DEPLETION HALOS

Electronic hip hop producer and composer Sasco collaborates with poet DENAMIS (aka Dena Igusti) on an upcoming documentary poetry album titled “Depletion Halos,” slated to be released June 26. 

Using heavy delays and reverberating tones by Sasco surrounding DENAMIS’ poetry, “Depletion Halos” is a sonic interrogation on our culture’s obsession with hurt bodies and who gets to be considered hurt. The tracks oscillate between Sasco’s waterline instrumentals and DENAMIS’ interrogations on how survivors of gender-based violence are portrayed.

Without directly naming the traumas, DENAMIS and Sasco showcase how anticipated grief of community, gentrification, and exploitation of girls of color in the media force survivors to both minimize and sensationalize the impacts of the harm done to them for the sake of a larger community. Through recollections of high school, interview reenactments, and school fights in the girl’s bathroom, this album confronts redemption looks like for someone who is only known for what has happened to their body. 

The tracks on Depletion Halos, all but two of which were created specifically for their respective poems, draw from across the musical spectrum, including feedback loops, hip-hop sampling techniques, granular synthesis, electroacoustic jams, and more to set a foundation for DENAMIS to perform their poems. 

The title is largely inspired by the study of black holes, according to DENAMIS. “Because black holes don’t emit or reflect light, they’re largely invisible to telescopes. So scientists (according to a video I saw in a museum) study accretion disks and depletion halos, essentially the impacts of a black hole’s surrounding environment to understand it.” says DENAMIS. “As a survivor whose work surrounds the terrible things that have been done to me, I wanted to explore the impacts of violence without having to recount what happened in excruciating detail.”