The music of vocalist Alex Koi and cellist Kirin McElwain embodies synthesis of acoustic and electronic music, as well as composition and improvisation. Individually, we've performed with the likes of Mary Halvorson, This Will Destroy You, Trevor Dunn [Mr. Bungle, John Zorn, etc.], Post Malone, and Shara Nova to name a few.

We're extremely excited to have just recorded our debut album “Wake” in New York City with engineer Randall Dunn [Kali Malone, Oneohtrix Point Never, HBO’s “The Curse”]. This album was made possible with funding contribution from Young Arts.

“Wake” is expected for release in 2026, following an EP scheduled for Fall 2025.

Alex Koi is a vocalist, composer/producer, and improvising musician. Her music is the mystical translation between the privacy of her inner world and the somatic extrication of such. Through polyphonic narrative, ecstatic release, and coy murmurs, she bends between her diverse musical influences in the avant-garde, opera, Jazz, and electronic music. She is the vocalist and co-composer of saajtak, called “one of the most intriguing and unclassifiable bands in the country right now” [Tone Madison]. Centering the emotionality of the human experience, she creates an explosive sound that has been called “impossibly stunning” [Stereo Stickman], “primal and futuristic at the same time” [Current Magazine] and that “bends between operatic and punk rock” [Audiofemme]. 

Alex has had the privilege of collaborating with musicians, composers, visual artists, directors and dancers at venues such as Lincoln Center, the Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Joe's Pub, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival, and more. She recently played the combined role of Tracy Dunn/Jillian Gilchrist in the Off-Broadway production of "Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower", Toshi Reagon's theatrical adaptation of the beloved novel. Photo by Alex Brown. 

Kirin McElwain is a cellist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer working in the realms of experimental, improvised, contemporary classical, and popular music. In her own sound and compositional practice, she uses cello, modular synthesizer, and voice to explore the tension between formal structure and chaos, western classical harmony and noise, and ideas of “goodness” and “correctness. 

Her self-released debut EP, Viriditas, received praise from Foxy Digitalis and A Closer Listen, and received play on Electric Rabbit Radio Hour. In May of 2023, Kirin completed a residency at Elektron Musikstudion (Stockholm, SE) working with the halldorophone and Buchla 200 system to generate new material for a future solo release. She is currently working on her first full-length solo release. 

Trained as a classical cellist, Kirin is equally at home in concert halls, recording studios, and DIY venues. As a cellist, she has performed on various film and television scores (HBO, Gimlet Media, PBS, NPR Music, YouTube Music), contemporary artists (Post Malone, Ioanna Gika, This Will Destroy You), contemporary dance concerts (Claudia Schreier Company, Harlem Dance Theater, Triskelion Arts), mixed media installations (the MET, James Cohan Gallery, Neue Galerie), and traditional classical and contemporary/new music concerts (Carnegie Hall, National Sawdust, Kimmel Center). Photo by Alice Plati.