Apophasis
Apophasis is a New York City-based duo, made up of Georgia Wartel Collins (originally from Gothenburg) and Devin Brahja Waldman. The band’s message is shaped by love and rebellion. Today, they announce their self-titled full-length, out October 16, 2026 via Fast Speaking Music, the Waldman family label helmed by experimental poet aunt, and longtime activist, Anne Waldman.
They have also shared the single “See You In Hell.” Rollicking guitar chords and a pounding groove offset faded vocals, warning against manipulation. It is spectral, yet insistent.
On the single, Georgia Wartel Collins shares: “As I was writing “See You In Hell,” I liked how the intervals of the melody sounded against the chords. When showing the song to Devin on guitar, I was humming the melody without any lyrics. As Devin was listening, he thought he heard the words “See You In Hell” during the chorus. This became the starting point of the song’s message. Whether “hell” has an actual physical location or not is not the point of the song. It’s about how humans create hell realms of suffering when they believe in lies.”
Apophasis’ self-titled debut album was born out of an ever-evolving collaboration between musicians Georgia Wartel Collins and Devin Brahja Waldman. The two met in 2023 in Cologne while touring together with the jazz group Brahja. Collins then joined Waldman in New York City months later. Soon after, Collins asked Waldman to play drums in a rock outfit that she had begun envisioning and writing songs for. Now two and a half years later, Collins and Waldman have written dozens of songs together, with Collins handling the music and Waldman the lyrics.
In June 2025, Apophasis went into Laurel Roads Studios on 19th Street in Manhattan to work with recording engineer Miles Edwards. After several days of recording, Collins continued layering overdubs from home, with Waldman mixing and mastering the album. Collins brings a fierce electric guitar sound as well as a driving electric bass aesthetic (for the recordings) and a gritty octave pedal foundation (for the live shows), while contributing a haunting vocal presence to the band’s unrelenting sound. Waldman, on the other hand, wields drums that emphasize both the trance-like and urgent quality of the music.
On October 16th, 2026, the label Fast Speaking Music will release Apophasis’ debut record. Founded by Waldman’s aunt, poet Anne Waldman, and cousin, Ambrose Bye, Fast Speaking Music has been releasing poetry, jazz, interdisciplinary art, rock and roll, and experimental music for nearly 20 years: featuring the works of Amiri Baraka, Clark Coolidge, Meredith Monk, Laurie Anderson, Thurston Moore, Akilah Oliver, and many more.
Apophasis’ debut album is meant to be a mirror held up to a world unravelling. “See You In Hell,” for example, tracks not only the culpability of those who bully and deceive, but also the complicity of those who follow their lead. It’s an outcry for humanity to awaken and reclaim the freedom to say no to the blind obedience demanded by power. When first showing the song to Waldman, Collins began humming the melody. During the chorus, it sounded to Waldman as if Collins was saying “See You In Hell.” From there, they fleshed out the rest of the song with the concept of a hellscape created by those who believe in ruling class spells.
Similarly, when Collins was writing the song “Kingdom is Within,” it sounded to Waldman like Collins was humming the lyrics “the kingdom is within you.” Following the inspiration of this lyric, Waldman wrote lyrics meant to convey the message that all human beings are born with the right to be free from domination.
“In The Silence” explores the theme of a social climate that normalizes avoidance of troubling information; and the dangerous path that this sets a society down. “Crunched Together” is a meditation on people’s collective karma: the aggregate worldwide effects of everyone’s behavior combined.
In the song “Hold My Hand,” Apophasis explores some essential mysteries of our existence. Is there a creator? Is there an underlying intelligence or source consciousness that pervades the multiverse? Is reincarnation real? If so, would your soul be ready to leave planet earth at the point of your body’s death if you could? Or would you choose to reincarnate on earth to make up for mistakes and losses or to reconnect with loved ones?
The song “Get It Together” is meant to pose urgent questions about widespread complicity in systems built on injustice. As insane and authoritarian as any given tyrant throughout history has been, tyrants could never accomplish their agendas without widespread participation: without willingness to work for their institutions, to obey their commands, to enforce their policies, to believe in their authority, and to support their political parties. Apophasis invites listeners to stop surrendering to bullies in uniforms and suits and instead think for themselves, not in cynicism but in conscience. It is rebellion wrapped in melody, resistance voiced through rhythm, and above all, a rallying cry to live, act, and love with fearless clarity.
Growing up in an artistic family in Gothenburg, Sweden, with a mother in performance art and a father in jazz, Georgia always had an ear to the ground for a wide variety of music. In addition to hearing live concerts at her father’s jazz club, shoe gaze, 60/70’s rock, grunge, punk, psychedelic rock, jazz, free jazz, and experimental music were all on heavy rotation in the Wartel Collins household. Though performing mostly jazz and improvised music throughout her career as an acoustic bassist, it was only a matter of time before she channeled her love for rock music into a project of her own. Instead of picking one genre as her sole form of expression, Collins has instead opted to create different projects to meet all her aesthetic needs, including an experimental electro pop project called Aila Mae and a solo acoustic bass project under her name.
Waldman, though mostly a jazz saxophonist, began playing drums before even picking up the sax. Waldman cut his teeth in the avant-garde, poetry, jazz, rock, and experimental circles, collaborating with Anne Waldman since the age of ten, and later with artists such as William Parker, Patti Smith, Malcolm Mooney, Abiodun Oyewole, Thurston Moore, Steve Shelley, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Heroes Are Gang Leaders, Land of Kush, Hamid Drake, Charles Hayward, Deb Googe, James Brandon Lewis, Luke Stewart, MoE, Maurice Louca, Nadah El Shazly, and Yoshiko Chuma. Waldman has also branched out into mixing and producing projects which he helped co-found, including Brahja, Notable Deaths, Kadef, EEG Coherence, Infinity Zero, and Radical Reversal—a project with poet Randall Horton which installs music studios inside U.S. prisons.
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