SHHE details new album, THALASSA

THALASSA follows SHHE's 2024 project DÝRA, and highlights the voice of the Mediterranean Sea at a point of ecological, political, and existential crisis. "Katávasi" arrives as the first preview of the work, alongside a video with visuals made by Nurah Farahat.

THALASSA is a six-part ambient collection named after the Greek primordial sea goddess developed over three years. The work draws inspiration from Shaw's time in Alexandria, Egypt, as a “Musician in Residence” at B’sarya as part of a project supported by the British Council in 2022. Although she was originally commissioned to record the Mediterranean using hydrophones, Shaw was unable to capture the sound of the sea directly due to the military presence on Alexandria's coastline that prohibited sound recording. The songs were recorded entirely using a custom-built modular synthesiser, designed by SHHE, and developed over two years with Scotland-based electronic producer Ben Chatwin. THALASSA now arrives as Shaw's fully-realised depiction of the sounds of the sea.

Discussing her relationship with the water and how it influenced the songs, Shaw explains: “Alexandria is fascinating. It's a city that is fated to be underwater - the city has already sunk twice - and by 2050, it's predicted that a third of Alexandria will be underwater or uninhabitable. I've lived my whole life in Scotland on the opposite banks of the same estuary - where the River Tay meets the North Sea. The project was an opportunity to research commonalities between both Alexandria and my home city of Dundee - where it’s also predicted that parts will be underwater in my lifetime. I began to explore our personal relationship with water; how we respond to change, to emergency, to crisis, to loss, how we accept that our existence is entirely dependent on and at the mercy of the sea.”

THALASSA artwork

THALASSA tracklist

"Pneuma"
"Katávasi"
"Allásso"
"Emfánisi"
"Peras"
"Anodos"