Pressure Drop: New Album from Sophie Sirota on Coastal Electronauts

The debut album from Sophie Sirota, Pressure Drop, will be released on 24th October 2025 by the Coastal Electronauts label. It will be available on LP, CD, and digital formats.

Title: Pressure Drop
Artist: Sophie Sirota
Release Date: 2025-10-24
Genres: Ambient, Avant-garde, Contemporary Classical, Drone, Electronica, Experimental Music
Label: Coastal Electronauts
Description: Violist Sophie Sirota announces her debut album, Pressure Drop. Compositions built from electric viola and effects. Out 24 Oct 2025 on Coastal Electronauts.

The material for the album developed from a series of live performances starting in early 2023. Sirota began performing at monthly events hosted by Coastal Electronauts in Whitstable, Kent, using an electric viola and effects pedals. The commitment to create a new piece for each event led to the body of work on the album. She states that “every piece has been created with the feel of a live performance in the recording process.”

With the exception of the final track, ‘glitch’, the album’s compositions were constructed solely from electric viola, voice, and effects pedals. The recordings combine atmospheric elements with abrasive textures. The track ‘glitch’ is described as Sirota‘s first work incorporating beats and software, undertaken while her viola was being serviced.

Sophie Sirota is a violist, singer, and composer with classical training. She began session work while at music college and subsequently formed the agency The Wrecking Crew. Her professional history includes work as a musician, arranger, and live performer with artists such as Paul Weller, Kim Deal, Tindersticks, Beth Orton, and Ed Harcourt. She has also worked with 4-Hero, D’Influence, Gabrielle, arranger Robert Kirby, and visual artists Jeremy Millar and Sadie Hennessy. In the mid-1990s, she played electric viola in the band Dust.

A video for the opening track, ‘holding tension’, has been produced with video artist @diz_qo. It is the first of a planned trilogy of videos for the album. Of the track’s theme, Sirota says: “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.” She notes the use of Chase Bliss pedals in the piece’s development, with a glitching pattern from the Onward pedal forming its foundation.

Sirota describes the album as “an outpouring of ideas that have been swirling around in my head for the last two or three decades.” She cites musical influences including Björk, PJ Harvey, Pixies, Massive Attack, Steve Reich, and Aphex Twin. Additional formative listening came from her father’s record collection, which included Miles Davis, Ravi Shankar ragas, Vaughn Williams, Shostakovitch, Pink Floyd, John Adams, and Tomita‘s Snowflakes Are Dancing.

Pressure Drop is the second album in a series from the Coastal Electronauts label.

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