A 2015 essay by Cao is titled “The Ruin and the Sonic Sacred” and reads as a philosophical parsing and repositioning of noise music. The music released under this project could be considered ruinous, yet sacred – and definitely falls under the nebulous umbrella of noise. The creative answer to the Peruvian artist’s academic flights pairs the pastoral with the haunted, desperate discord with fragile layering. These divisive contradictions usually flesh out in tracks better described as release-length excursions –see her early 2016 release *Marginal Virgin* on Opal Tapes. Using a library of sounds including tribal fare from Cao’s native country and glitched-out, static-laden electronica from the UK, where she now resides, what results is a mixture that’s rightfully intelligent and left-of-center.
