Martyna Basta – Winged in Collapse
Polish sonic alchemist – composer, producer, and singer-songwriter – Martyna Basta has signed to 7K, the exploratory imprint of acclaimed dance/electronic label !K7 Records. Today, she announces her third album, Winged in Collapse, to be released on 15th May 2026.
Winged in Collapse is dedicated to dualities; the title itself is an image of a creature collapsing mid-flight. Basta positions softness beside sharpness, fragility beside resilience, exploring the poetic dualities of lullament: the evocative coming together of lullaby and lament. She captures the sensations of being held and suffocated, finding comfort and grief overlapping in inseparable ways. Heard clearest on “Hands Want To” and “You, My Nest”, these songs soothe and mourn in the same breath, offering the listener safety but hinting at danger. Throughout the album, contradictory textures converge, whispery vocals and classical instrumentation are pierced by sharp, metallic interruptions, expressing gentleness within the clamour and strength in vulnerability. These contradictions fuel the emotional engine of the record.
Winged in Collapse breathes with Basta’s classical musical training, chamber-inspired instrumentation that flirts with delicate pop elements. Basta pulls on influences from shoegaze to baroque ornamentation; “Sob and Moan” collides this old and new by intertwining harpsichord with Babyxsosa-inspired autotuned vocals. “Laid”, featuring New York duo LEYA, leans into an uneasy, ancient landscape as LEYA’s hymnal vocals glide over discordant strings.
Basta’s collaborators bring personal offerings to Winged in Collapse; on “2674”, Prestonian artist Rainy Miller’s poem is a meditation on peace and loss, softly cooed over fleeting flashes of rhythmic light. Swedish sound artist Felisha Ledesma’s contribution to “Guidelines” cuts the heavy tension with a beam of midsummer sunlight. Felisha recounts blurry memories of hot, heady afternoons; no details are certain, but the vision is warm and organic. The album’s closing track, “Say it Closely”, lifts the album out of the dark, a hopeful glimmer of light. james K’s sweet, Elizabeth Fraser-inspired vocals sigh over crunching footsteps. Basta says of the track: “This one feels like a quiet hymn, something whispered directly to someone you love.
Martyna Basta says of the album: “Winged in Collapse came from a place of inner rupture, one I chose to embrace. Mourning a world growing increasingly unfamiliar, shaped by forces that feel bent on destruction, I’ve found my vulnerability becoming a resilient force within me. The clash of the sharp and the tender became my guide. And within the weight, I discovered there is always a glimmer: an ember, a breath, a hand held in the dark.”
Through her tactile sound design and collaboration with art directors NA Service, Basta conjures a haunting musical and visual world as a whispered sonic diary: ornamented shapes, calligraphy, faded manuscripts, repaired objects, carrying age and detail. These motifs mirror the album’s themes of ritual and devotion. Laden with ornamentation and rot, Winged In Collapse remains resilient within its own decay.
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