‘Chrysalis’ is a new album by award-winning electronic musician and sound designer Carolyn Fok.
It works not just as an immersive sounding collection of analog ambient pieces, but also as a powerful sonic meditation on the mystery of life’s emergence, both on a cosmic scale and within the human experience.
On what is a conceptual yet emotional release, Fok explores the parallels between the birth of life in the universe and her own journey of creating life as a woman. Bringing both precision and a degree of vulnerability via its ambient passages, fractured rhythms and electronic textures, ‘Chrysalis’ unfolds with an often awe-inspiring, cinematic sheen.
Drawing on Fok’s fascination with cosmology, the album imagines the formative chaos of the early universe – chemical reactions, stars igniting, planets coalescing – juxtaposed with the equally miraculous transformation of a human being formed from near nothing. Inviting its listeners to consider the mystery of how life begins, whether from stardust or spirit, it speaks to the fragility of becoming, the courage it takes to carry and create, as well as the beauty of transformation.
Also recognised under her alias CYRNAI for contributions to electronica and the avant-garde since first releasing music in the mid-’80s, Fok brings decades of experience to ‘Chrysalis’. Channelling her legacy into what is a deeply personal work, it speaks to the quiet intensity of emergence and the mystery of creation.
‘Chrysalis’ has been mastered by ambient music luminary Robert Rich, gaining an added dimension through his sonic precision and deepening the album’s introspective journey across inner and cosmic space.
CHRYSALIS
TRACKLISTING
1 The Moment That Made A Universe (7:17)
2 Origin In Silence (3:24)
3 A Cradle Of Chaos (4:25)
4 Divine Savage (2:55)
5 Solitudes Codified (2:57)
6 Designing For Beauty (6:24)
7 Voice Within Mother (6:00)
8 Waiting In Celestial Wombs (4:48)
9 Telepathic Dreamland (3:58)
10 Coming To Light (2:45)
11 Near Time (4:59)
12 Clock Hands The Arrival (5:35)
Carolyn Fok is an Asian-American artist, writer, electronic and experimental music pioneer whose work spans over five decades since she first dabbled with her father’s TEAC recorder and home-made instruments. Swiftly developing a fascination for sound design, her early inspiration came from UK electronic artists such as Cabaret Voltaire and The Human League.
CHRYSALIS
new album
out 1st August 2025
(Memoir of Sound)
pre-save/add | Bandcamp
Under the alias CYRNAI, she began issuing solo records in the mid-80s while still in her teens, a period that also saw her playing in the San Francisco-based acts A State Of Mind, Trial and Rhythm & Noise. Her 1996 album ‘Transfiguration’ included contributions from avant-garde guitarist Elliot Sharp, the 2001 2xCD set ‘The Listener’ (released as Carolyn Fok) featured New Age artist Tim Story, while ‘Magic Realism’ (2011, again as Fok) included a collaboration with Grammy nominated guitarist Joaquin Lievano (Jean Luc Ponty, Zazen).
2018 saw the release of a deluxe 6xLP box set, ‘Cyrnai 1980-90’, on the darkwave label Dark Entries, with Fok also embarking on a project to release her vast archive of music via her website Memoir Of Sound and appear on Cherry Red’s ‘Third Noise Principle’ retrospective box set of US electronic music. It spanned 1975-1984 and was part of their ‘Close To The Noise Floor presents…’ series. This was followed by live shows alongside the likes of Morton Subotnick, Suzanne Ciani and Drew McDowall. She has also spoken on MUTEK festival panels and played dates in and around San Francisco. Her most recent releases as Carolyn Fok have been collaborations with astronomer and scientist Steve Bryson on the 2024 albums ‘Spacetime Canvas I & II, while she has released a well received 2025 album as CYRNAI entitled ‘Calamity Of Beauty’