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Debut album ‘Balm’, digital release on Alien Jams (March 2024) and vinyl reissue  (May 2024) by Rekem Records. 

 

Full album on bandcamp and across digital platforms

'Balm' is an album by Greek/ UK based artist Viki Steiri, a powerful debut, anchored by ritualistic, monolithic cello layers. Steiri combines Badalamentian soundscapes with electronic dance rhythms, synth-tinged folk songs from Istanbul, alongside reworked cello and santur improvisations. Balm has been featured on BBC3's Late Junction (05.04.24), CLOT magazine (29.03.24) and in Philip Sherburne's Futurism Restated #56 newsletter.

Written and recorded between Athens and London between 2017- 2023, 'Balm' is a distinctly personal documentation. Moving from the suffering caused by rootlessness, loss and changes of identity to immersion in imagination and a search for beauty and intensity, as ‘balm to the soul.’

 

From the outset, 'Balm' makes a commanding and powerful presence, with thunderous cello seamlessly melting into more gentle, serene soundscapes. Eerily delicate and patient, Steiri maneuvers through tranquil and slightly unhinged juxtapositions, reaching a pinnacle in the captivating and otherworldly triptych that closes the album's first half. Lucid cello and synth are meticulously woven, often with a feeling of effortlessness. Balm soon picks up a throbbing and propulsive pace, all the while holding onto a sense of looseness and experimentation. The album culminates in a mesmerizing union of cello and santur, a compelling last trip into the unknown, before dissipating into the ether.

 

Steiri has a background writing music for installations, performance, video art and film. She is a member of improvised music/art group Ectopia ('life/section,' 2017, Wysing Polyphonic) and has collaborated with artists on releases such as 'sex robot' (with Sidsel Meineche Hansen, 2019, self-released) and 'Future Chorus' (with Eleni Ikoniadou, 2023, Maenads/ Hypermedium).

Procession (teaser)
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