Chrysalis

Mixed and mastered by Subtext's Paul Jebanasam. Designed by Alex Digard of Tape-Echo in an edition of 100 cassettes.

Astro:Dynamics return with Sophia Loizou's debut album, and indeed debut release, in the form of Chrysalis. It is an exploration of conflict and balance. Using a unique set of sonic transformations, synthetic materials and archival recordings of life both natural and mechanised, the work depicts forms across a diverse range of scales from the microscopic to those which exceed measurement entirely.

Comprised of six movements, the recordings unfold an elaborate landscape of intricate detail and severe natural forces whose end is both a creation and a dissolving of recognised forms. The sound masses that inhabit this space transgress between chaotic and stable states in order to present life in and out of balance.

Central to Loizou's practice is an ongoing investigation of this dichotomy and how it positions humanity's relationship to nature. Her work strives to capture the tension that binds the liminal states between the formless and the formed, and the inherent conflict employed by nature as it carves its diverging historical paths towards growth and decay.

The instrumentation and methods Loizou has explored here are crucial. Passages composed for solo flute, cello and soprano have had their recordings fed through a labyrinthine array of granular and spectral software tools. These have then been placed within the industrial products of analog hardware wired into feedback systems of electrical circuits and pulsating rhythmic structures.

The results emerge as a defining opening statement of an artist exploring themes that are central to the conflicts between nature and technology. In creating a sound world in which these concepts violently collide towards a cyclical symmetry, Loizou has crafted within Chrysalis a vision of a possible future that is both threatening and unstable but ultimately cathartic.