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Experimental Art Rock Duo The Discretes coax listeners into a ritualistic trance on dark new album ‘In Sore Bless’

By Kath Galasso on September 9, 2026

Experimental Art Rock Duo The Discretes coax listeners into a ritualistic trance on their singularly haunting and unapologetically dark new album “In Sore Bless”, out on digital platforms August 11, 2026 via their independent label Oriflamme. Vinyl will be available September 15th. Best described as a musical ceremony and fearless exploration of monolithic spell-casting, The Discretes craft their own signature sound by weaving together elements of post-rock, noise rock, art rock, experimental, cinematic, ambient and trip hop influences. This mandala of inspiration coalesces to create a monolithic, untethered expression riddled with tension and unapologetic resistance.

“We find inspiration in the entropy of life. Sometimes we celebrate it and at other times we resist it. Art and music act like a bandpass filter, cut out the sound and fury and focus your attention on what moves you. Creativity is channeling energy to make your own bandpass filter and inspiration is the motivation to express ourselves and to take leaps of faith when doing so.”

Musically, “In Sore Bless” carries the spiritual power of speaking in tongues and retreating to the inner world through recognition of the falsehood of looking to the outer world for answers. There is something ancient being conjured by this truly unique duo who effortlessly seem to communicate a dark night of the soul. Fans of Portishead, Noveller, Blonde Redhead, Chelsea Wolfe and MONO will find solace in this bold and original collection.

“Music accompanies us throughout our lives. It’s a steady drip of inspiration in itself and there’s always so much to learn and explore. CECILIA’s art and singing inspire me.” – Ali Ayrik

The Discretes present themselves as completely vulnerable, naked even, and this is what makes them so easy to connect with. These are universal human stories told during a time when they are desperately needed. This bold duo greater than the sum of its parts is made up of CECILIA and Ali Ayrik. CECILIA is a globe-trotting (Montreal, NYC, Napoli, Paris) artist. Her music experiments with electronica, field recordings and ambient soundscapes as a canvas for her vocals and poetry. Ali is a NYC transplant and noise enthusiast turned recordist, merging diverse influences in layered structures of acoustic and electronic sounds.

“To me, writing and singing most often feels like entering into a conversation with invisible forces and the lingering aura of the dead — a dialogue with voices and archives that have deeply resonated with me. Throughout the record, you’ll find references, homages, and subtle nods to dead artists and writers I love.” – CECILIA

“With The Discretes, it’s the first time I’ve taken strictly the role of the singer, leaving all instrumental work to Ali. My intention was simply to bring the human story and the impulse of the voice. I found the process challenging and humbling. This is my first collaboration in more than ten years of working solo, so in a way it marks a first step toward sharing the creative space again. In my solo work, where I produce everything, I can let the vocals remain allusive or curate them with greater precision. Here I had to let go of that control. The voice is more exposed and in that nakedness, there is a direct, human strength. This also brought me back to the center of my voice and my research. At a time when my own music is becoming more minimal and stripped down, it was refreshing to work with Ali’s instrumentals that are rich, heavy, saturated and opening up to different energies.” – CECILIA

Watch the visionary official music video for lead single “Deep Noon”.
Stream on Spotify.
Pre-order the digital album via Bandcamp.

Musician Names/Instruments:
CECILIA – Vocals & lyrics, Ali – Instruments, Olivia Baldi – Cello on ICI
Producer Name(s): The Discretes

Tracklist:
01 Deep Noon, 02 Liquid Lips, 03 Remedium, 04 Hiding High, 05 Sable Noir, 06 ICI,
07 Wild Nights, 08 Blue Hour Pending

Websites:
Official Website: https://thediscretes.noise.love
Bandcamp: https://thediscretes.bandcamp.com
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheDiscretes

The Discretes Biography:
The Discretes is a duo consisting of CECILIA and Ali Ayrik. CECILIA is a globe-trotting (Montreal, New York, Napoli, Paris) artist who has been fascinated with sound since early childhood and making music from the moment she first strummed a guitar. Her music experiments with electronica, field recordings and ambient soundscapes. Her poetry explores personal narratives while questioning social constructs. CECILIA’s performances are frequently multimedia presentations in music venues and art galleries alike. She has performed across the U.S., Europe and Asia. Her most recent LP CHOEUR on Haunter Records was released in October of 2024 and followed by a European tour in 2025.

Ali Ayrik is a New York City transplant and noise enthusiast turned recordist. His interest in music took root at a young age, merging influences from the West as well as his native Türkiye. Once mesmerized by the spell of distortion he has followed a meandering path from instrument to studio, traversing through a 1001 noise-taqsims.

With In Sore Bless, CECILIA and Ali emerge as The Discretes, following and cultivating diverse veins of sound. Post-noise ballads, distilled jams, fragments of Anatolian-Trip-Hop and other genre-amalgams, all become a supplicant at St. Cecilia’s altar, praying to be guided by her voice. CECILIA sings in English, French and Italian, calling to an omnipresent yet elusive love, binding, repelling, fragile, transient, spiritual. Her lyrics are recounted over a background of synth drones, hand percussion, electronic textures and a variety of strings.

Additional Biographies:

CECILIA
Mélissa Gagné, known as CECILIA, is an artist and musician from Kamouraska, Canada. Her work weaves sound, poetry and video. Her fascination with soundscapes stems from a childhood immersed in the nature of rural Quebec with early acoustic impressions of how spaces and environments shape sonic perception. Recurrent auditory hallucinations also left a lasting imprint, deepening her visceral relationship to sound. She wrote her first songs at the age of 11, shortly after teaching herself guitar by learning metal song tablatures, printed off the internet at the elementary school library.

Mélissa further developed her practice in Montreal while studying philosophy and literature, engaging with experimental noise, improvisation, and free jazz ensembles. At the same time, she also pursued performance-based research by staging and filming actions such as car burials, and inviting audiences into theatrical plays in her bedroom, bathroom, and basement. Her first solo musical projects, as Babi Audi (2014–2017), moved between eclectic DJ sets and hybrid musical forms, circulating through Montreal’s and New York City’s DIY underground scenes.

With CECILIA, her music evolved into a surreal soundtrack between dark fairy tale and a poetic recital. Her compositions unfold through sculptural breaths, enthralling vocal narratives, and tactile sound textures. Her live performances play with emotional intimacy and restrained theatricality, grounded in a strong bodily presence that amplifies the introspective intensity and hallucinatory spirit of her recordings.

CECILIA’s first EP, Charity Whore, was released in 2017 on Grooming Label, Yves Tumor’s obscure imprint, followed by her debut album Adoration in 2018 on Halcyon Veil, the Los Angeles/Houston label founded by artist and producer Rabit. In 2021, she released Summer in Sexilia via London-based Xquisite Releases. Her latest album, CHOEUR, was released in 2024, by Milan based Haunter Records. After living and working in Montreal, New York, and Napoli, she is now based in Paris.
With The Discretes’ In Sore Bless, CECILIA takes on the roles of singer and lyricist carrying the songs through breath and language.

Ali Ayrik
As Ali was growing up, there was a lot of music at home and he enjoyed it to varying degrees, the practice of scales being the least appealing, but he absorbed it all. He picked up proggy leanings from his older brother and fooled around on a world radio (ITT Schaub-Lorenz), exploring free-jazz and what he thought was Chinese traditional music. At the age of 7, a street concert in Frankfurt, Germany left a strong impression and started his appreciation for live and amplified music. Still, he did not consider making music until his discovery of Punk and Post-Punk. The inspiration was irresistible and set off an erratic yet stubborn pursuit of making music, working his way from a primordial ooze of noise to something more deliberate and structured. In parallel, he was always interested in recording music. He started with a four track, a venerable Portastudio, and gradually expanded his learning and repertoire.

For some time, he has been breaking guitar strings, occasionally yelling into a microphone, pressing the record button and more recently detuning oscillators or modulating cutoff filters. Leading up to his role in The Discretes, he has focused increasingly on recording in recent years.

Ali has always been, primarily, a music fan, spending more time in the audience than on stage. In Sore Bless, is a synthesis of and tribute to this cumulative experience and its latent inspiration.