Lost Souls of Saturn, the innovative duo of Seth Troxler and Phil Moffa, transcends typical musical projects. Their work weaves music, imagery, storytelling, and philosophy, exploring concepts of reality, ancient knowledge, and ritualistic experiences. Drawing inspiration from art, literature, mysticism, science fiction, and real science, LSOS creates a multifaceted universe of multimedia art.
Photo Credit: Lost Souls Of Saturn – Official
The duo has attracted attention for both their music and their groundbreaking approach to multimedia experiences. Their debut transmission, a collaboration with Art Basel at Zurich Main Train Station, showcased their blend of music and visual art. Recently, they’ve expanded their creative universe by introducing sci-fi AR comic characters John and Frank, pushing beyond traditional album formats.
Following the success of their sophomore album ‘Reality,’ the pair has announced a remix album titled ‘Reality Hacked,’ set for release on July 26. This new compilation features a stellar lineup of artists reimagining tracks from ‘Reality,’ demonstrating LSOS’s commitment to evolving their sound and exploring new creative dimensions.
In this interview with Lost Souls of Saturn, we’ll delve into their latest releases, including ‘Reality Hacked,’ and gain insight into their creative process, collaborations, and future endeavors. Join us as we unravel the enigmatic world of LSOS.
EG: Hi, Phil! Hi, Seth! Welcome to EG. It’s a pleasure to have you here with us. How have you been? What have you been up to?
Lost Souls of Saturn: Pleasure to be here. We’re always collecting samples, plundering sci-fi novels, and brainstorming our next ideas. Individually, Seth keeps a pretty rigorous touring schedule and Phil lives in the lab. Then we’ll get back together and work some more with a few episodes of Twilight Zone to guide the way.
EG: By the way, congratulations on the release of your new studio album, ‘Reality’. What has the initial reception been like so far? We can only assume a drop is a bit between nerve-wracking and relief…
Lost Souls of Saturn: Thanks. Overall pretty good. Nothing like getting the actual LP in your hands to break open the shrink-wrap and drop the needle. We’re once again amazed by the designers of our album art and packaging, Hingston Studio. The colors, the cover, the concepts—they’re really unbelievable. We’re still waiting for someone to decode the hidden messages though.
EG: So, this is quite a particular release, which sees you guys metamorphosed into sci-fi AR comic characters John and Frank, who’ve explored the galaxy and returned with their perception-melting new LP. Can you explain a bit about how this concept/idea came about?
Lost Souls of Saturn: We usually wind up with a few days of lost timeline after our sessions and during playback at the end we wonder where the music came from. Reality hackers John and Frank are known to jump into human avatars when up to their hijinks in this solar system. We find they like to visit us to create some music. They also leave other clues behind in the form of synchronicities, aliens on the streets of Queens, NY, and other unexplainable phenomena.
EG: In which ways have you evolved as a duo since the release of your debut LP? What can fans of Lost Souls of Saturn expect to find on ‘Reality’?
Lost Souls of Saturn: Some friends have reached out to say they’ve enjoyed hearing the featured vocalists Adam Ohr, Lvv Gvn, Lazarus Man, and Protomartyr on the record as an evolution for us. Also further collabs with instrumentalists such as Stuart Bogie, J-Zone, Greg Paulus and Rishab Sharma. ‘Reality’ jumps genres and tempos, samples heavily from the unknown depths of long-lost media, and there are lots of layers to be explored for the curious listener.
“LSOS is a multimedia art project as well as a music group. We have a long history and interest in the visual and performing arts”
EG: ‘Reality’ goes beyond the confines of a traditional release, encompassing both this groundbreaking comic book and art installation. Can you tell us more about what people will find, apart from the music itself? And your adventures in exploring ‘format’?
Lost Souls of Saturn: The comic is a real trip. Our collaborator Rob Shields is really the best at what he does, a pioneer in the field of augmented reality comics. In conjunction with our app, simply called ‘Lost Souls of Saturn’ in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, the pages come alive with 3-D animation, sound effects, and a first-of-its-kind synced soundtrack. Meaning, as you switch pages, the arrangement of the music changes and progresses. We’ve also partnered with Abstract Comics to release the book and the work they did on the layout and print colors took it to another level.
LSOS is a multimedia art project as well as a music group. We have a long history and interest in the visual and performing arts. When we perform on stage, we have projected visuals by our long-time collaborator Koolik and we put a ton of time into the story they tell. We’ve done installations, books, and are always looking for the next medium to present our ideas. ‘Reality’ is also about to be available as a limited edition cassette.
EG: For how long has ‘Reality’ been in the works? How many parts did you have to interconnect, in terms of collaborators working on the project?
Lost Souls of Saturn: Our albums take about 5 years to create. We always work together in our NYC-based Holoverse Research Labs. We recorded many of the featured musicians and singers ourselves. It’s a slow process and of course, there is lots of time in-between sessions but that’s how we like to work. We don’t care about quantity or pushing out content. For us, the album format is a complete and continuous idea.
EG: Around your debut album, you guys held installations and performances at Saatchi Gallery (London), The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), and Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, plus live sets at Field Day, Glastonbury and Kappa Futur. Are there any plans to bring ‘Reality’ to life in such a manner?
Lost Souls of Saturn: As an installation, we had the comic’s pages on huge razor-sharp LED screens at W1 Curates on Oxford Street in London for all of February 2024, over a million pixels across. These large gallery ‘pages’ are also viewable in AR and we put together some site-specific sound for this installation. More recently we had a presence at Glastonbury Festival 2024 in collaboration with W1 again with a hidden comic shop that featured the screens. Rob Shields’s use of neon colors works beautifully on these LED panels.
“We don’t care about quantity or pushing out content. For us, the album format is a complete and continuous idea”
EG: Finally, can you provide some insights into what’s next for Lost Souls of Saturn? Where can your fans catch you next? Can we expect to see you on tour?
Lost Souls of Saturn: As an expansion of the album, we also just released ‘Reality Hacked’ which has contributions from nine remixers of very different styles. We just completed a remix of our own for Romy of xx. There are plans to do something called ‘LSOS Angeles’ this year—watch this space. Further adventures with the comic book and live shows in ’25 TBA very soon.
EG: Thank you so much for your time, guys! We wish you all the best for the future. Take care!
Lost Souls of Saturn: Zorg grop nebulop!
Lost Souls of Saturn ‘Reality’ is now available via Holoverse Research Labs. Stream and download here.
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