Eclose is a process of reclamation, from grief to self liberation. There are moments for inward reflection and space for communal understanding, as well as points of repose, all presented in a coherent, rich, and textured musical landscape that speaks to a universal emotional experience. The 10-track EP, now presented on exude records, charts a journey of evolution through sisterhood – representing individual and collective narratives of emancipation from “an apathy so profound it mirrors death” (track 2. I Felt Nothing) into a space where we have the courage to “realign, recenter, and redefine” (track 8. My Mind).

Recorded at their shared home, with no budget or access to a professional studio, the music consists of live vocals, flute, and found instruments manipulated into various forms, combined with spoken poetry, samples, field recordings, and electronic elements from both synths and modular, leaving the listener with a diverse palette of sounds ranging from the deeply resonant to the transcendent and divine.

Neonate, the first track, is built by MaXXXim almost entirely from S3BA’s voice and the listener experiences a sense of awakening from a sea of primordial energy that leads our ear to the deep expression of hopelessness in Hḗrā’s poem I Felt Nothing. However, in The Cocoon Calls we start to hear a wider use of textures and colours, including extended techniques on both flute and voice, and insect-like electronic elements, mimicking the sonic world one might experience as a transhuman larvae in the womb. 

The liquidity that pervades the first half of the work is further expanded in The Cove, Our Tide, as a softness enters the sound, and the ocean of energy transmutes into the warm, calm shores of new experience as we land in the affirmation of My Femininity. This track is both an expression of the deeply personal experience of the poet and speaker Hḗrā, but also reflective of transfemme solidarity as the musical elements created by her sisters interweave around the voice as an embodiment of the “wild fluid mixture” of divine feminine energy. 

Track 6, What It’s Like, is a meditative reflection, allowing us to take repose on our journey as we bathe in soft arpeggiated synths and full chords that softly oscillate around us - the vocal sample is a nod to the history of feminist pop culture. I See Myself takes us to a new sound world, built from audio journals S3BA made throughout her transition; the whispered words feel like eyes, blinking open, mantras, before we hear the flute melody taken and manipulated from Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez; at once deeply romantic and dolorous. 

This duality of grieving for the person you were never allowed to be and the beauty of self recognition becomes even more poignant in My Mind, a track in which MaXXXim spoke publicly for the first time on her gender and transition. A deeply personal piece, we are taken from the minimal flutters of emergence into the ascension of someone spreading their nascent wings for the first time. 

The final two tracks open the piece up to the collective whole. Track 9, Her Wingspan is Infinite, which in the live performance included the radical act of a live HRT injection, demonstrates a soft power as we glide out of “the violence that we do to ourselves when we’re too afraid to be who we really are” into new possibilities of actualisation. Finally, the last bonus track Superstar is an ambient rework of the Love Inc. and Simone Denny song from the late 90’s and includes a sample of Trans+ activist and icon Marsha P. Johnson. We are reminded of the lineage of the Trans+ community whose stories we inherit and expand through our mythology of truth telling.

TRACKLIST

1. NEONATE
2. I FELT NOTHING
3. THE COCOON CALLS
4. THE COVE, OUR TIDE
5. MY FEMININITY
6. WHAT IT'S LIKE
7. I SEE MYSELF
8. MY MIND
9. HER WINGSPAN IS INFINITE
10. SUPERSTAR (BONUS)

CREDITS

Composed by MaXXXim & S3BA
Produced by MaXXXim
Vocals by S3BA
Flute by S3BA
Spoken Word by Hḗrā Santos, MaXXXim, & S3BA
Mastering by DAMIANA
Cover Artwork by Sam Nutt
Text by SEMARÃ
Label: exude records