Their third album ‘The Elevator Child’ is set for release via Earshift Music on May 1st, 2026.

The Elevator Child is full of contradiction, and perhaps that was always going to be the case. The duo’s namesake is itself pluralist in nature – at once soft and hard, full and voidal, exposed and shielded. That duality continues to shape the project led by Helen Svoboda and Andrew Saragossi, whose work resists genre molds while cultivating unconventional, story-driven sound worlds.

Formed in 2018 while living in the Netherlands and studying extended techniques, the pair built their collaboration around exploring the extremities of bass and saxophone within an abstracted songform. Living and studying abroad proved fundamental, broadening their perspectives on improvisation and authenticity. Each release has traversed minimalism, experimental jazz, art pop and free improvisation, while maintaining an intimate, physical core.

The Elevator Child was arrived at through improvisation and serendipitous lyric writing. The fragments that make up each track are undeniably of our time – absurd, erratic, existential and defiantly hopeful – assembled into a vivid critique of a culturally and spiritually confused world. Yet the record is not bound by nihilism. Amid chaos and collapse, there is also redemption: a yearning for something cleaner, more open.

This is complex, fascinating music – but it comes over easily. It feels alive, bright and very new. As on previous releases, Svoboda and Saragossi extend the sonic possibilities of their instruments in novel ways, creating seven distinctive sound worlds. The deeply human, textural sounds they conjure are then twisted and augmented through electronic manipulation by producer Pat Telfer.

Physicality remains central. Saragossi’s tenor sax is often used percussively, breath sliced into hollow depth, while Svoboda deconstructs the bass into textured friction alongside a clear, direct vocal presence. Just as a genre seems to settle, the music shifts sideways or dissolves entirely.

Previously an acoustic duo, Meatshell expands here into a more heavily electronic terrain, reinvigorating the project with a sense of discovery. The result is rhythmically charged, at times pop-inflected, yet structurally unpredictable – music that may funnel the listener through a grim fun-house, but ultimately grants permission to breathe.