8

El Hardwick’s debut album, 8, explores an alternative cyberspace at the crossroads of climate and digital justice. Originally imagined as a sci-fi graphic novel back in 2016, over the following three years 8 expanded into a concept album. Combining photography with poetry and song, Hardwick spins a cautionary tale in which technocrats advise a social elite to give up their bodies, upload their minds to a server, and migrate into cyberspace. Those the algorithm deems less worthy are left behind on a depleted earth. In response, a group of cyber-hackers attempts to destroy the servers, and those in power declare war. Channeled through Hardwick’s vaporous falsetto, 8 unfolds along two paths: the A-side builds, while the B-side destroys
The vinyl edition is accompanied by a 40-page booklet, with each track on the album complemented by a photograph and poem written by Hardwick. The photographs, which are a celebration of ecology and sci-fi aesthetics, were taken in collaboration with fellow photographers Chrissie White, Clara Pathe and Justina Goldbeck. They were shot in 2018 amongst desert hoodoos carved by oceans millions of years ago, and a dying forest consisting of one of the world’s oldest living organisms