, Xanaé Bove and Jordi Valls of Vagina Dentata Organ
Timeless is proud to present a huge opus collecting for the first time in one big tome the latest issues of Problem (vertical format artworks).With many more pages than in the previous books, this heavy baby inludes ALLNEW artworks from Aleksandra Waliszewska,It is NOT A REPRINT or a COMPILATION of the previous Problem/Solution books.Limited to 400 copies only.
A brief glimpse of last night’s event for the screening of A Way To Die at Albertslund Musikteater (COPENHAGUEN), which went smoothly. Thanks to René Larsen, @wandmoon, @die_weisse_rose_official, my old friend Otto Trupp, @sinisterwhimsytothewretched and all the people who attended the screening.
We are delighted to present to you a short trailer for the film A WAYTODIE - The Films of John Balance and Peter Christopherson. The next screening will take place at the Cinema Aventure May 22nd in Brussels and there are only about 30 seats left.
This is a silk scarf (or more precisely a “carré”) which has been hand-crafted especially for the COMPLETEWORK #2 book launch by Elzo Durt.
The design was specifically done by Elzo for manufacturing a carré.
It measures 90 x 90 cm, adhering to the strict original Hermes design outlines..
Those carrés/scarves are 100% silk and made in Lyon (France).
They are unisex items and look great worn by men and women (and anyone in between really) as they have a matte finish.
Limited to 25 copies
Timeless Edition are delighted to present COMPLETEWORKS 2017 – 2023, a new collection of Elzo Durt’s works from this period.
This book is the perfect companion to the previous opus (showcasing the years from 2003 to 2016) and offers on more than 200 pages the latest productions of this Stakhanovist of visual Cut-Up.
His unique style remains universally recognizable with his flamboyant scenes highighted by his trademark supercharged colors.
In this 6 year-retrospective, the common thread is still music with posters featuring names reflecting the eclectic tastes of the artist: Osees, The Hives, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, L7, The Queen Of The Stone Age, Laurent Garnier and many others.
Elzo’s flagship collaborations have continued over the years with some new ones appearing here including Volcom, the Born Bad record label, but also the Rockerill Festival or the Brasserie Surréaliste de Bruxelles.
The book is not composed in a strict monographic style like the previous one, as the artist and the publisher preferred to opt for a full page layout and Elzo has removed the names from some of his designs so that they become pure illustrations.
Furthermore, regarding printing, the publisher chose to significantly enhance the quality of reproductions and in particular of the colors, thanks to brand new printing techniques using an exceptional high-volume CMYK+ production device.
La prochaine projection du film “A WAYTODIE : THEFILMSOFJOHNBALANCEANDPETERCHRISTOPHERSON ” aura lieu durant le festival lyonnais Les Hallucinations Collectives le 27 mars 2024
The next screening of the film ‘A WAYTODIE : THEFILMSOFJOHNBALANCEANDPETERCHRISTOPHERSON’ will take place during the Lyon festival Les Hallucinations Collectives on March 27, 2024.
Timeless continue their archival work with the publication of a selection of the writings of COIL’s John Balance.
”The Cupboard under the Stars” has been compiled from Balance’s notebooks, it features a near comprehensive selection of lyrics for COIL often in various stages of development plus a second part of unused lyrics, essays, research and rants, outlines for videos, magazines and books which were never completed.
The book is almost entirely in Balance’s own beautiful handwriting with several mostly rare photos and unseen artworks included as well. There is a lot to discover here for old and new fans of the band. The book was compiled and sequenced by Claus Laufenburg, a friend and long-time fan of Balance and Sleazy.
The first edition is limited to 650 copies of which 500 exemplars make up the standard edition, 124 copies as the Special Edition and 26 for the Collectors’ Edition.
We are no fans of crowd-funding and pre-orders several months in advance of the product becoming available. Here are some snapshots from the printing process of ”The Cupboard under the Stars” - stay tuned for more news, very soon!
THEUNSEENFILMSOFPETER «Sleazy» CHRISTOPHERSONFINALLYREVEALEDIN «A WAYTODIE,» DISCOVEREDAT L’ÉTRANGEFESTIVAL
by Geoffroy Dedenis for CHAOSREIGN.FR
It was one of the many gifts offered by L’Étrange Festival for its 29th edition: the never-before-seen films of one of the most secretly influential audiovisual creators of the second half of the 20th century, Peter «Sleazy» Christopherson.
It is only fair if it was at l’Étrange festival that we were able to discover A Way to Die for its world premiere, since Christopherson had played there in 2004, without Coil and under his own name, during a tribute to his friend Derek Jarman.
We could have missed it among the myriad oddities that gave the event its golden letters, but Pan be praised, Maxime Lachaud and Reivaks Timeless chose for their bouquet of black flowers, a title that Coil diehards could only hear: «A Way to Die: the Films of Peter Christopherson and John Balance».
Many must have rushed to reserve their seats before calling their colleagues and enjoining them to do the same. And rightly so, for these short films come straight from the black box left by Christopherson after his death - among a multitude of demos and unreleased material that fans snatch up with each posthumous release from the duo.
Pieces as rare as they are fascinating, which can be divided into two categories: «family» videos of friends and collaborators filmed by Balance/Sleazy in the early days of Coil.These include the glam-sanguinous Marc Almond, Genesis P-Orridge all smiles in his Manson phase, David Tibet before his Noddy period, alongside the recently deceased Monte Cazazza, more fashionable than ever with his morbid humor and his very 2023 penile exhibitions, without forgetting our two satyr-pythias co-authors of the images that interest us. We also finally got to see some of the figures that everyone had mentioned in their respective bios [cf. the Cosey/P-Orridge clash], notably the tragically famous Mr Sébastian who tattooed the whole happy little non-secte back in the day [cf. all the names above]. It’s nostalgic, but not too much so, as we know well enough that they were living against a world that was giving them a run for their money.
This pent-up anger, taking less from the expansive cry-slogan “no future” then in vogue and more from the bonze equipped with a can of gasoline, manifests itself in Sleazy’s truly plastic creations. And if anyone still doubts the relevance of his re-christened name, these few videos should convince them. Lust, blood and anything in between.
Photogenic stagings of onanistic suicides in which barely legal boys are transfigured into sadistic martyrs. Probably picked up from the streets where the crisis had left them, their angelic faces crowning dry bodies hung à la Pasolini. No dialogues or exchanges of any kind, Coil has never been in the explanatory, the explicit on the other hand… These black and white faces closed in on themselves, anesthetized by a deep melancholy, are enough. Nothing more to say, only to do, to stimulate, to excite, to mutilate the captive envelope of a perverse world. We see an incredible closeness between these films and Christopherson’s photographic work.
His photos, although objectively admitted as brilliant by his peers at Hypgnosis, were nevertheless already considered too extreme - and remain so today. Photos showing gitons post reformatory, their hands full of weapons, blades or guns as desired, strangling themselves, electrocuting themselves, cutting their veins… Before, during, after, death still, but sexy. Although having collaborated with Jarman, the Sleazy/Balance duo touches on something more difficult to know, darker, too dark for many, including the gay public. But as those concerned were able to stipulate in an interview, attributing the punchline to Marc Almond: “We might be friends of Judy, but we’re not friends of Elton». No need to ponder why these works have remained under seal for so long. We only have to remember the affair of the fake-snuff designed by Sleazy at the request of Coil addict - with big money - Trent Reznor for his EP Broken. lt ain’t easy being sleazy.
Fans will find more than what they’re worth and will be able to rejoice knowing that A Way to Die is a working copy and judging by the quality of the work assembled by Lachaud/Timeless, the night has not finished to shine. G.C.dD
From the program of L’ETRANGEFESTIVAL (Paris - France) :
A Way to Die - The Films of John Balance and Peter Christopherson
Maxime Lachaud & Reivaks Timeless 2023 France Industrial anthology 1h05mn Sound Black and white & color
WORLDPREMIEREWORKINPROGRESS
Founders of Coil, a cult entity of experimental industrial British music, Peter Christopherson and John Balance also directed films from 1970 to 1980, exhumed and restored by Timeless. Shot on 8 and 16mm film, these unclassifiable subversive marvels, unsettling and trippy, garbed in gay masochist aesthetics, are as much family films, performances, body horror and urban nightmares. They’re above all characterized by a tormented imagination under the sign of Eros and Thanatos…. with an irrepressible taste for death. There was an empty space next to Antony Balch, Derek Jarman and Jean Genet : it’s no longer vacant. Maxime Lachaud and Reivaks Timeless deliver a unique document, haunted by the duo’s music, with this one way journey into limbo, where they’re joined by the recently deceased Monte Cazazza, a founding father of the concept of industrial music.
James Franco somewhere in Krung Thep Maha Nakhon - he is holding a copy of NAROK by Stephen Bessac and published by Timeless Edition in 2019 - sold out and may be reprinted soon as an expended edtion
