Yotzeret Sheydim

Musician Alyx Ill, originally from Pittsburgh, began Yotzeret Sheydim in January 2021.[1] She was inspired by friends in the noise music scene and her own rediscovery of Judaism after not practicing for many years.[1] Ill was drawn to noise music because "there are no limits or bounds to what can be done with sound and [the] presentation of that sound....[Also] pushing preconceived boundaries is the crux of the genre itself."[1]

One of the project's more popular releases is Avraham, released in April 2022 via Iatrophobia Records.[1] Named for III's Hebrew deadname, the album is themed around her Jewish and transgender identities.[1] Another album, Sefer Zohar (The Book of Radiance), received airplay from Tom Service on a 2023 episode of BBC Radio 3's New Music Show.[5] The music website Passion of the Weiss included Avraham on their list of "The Best Electronic Music of 2022"[6] and ranked her EP Evocation Experiment Aleph among the "Best Dance and Electronic Music" of March 2023.[3]

The music of Yotzeret Sheydim ranges in genre from harsh noise to dungeon synth, power electronics, and broadly experimental music, utilizing instruments such as shofar, synths, pedals, and drum machines.[1] Her album Sefer HaZohar (The Book of Radiance) uses "rhythmic noise, augmented chanted vocals, and a slew of pedals and synths",[1] while Sefer Yetzirah (The Book of Creation) features Hebrew chanting and elements of electronica, ambient, and glitch, with sounds of static, distorted shouting, and chalkboard scraping.[2] Avraham, meanwhile, was noted as being less harsh than her other work, with clearer, more decipherable vocals and a piano featured heavily throughout.[1] Sam Ribakoff of Passion of the Weiss described the latter album as "almost industrial-punk", as well as having elements of synth-punk, and her 2023 EP Evocation Experiment Aleph as "straight noise, but not ear piercing screams or walls of distortion, [rather] an album full of electrical sounds. Like the sound two live electrical wires make if they were like the size of a house. It’s my favorite ASMR record."[3][6]

Ill often creates art, jewelry, and homemade instruments to go with her music, as well as sound sculptures consisting of limited-release cassettes, CDs, and lathes with elaborate ritualistic designs intended to name and bind shedim.[1]

Ill summarizes the themes of Yotzeret Sheydim as "Judaism, demons, magic, making demons, converting objects to sound, converting sound to objects, and a bit about how building your own demons is really just about self-discovery over and over again," as well as aligning the project with her own anti-fascist, anti-Zionist, transhumanist, and anarchist beliefs.[1][2] Her work often references demons, which she distinguishes from those in the Christian tradition and instead sees as "mischievous weird little monsters that are made each time anything is created. They are the anti-divine spark, opposite the spark of creation."[1] The Book of Radiance and The Book of Creation are inspired by the Kabbalistic texts of the Zohar and the Sefer Yetzirah respectively, with the latter exploring Biblical accounts of Lilith and the Garden of Eden as a parallel to the Jewish diaspora.[1][2] Avraham, named for III's Hebrew deadname, was inspired by her experiences as a Jewish trans woman; the opening and closing tracks are about the bar mitzvah tradition, while other songs address gender dysphoria, military violence, and Ill's journey to reclaiming her faith.[1][2] Bandcamp Daily's Yoni Kroll likened her music to the Jewish traditions of nigunim and devekut, as well as the work of trombonist Dan Blacksberg,[1] while Noah Berlatsky wrote for Splice Today that Ill "embraces Jewish music as cacophony".[2]

• Yotzeret Sheydim on Bandcamp
• Yotzeret Sheydim discography at Discogs