Chamberwoman – Slow Cosmic Demise

Tasmanian-based artist Chamberwoman (Natalie Cardoza) returns with new single ‘Slow Cosmic Demise’, a deceptively bright entry point into the darker undercurrent of her forthcoming debut album, due this October.

Natalie describes it as “a call for spiritual aid, in a time of great existential upheaval”. Blending alternative folk pop with a psychedelic edge, the track moves with an uplifting pulse and ethereal atmosphere, whilst the lyrics pull it off-centre, grappling with mortality and existence.

In Natalie’s words, ‘Slow Cosmic Demise’ is “a spiritual sing-along in our own generation of great, cosmic turmoil.

Originally from Brisbane, it wasn’t until her early twenties that Natalie taught herself guitar and songwriting whilst living in Mparntwe/Alice Springs for the majority of the decade. Shaped by the travel, art and experiences that feed her writing, her work sits with discomfort and the hard questions that follow. After relocating to Tasmania in 2022, she began Chamberwoman, a name that holds multiple personal meanings.

“A chamber can be so many things, somewhere you stow away belongings or the four chambers of the heart,” she says. It also nods to chamber music, written for intimate gatherings, and to the need to feel close to others. “I think the pull towards isolation has become so strong that I feel the need to make melodramatic music that people can absorb through their skin, by being in a room with each other, because there’s actually a great need for it,” she says.

On the recording side, ‘Slow Cosmic Demise’ came together from a handful of separate ideas that eventually clicked into one. It was tracked with Chamberwoman’s musical partner Cornelius Cooper, who recorded it as well as played bass and lead guitar. As the second release from the album’s B-side, it expands on her previous singles, building into an intense bridge that hints at the record’s long-form ambition, bright on the surface before it turns.

Since launching the project, Chamberwoman has performed at Dark Mofo, including supporting Folk Bitch Trio at Albert Hall. Tasmanians can catch her live for the album launch on October 31 at The Grand Poobah in Nipaluna/Hobart.

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