With her one-woman project Lingua Ignota, Kristin Hayter makes deeply intense, deeply personal music that explores all sorts of trauma, both individual and societal. Hayter’s music draws on folk and metal and goth and opera and experimental and a lot of other things, and it sounds like nothing else. When you hear her, you know that she’s putting herself through some very heavy things to make that music. This morning, Hayter has announced that she’s ready to stop doing that.

On Instagram this morning, Kristin Hayter writes that she’ll retire the Lingua Ignota project after her upcoming run of shows and a few unspecified near-future activities: “These upcoming dates, and a few things in early 2023, will be the last times I perform this music.” She writes that moving past her Lingua Ignota music is necessary for her own healing: “I am retiring this catalog, this pain. This era is over for me. I will give my final performances of this music everything I have, and I look forward to the actual great pleasure of interpreting hymns for you.”

Kristin Hayter has released four albums under the Lingua Ignota name, the most recent of which is 2021’s Sinner Get Ready. She’s also released a number of other records, including the recent EP Epistolary Grieving For Jimmy Swaggart and a version of the folk song “Katie Cruel.” Hayter has made music outside of Lingua Ignota, and I certainly hope that she’ll continue to do so. Hayter is a member of Sightless Pit, a metal band that also features the Body’s Lee Buford and Full Of Hell’s Dylan Walker, and she’s contributed to music from bands like the Body and to enterprises like the score of the movie The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. Last year, Hayter detailed abuses allegedly committed by her former partner, Daughters’ Alexis Marshall.

Below, you’ll find Hayter’s statement about Lingua Ignota and her upcoming tour dates.

Hayter writes:

From the heart. These upcoming dates, and a few things in early 2023, will be the last times I perform this music.

I have so much gratitude for what has been afforded me, and the beauty of the community that has gathered around what I do. Committing myself to this project and all that has come with it has also been acutely painful. This time last year I was non-functional. Then, out of desperation, I gave myself permission to heal for the first time. There is still so much work for me to do, but these months of personal growth have allowed me to see myself clearly, my strengths and my shortcomings. Every day I do conscious, active work to stay present — where I am safe, rather than mired in my past — where I was not. I will not allow my wounds to destroy me. I want to live a healthy, happy life and have changed much in myself and my surroundings to bring light in. As such the art has to change too. It is not healthy for me to relive my worst experiences over and over through LI, and my healing has finally allowed me to *feel* how painful that is. I am taking a new direction with my music and I am looking forward to the future. I want to let you know in light of some (very cool) things that will be announced soon that I am retiring this catalog, this pain. This era is over for me. I will give my final performances of this music everything I have, and I look forward to the actual great pleasure of interpreting hymns for you. Revelations is upon us. Gentle friends, it is ok to let go. Thank you for sharing the dark with me, it is time to move forward. – K

TOUR DATES:
11/10 – Austin, TX @ The Paramount Theatre
11/11 – Dallas, TX @ Texas Theatre
11/13 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
11/14 – Nashville, TN @ Basement East
11/15 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel
11/17 – Richmond, VA @ The Broadberry
11/18 – Baltimore, MD @ Baltimore Soundstage
12/14 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre
12/15 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
12/16 – Brooklyn, NY @ Pioneer Works
12/18 – Montreal, QC @ Sat
12/19 – Toronto, ON @ Trinity St. Paul’s

Read our 2021 feature on Lingua Ignota here.