Lingua Ignota

Lingua Ignota has become the biggest figure in American experimental music over the course of five years, turning the trauma of her experiences of domestic violence into powerful, cathartic and angry art. Her music combines influences from opera, black metal, industrial and folk, creating a unique apocalyptic backdrop for Hayter's monumental voice. She has released four albums since 2017, the most recent being 2021's Sinner Get Ready, which introduces the gothic landscapes of rural Protestant Pennsylvania to her palette; the album has undeniably wowed music critics and made most indie music media lists of the year's best releases. The lingua ignota itself refers to the incomprehensible language of the medieval saint Hildegard of Bingen, with which she spoke during mystical experiences. Hayter's shows also tend towards the extreme and transcendental; the artist herself calls them exorcisms performed on herself. Because of the toll that revisiting trauma on stage takes on her mental health, she decided to end the Lingua Ignota project, embarking on her last tour under this pseudonym.