The Brvtalist is pleased to premiere a new track from Socery. "Dark Scan" comes off the new album, ARA025, forthcoming on ara's UTIL series. Diving deep with seven twisted, precision-engineered sonic tools crafted from his unmistakable sonic DNA, the album finds hypnotic synth lines that melt into surreal, mind-warping textures. Blurring the lines between function and fantasy, these tracks are built for the dancefloor, radiating unpredictable intensity and pushing the boundaries of functionality in club music. Accompanied by striking, beautiful artwork by Anne Derian, this is a powerful album with layers of complexity.

Out October 25th. We also interviewed Sorcery about the release and you can reach more below.

The Brvtalist: . This release on ara's UTIL series is all about functionality. Tell us about your approach to making these tracks and how you fused fantasy with function.

Sorcery: It was a fun challenge to create a musical proposition for Ara’s DJ tool-focused UTIL series, especially since I don’t naturally gravitate toward making purely functional, club-ready music. While my tracks definitely echo a lot of club culture and sounds, my focus has been more on creating something that impacts the listener rather than worrying about how it will fit into a DJ set. That said, I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of “club functionality” in electronic music. It’s interesting to explore where that functionality lies within a track. For me, the more functional something is, the more it risks losing personality and finding that balance has always been tricky.

The spirit of this series is all about redefining or reflecting on where that balance might be, and it’s been a pleasure to explore that through this release. With these tracks, I aimed to create sound objects that are blunt, efficient, personal, and unique—that’s where I see the fusion of fantasy and function.

TB: You have a lot of releases under your belt at this point. How would you say your sound/direction has changed and how has it stayed the same?

S: My sound is always evolving, or rather, my curiosity and excitement lead me to explore new sonic spaces. I suppose you could say I get bored easily, always seeking new inspiration in different places whether that’s discovering new music, reading, watching films, or meeting new people. At the same time, I somehow manage to consistently produce similar sounds. My aesthetic seems to come through, even when I’m not consciously aiming for it, and over time, it’s shaped what others recognize as my signature sound.

It’s strange because I always strive to create something new and different, yet people often tell me my sound is very recognizable. Hopefully, it’s not redundant! What’s most important for me is the feeling I get when making music, and luckily, I still feel a great deal of excitement when crafting and playing with sounds. Especially through a big sound system.

TB: I know you're close to Kanding Ray. Tell us about your working relationship with him and how you feed off each other?

S: Working and collaborating with David over the years has been an absolute pleasure. Our friendship perfectly embodies the importance of standing together as a community, supporting each other as both artists and friends. We've spent countless hours exchanging music, doing demo-listening sessions where we just open up "whatever the fuck" is in our bounce folders and go through it all, for better or worse.

Every time, I’m blown away by the quality of David’s work. It’s incredibly inspiring to listen to our rough sketches this way, and honestly, many of my tracks have been selected, refined, and eventually survived for release through these casual exchanges. I highly recommend this kind of collaboration with fellow producers; it’s such a valuable and enriching experience. I truly believe Kangding Ray is one of the most relevant, groundbreaking, and forward-thinking artists in the techno scene today. I feel incredibly lucky to have him as a friend and to have his belief in me through these releases.

TB: When you perform live, how true do you stay to the recorded versions of the tracks? Is there a lot of improvisation and additions in each set?

S: It depends. A lot of my live sets are essentially jams with sounds and arrangements that are either created on the fly with my machines or specifically crafted samples for the live set and likely will never be released. I've tried several times to reverse-engineer live jams into full tracks, but it’s rare that I can capture the same energy or magic that happens in a live setting.

For released tracks that I use live, I usually break them down into stems and do a sort of live remix. The key for me is to make sure that the few recognizable elements of the track are prominent enough so that the audience can identify it, while still giving myself space to improvise and add new layers.

TB: What's coming up next?

S: Well, for starters, I’ve completely rebuilt my live set from the ground up for my second appearance at Berghain this year. I feel incredibly fortunate to have been invited back, and this kind of opportunity has a huge impact on artists like me. It’s like a turbo-charged injection of pure excitement, and I’ve channeled all of that energy into this new live set. Needless to say, I’m really excited about it!

Beyond that, there’s more music on the way, plus a few collaboration tracks and upcoming releases that I’m really looking forward to sharing.

Follow Sorcery at: https://www.instagram.com/sorcery_music