Sophie Sirota has an album, Pressure Drop, on the way. The debut album by the viola player, singer and experimental music composer is out on 24th October 2025, she’s just released a new video for a piece called holding tension (Sophie prefers lower case for the title of the piece, not us being slack this time). We’ll explore the album in a moment, for today, we’ll just enjoy the track and the rather fine film that goes with the piece of music…
“With constant digital chatter in the background – wondering “Who are you? Who am I?”—life can feel like it’s on the verge of snapping, like a taut wire. Processing my viola through a series of Chase Bliss pedals was instrumental in shaping this piece. The shifting metre, sparked by the glitching pattern from the Onward pedal, became the foundation for its creation”.
Here’s the aforementioned new film collaboration with video artist Diz Qo, which forms part of a trilogy created specifically for the new album…
Sophie Sirota is a classically trained violist, singer and composer. She began working as a session violist while studying at music college, forming The Wrecking Crew agency soon after. She has collaborated as a musician, live performer, arranger and composer with some of the most respected names in modern music, including Paul Weller, Kim Deal, Tindersticks, Beth Orton, Ed Harcourt, 4-Hero, D’Influence, Gabrielle and Robert Kirby, as well as the visual artists Jeremy Millar and Sadie Hennessy.
This latest chapter in Sirota’s musical journey began in early 2023; dusting off her electric viola (last used in mid-‘90s trip-hop band Dust) and a few effects pedals, she performed at one of the monthly meet-up sessions hosted by Coastal Electronauts in Whitstable, Kent. This incentivised her to create a new piece to perform at every event, expanding both her pedalboard and creative output in the process.
Her debut album, ‘Pressure Drop’, is the result. A collection of sonic explorations shaped by two years of live performance and experimentation, both in Whitstable and at other events, she explains that “every piece has been created with the feel of a live performance in the recording process.”
Aside from the album’s final track, ‘glitch’, all have been composed using just electric viola, her voice and effects pedals, creating atmospheric soundscapes with abrasive, noisy textures – an interplay that mirrors both internal chaos and meditative calm.
A video for album opener ‘holding tension’ is available HERE as the first in a collaborative trilogy with video artist @diz_qo created specifically to promote ‘Pressure Drop’. Explaining the track, Sirota ponders: “with constant digital chatter in the background – wondering ‘Who are you? Who am I?’ – life can feel like it’s on the verge of snapping, like a taut wire.” As for the music, she adds: “processing my viola through a series of Chase Bliss pedals was instrumental in shaping this piece.”
In regard to ‘Pressure Drop’ as a whole, she thinks of it as “an outpouring of ideas that have been swirling around in my head for the last two or three decades. I was lucky to have access to a wide range of music to inspire me from childhood, as my Dad’s record collection ranged from Miles Davis, through Ravi Shankar ragas, Vaughn Williams (‘Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis’ is one of my earliest musical memories), Shostakovitch, Pink Floyd and John Adams. Special mention must also go to the Tomita album of Debussy piano music, ‘Snowflakes Are Dancing’, as I was fascinated by the range of sounds on it but had no idea what modular synths were or that they would come to play such a big part in my life!”
As for her primary musical influences, Sirota states that “these include Björk, PJ Harvey, Pixies, Massive Attack, Steve Reich, Aphex Twin and drum & bass.”
Following the success of a compilation album issued by Coastal Electronauts in late 2024, ‘Pressure Drop’ is the second in a series of releases that will feature regular performers at their popular monthly electronic music sessions in Whitstable, Kent.
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