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. 

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'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.

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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).

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