St James Garlickhythe, London, UK
Photo by 00bars

Tonight’s edition of Boundary Condition, an event series curated by the Egyptian artist Alaa Yousry aka Cerpintxt, centres around the launch of her new album Refugees Of The Symbolic Network. The record’s identity is rooted in an impulse response (a process that allows you to replicate the reverb of a given space) gathered at the King’s Chamber in the Pyramid of Giza. Its sonic footprint was then applied to compositions based around texts by Izz al-Din Manasirah and Sargon Boulus, poets who worked with mythology and surrealist imagery to explore Middle Eastern identity. Their deconstructed verses are transposed onto a spectral netherworld populated by, as Yousry notes in The Wire 499, a “collective of individuals who have been systemically oppressed and exiled out of existence”.

This transposition happens in the physical space too. Reconstructed by Sir Christopher Wren after the original medieval building was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, St James Garlickhythe boasts an opulent decor, large rounded windows and an impossibly tall ceiling. As the sun sets and the theatrical lighting intensifies, the impression that you’re lying entombed at the foot of a great monument becomes more pervasive. It’s an appropriate setting for contemplating with a soundtrack to match. mortality –

Heavy drones flow out of the PA and grow perceptibly louder as the audience file into the pews. Recordings of rainfall indicate the start of the opening set by BEORHTA, who walks through the nave holding a wind instrument shaped like three terracotta papayas fused at the stems. The ceramic innato flute emits haunting tones that counterpoint the masonry rattling bass at the climax of the ritualistic performance. The focal point is BEORHTA’s voice, which fills every crevice of the church with sorrow and is informed by caoineadh, the Gaelic Celtic tradition of vocal lament for the dead.

Plasma-like projections are cast on the walls behind Daniela Huerta, who co-created the artwork for Refugees Of The Symbolic Network, and performs pieces from her recent Soplo album. Created in part from soundtracks for films by the Colombian artist Iván Argote, Huerta combines ambiguous pulses and disembodied voice into a soundscape that is embedded with unease. She uses the SOMA Pipe, a voice-activated synthesizer, to augment her vocals into a multitude of blazing fractals while shifting drones contribute to the overall sense of disquiet.

Cerpintxt is billed between the above performers. Yousry is joined by pianist Ruben Sonnoli and cellist Nina Hitz (formerly of The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble), both of whom appear prominently on her album. The start is unamplified and unannounced. Sonnoli tinkers away at piano keys at the back of the church, while Hitz is hidden somewhere near the pulpit, holding steady a disconcerting drone. Yousry, meanwhile, layers whispered intonations like a stream of sinful confessions.

The sounds connect in a diagonal spatial formation, making good use of the building’s acoustics, but the unamplified instruments soon give in to Yousry’s dominating electronic set-up. Hitz makes her way to the chancel, bowing on a piece of aluminium foil to mirror shimmering feedback. Sonnoli soon joins her on keyboards as Yousry’s voice slithers around stretched and distorted samples, and the trio continue fully amplified. While there is an element of stasis to their sound, like the remnants of dreams that stalk your waking life, the atmosphere is designed to evoke the an ushering into a dark eternal subterranean realm.

Ilia Rogatchevski
Originally published by The Wire, October 2025