The Great Pyramid of Giza has witnessed countless pilgrims, archaeologists, and mystics over millennia, but few have approached its hallowed chambers with the precise intent of Egyptian artist Alaa Yousry. Operating under the moniker Cerpintxt, she ventured into the King’s Chamber not as a tourist, but as a sonic archaeologist, armed with recording equipment and a vision that would reshape her understanding of space, sound, and the Arabic language itself.
The result of this expedition is Refugees of the Symbolic Network, an 11-track album set for release on August 1, 2025, that represents perhaps the most ambitious fusion of ancient architecture and contemporary electroacoustic composition to emerge from the experimental music underground. Supported by PRSB Open Fund and Help Musicians Next Level, this work transcends the typical boundaries between field recording, vocal manipulation, and spatial audio to create funeral music that exists within the convolution reverb of the King’s Chamber itself.
The album’s genesis lies in a deceptively simple yet profoundly complex process. During her site visit to the pyramid, Cerpintxt captured the impulse response of the King’s Chamber—essentially recording the room’s acoustic signature. This granite chamber, with its high quartz content, functions as a natural resonator, its walls having absorbed and reflected sound waves for over four millennia. By mapping this acoustic fingerprint onto her compositions, Cerpintxt has created a sonic time machine that places listeners within the spectral footprint of one of humanity’s most enigmatic architectural achievements.
Refugees of the Symbolic Network serves as Cerpintxt‘s investigation into Arabic surrealist poetics of exile, employing an entropic speech system that deconstructs language itself. Working with selected excerpts, she layers utterances and organums across multiple cycles until new languages emerge—syllabic melodies that seem to bypass conscious understanding and speak directly to some more primal form of communication.
This process reflects Cerpintxt‘s broader artistic philosophy, which seeks to dissolve the parasitic structures of language and linear constructs of temporality. Her approach involves cut-ups and dialectical chaos magic, techniques that fragment and reassemble meaning until new forms of expression crystallize. The pyramid’s acoustics become an active collaborator in this process, reshaping syllables and unearthing utterances that have lain dormant for millennia.
Opening with “Ithami Asasatuha was-Juthoor,” the journey moves through compositions “The Fourth Exile,” “Acid Rain in the Nucleus of the Stone,” and “Aseeran fi Masane’ al-Helm.” Each track represents a station in what Cerpintxt conceptualizes as a passage through the underworld—not unlike the journey described in ancient Egyptian pyramid texts, but relocated to the contemporary experience of exile and cultural displacement.
The album’s sound palette draws from Cerpintxt‘s extensive arsenal of textural counterparts, including wind instruments, broken turntablism, tape recorders, and both granular and modular synthesis. For this particular work, she’s enlisted a remarkable roster of collaborators: Nina Hitz from The Killimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble contributes cello, Robin Hayward from the Microtonal Tuba Project provides microtonal tuba, and Youssef Hassan anchors the low end with bass. Ruben Sonnoli handles keys and synthesizer, while the visual dimension is realized through album art and music videos by Cornelia Pierce (Primae Materia) and Daniela Huerta (Baby Vulture).
The technical execution matches the conceptual ambition. Tommy Wallwork handled mixing duties, while Manuel Scaramuzzino provided mastering. Perhaps most crucially, Carl Smith and Tom Middleton were responsible for the impulse response recording that forms the album’s acoustic foundation—a process that required not just technical expertise but a deep understanding of how ancient architecture might be awakened as a living instrument.
This intersection of ancient wisdom and contemporary technology positions Refugees of the Symbolic Network within a growing field of archaeoacoustic research, where scientists and artists collaborate to understand how our ancestors designed spaces for optimal sonic experience. The King’s Chamber, Cerpintxt suggests, was never merely a tomb but an oracle—a space designed to transform voice into something approaching the divine.
The album arrives at a moment when questions of displacement, identity, and belonging have taken on urgent global significance. Cerpintxt‘s work offers no easy answers, but rather a method for sitting with these questions in a space that transcends ordinary time. Her “refugees” are not merely political exiles but anyone who has found themselves cut off from the symbolic networks that once provided meaning and belonging.
As Refugees of the Symbolic Network prepares for its August release, it raises profound questions about the relationship between space and consciousness, between ancient wisdom and contemporary crisis. Can the acoustic properties of a 4,500-year-old chamber really transform our understanding of language and exile? And what might we discover about ourselves when we allow our voices to mingle with the echoes of eternity?
For deeper insights, connect with Cerpintxt:
https://www.cerpintxt.com
https://www.instagram.com/cerpintxt
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