The title of Evita Manji’s debut album Spandrel? refers to an evolutionary quirk that lacks any clear or obvious function. “It’s something that may be a byproduct of our evolution that does not really serve a purpose nevertheless it’s a part of us,” they explain. Written during a period of immense loss – including the sudden death of their partner SOPHIE and an outbreak of wildfires across their native Athens – they turn to the concept to ask which elements of ourselves are essential to our survival and which of them are simply excess. “The primary connection between the album and a spandrel was music, like if music is a spandrel, nevertheless it’s the one thing keeping me alive, it’s someway crucial for my very own evolution.”

Having recently relocated to London, the Greek musician is an element of a latest wave of artists hailing from Athens, where they immersed themselves within the underground scene from the age of 15. Weaving together contemporary club music, baroque pop and experimental soundscapes, the album explores themes of loss on each a private and universal level. “I feel like we experience loss day-after-day. With climate change we lose a lot, we’re killing a lot life,” they explain. “From once I began making music, I desired to make songs to precise this pain. I just all the time cared more about animals and nature than the humankind.”

Within the wake of loss, Manji found themselves turning to the hard truths of quantum physics, biology and “anything that has to do with existence and may provide some type of proof”. “Before my partner passed, I used to be more spiritual. But when she passed, I had such a necessity to seek out answers and understand how the world and ourselves work – I couldn’t count a lot on spirituality anymore,” they are saying. It was here that they began honing in on black holes as a metaphor for rebirth: “Possibly once you die, you simply lose your entire energy, you turn into nothing and who knows if slowly you bounce back and reappear on Earth like in a unique form, perhaps the identical form, perhaps not on Earth.” Questions of free will, whether our actions are pre-determined or not, also surface on “Lies?”: “It‘s questioning whether this sense of control over ourselves and our bodies and our minds is just an illusion.“

Listening to Spandrel?, there’s a sense of something far greater than us; universal emotions resembling love and loss are pitted against the fundamental immensity of nature and the cosmos in a way that feels otherworldly. Manji’s raw lyrics – visceral images of burning insides and black holes – are rendered in cyborgian tones and fused with synthetic string arrangements and metallic sound design, while rigorously constructed soundscapes crash and collide against each other as if anchored by an unbearable weight. “Will you continue to be there/ waiting for me/ until I get the strength to turn into matter again?” they utter on “Black Hole”, while “Body/Prison” navigates the duality of existence (“A body that is not mine / and I can not escape”) over trancey synths and subsonic bass.

“Sonically, I feel it definitely reflects the polar opposites inside me because I do like very soft music, very ethereal and loving music. But then I also like harder, harsher sounds,” they explain. “It is also this battle between technology and nature and the longer term and the past.” There’s a way of movement to the music, a continuing feedback loop of something giving way and becoming one again. “I would like my music to feel organic and alive, like an organism,” they are saying. “To me the sounds that you just hear in my music, other than the melodies, the lyrics and the percussions, are like little sonic organisms.” It’s this disassembling of natural and artificial, past and future that enables Manji to precise the inexpressible, and the way, like a black hole, collapse can bring about latest beginnings.

Spandrel? is out now

Join Dazed Club and be a part of our world! You get exclusive access to events, parties, festivals and our editors, in addition to a free subscription to Dazed for a yr. Join for £5/month today.