The Alchemical Sisters debut album finally arrives on 18 October, when Octo Octa and Eris Drew release their self-titled LP under that name via Interdimensional Transmissions. For a duo who are both creative and life partners, it is, by any measure, a long time coming.
A Cabin Bedroom, Hardware, and Spiritual Fire
The record was made in a home studio the pair built inside the bedroom of their New Hampshire cabin. In press materials, they describe the project as ‘psychedelic chaos, acid rollers, and big beat, channeled through hardware instruments and animated by love, touch, rhythm, and spiritual fire.’ That is not marketing copy dressed up in mystical language, it is a pretty accurate summary of where both artists have been heading for years, fusing floor-focused electronics with something more ceremonial and deeply felt.
According to Electronic Groove, the album was mixed by BMG at the Interdimensional Laboratory in Detroit, grounding the record in a city whose relationship with electronic music is foundational. The label, Interdimensional Transmissions, is itself a Detroit institution, so the whole project carries a clear geographical and philosophical lineage even as it was born in a New Hampshire cabin bedroom.
The eight-track tracklist reads as follows: ‘This Is How it Should Be Done’, ‘We’ve Seen Great Power’, ‘Double Acid’, ‘Anytime Sisters Slide’, ‘One 2 One 2 Three Four’, ‘Did You Know’, ‘Song for New Hampshire’, and ‘Why Not Dream’. The titles alone sketch the record’s range, the explicit location of ‘Song for New Hampshire’ sitting beside the propulsive shorthand of ‘Double Acid’, and the almost incantatory plainness of ‘One 2 One 2 Three Four’.
Alchemical Sisters Live: Dekmantel and Beyond
The Alchemical Sisters debut album lands in the middle of an active period for both artists. Maya Bouldry-Morrison released her own solo record, Sigils for Survival, earlier this year. She and Eris Drew recently performed one of their B2B DJ sets at Amsterdam’s Dekmantel festival, a slot that drew a festival report from Kiana Mickles. They are also set to play Making Time ∞ in Philadelphia next month.
It is worth taking a moment to register what this record represents in their shared body of work. Octo Octa and Eris Drew have been performing together, releasing music separately, and building a following that spans underground club culture and something considerably warmer and more communal than that framing usually implies. A proper joint album under the Alchemical Sisters name is the record people in those circles have been waiting for, and the cabin-built, Detroit-mixed origin story fits the duo’s ethos exactly: intimate in creation, rooted in a specific electronic tradition, and uninterested in doing things any way but their own.
The self-titled LP is out 18 October on Interdimensional Transmissions.
