Photo: Evan Jenkins

Circuit Des Yeux explodes into a mass of gigantic feeling on “Sculpting the Void”

Haley Fohr recently announced -io, her sixth album as Circuit Des Yeux and first for Matador, which is arriving in October. Following on from lead single “Dogma”, she today shares a second taster called “Sculpting the Void”, with these words of introduction:

What is Sculpting the Exodus?
It is devotion. It is the well.
It is my grandmother going into hospice, writhing in pain.
It is reality exploding on an island made of sand. It is depression and the isolation of deep grief.
I was trapped in a choir of myself with nothing to grab onto but echoes of past selves.
It obliterated my heart until the only working parts of me were the appendages furthest from my mind.
A few notes here
A couple notes there…
The fingers were working when nothing else could. And I was fantasizing of leaving like I always do…

Some emotions are too big to contain, perhaps they’re so overwhelming that they distort your perspective of reality – especially grief and pain. That seems to be where we find Fohr on “Sculpting The Exodus”, as a percolating harpsichord and cinematic organ underscore her operatic introduction; “is the signal fading or are my ears betraying?” As disembodied choral voices start to drop in, they are beautiful, but only seem to add more confusion to the atmosphere – like all the different distractions going on around Fohr’s numb bubble. Her voice remains placid but her words become more anxious, then an enormous slab of vampiric synth cuts through everything, Fohr’s commanding voice floats above, flanked by overpowering orchestral arrangements. “The signal goes on repeating” she repeats, a cryptic message that seems to hold within it a whole galaxy of feeling, especially as the drums rise, the string arrangement flourishes and “Sculpting The Exodus” reaches its grandiloquent and engulfing finale.

Watch the video for “Sculpting The Exodus” below or find the song on streaming platforms.

Circuit Des Yeux’s new album -io comes out on October 22 through Matador (pre-order/save). You can find her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.