About the release

On Stances of Stasis, Ï Î constructs a music of stasis: movement within immobility, or immobility through movement. Across its three movements, beatings, glissandi, breathing patterns, repetitions, and slow developments form structures that seem to stand still while remaining in constant internal motion. This musical language is rooted in De Clerck’s Telescopic Aulos of Atlas, his contemporary reimagining of the ancient Greco-Roman aulos. The instrument comprises two double-reed pipes of nested metal tubing, played simultaneously. It has no finger holes; instead, De Clerck changes the pitch of each pipe by extending or contracting its telescoping sections. This design naturally lends itself to glissandi and beating tones, which Guaita Igual’s viola extends through fragile harmonics, double stops, and sustained sonorities.

Images of breath and ocean waves capture one aspect of this music: sounds return in related forms, always recognisable yet never quite the same. Yet this organic imagery is only one side of the picture. The music also possesses an archaic monumentality, as though its ephemeral waves had been purified into timeless Romanesque arches. De Clerck’s frequent use of circular breathing similarly transforms the physical movement of breath into an impression of continuity, blurring movement into stasis. Within its sometimes dense waves of blended tone, intimations of harmonic motion and melody emerge fleetingly, like voices that seem to form in the sound of a waterfall. Minute microtonal shifts occasionally open into sudden clearings of harmonic revelation and quiet ecstasy. Stasis becomes ec-stasis: music for forgetting time and forgetting oneself.

About the artists:

Ï Î is the duo of aulos player Lukas De Clerck and violist Victor Guaita Igual. Their practice centres on timbral and textural fusion, perceptual ambiguity, expanded harmonic fields, and the suspension of time. Their previous recordings include SALT A, a postcard album published by Futura Resistenza in 2021, and a recording of Sarah Davachi’s Diptych, commissioned for Ï Î and included in her Book of Carols CD box set (Late Music, 2026).

Lukas De Clerck is a Brussels-based musician and researcher whose practice centres on the aulos, the ancient Greco-Roman double pipe, which disappeared from musical practice more than a thousand years ago. After years of making reeds and performing on replicas, he designed a contemporary version of the instrument, the Telescopic Aulos of Atlas, through which he explores microtonality, psychoacoustics, and sound texture. Driven by playful curiosity, De Clerck invents what was never found rather than attempting to preserve what was. He has performed at festivals including Rewire, Sonic Acts, Meakusma, Sonic Protest, and Archipel. He joined the SHAPE+ roster in 2024, and his first solo LP, The Telescopic Aulos of Atlas, was released by Ideologic Organ that year.

Victor Guaita Igual is a violist whose work centres on new music and other forms of sonic exploration. He frequently works with ensembles including Ensemble Modern, Ictus, and Klangforum Wien, while developing solo projects and collaborations with artists such as Jacob Storer,  Clara Levy, Seijiro Murayama, Charlie Usher, Clara de Asís, Maya Bennardo, dejana sekulić, Carlo Sampaolesi, and Tom Hallet. His recent recordings include Ryoji Ikeda’s music for strings with Ensemble Modern (The Vinyl Factory, 2026), Joanna Bailie’s 1979 with Ictus Ensemble (Vlek, 2026), and Songs of Erosion with Clara Levy (Discreet Editions, 2026). He is a Maker (artist in residence) at Concertgebouw Brugge for the 2026–28 seasons.

Credits:

Music by Lukas De Clerck and Victor Guaita Igual

Recorded by Ludo Engels at Overtoon, Brussels in August 2025.

Mixed and mastered by Frédéric Alstadt / Ångström Mastering.

Cover artwork: unpainted fragment from Ogata Kōrin’s Design of Flowers in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,

Inside sleeve artwork by Jacob Storer.

Album design by Kristofer Svensson. 

Tracklist:

1. STASIS I 19′59″

2. STASIS II 11′51″

3. STASIS III 20′29″