Challenger Deep
Bad Move, Little Ant (feat. Julia Moffa & Joshua Bryant) | Stratøs (2026)
Challenger Deep is Stratøs’ third studio LP, a ten-movement masterwork written for electronic chamber orchestra.
On a fundamental level, the album synthesizes the heavily emphasized audio production elements of Planets with the more compositional, thematic aesthetics of Hohenheim Suites to create something wholly new. As somewhat of a response to the space-themed debut LP, Challenger Deep investigates some of the deeper issues modern society faces, this time through an aquatic lens.
Stratøs' late grandfather Edward Codrington was a fisherman from Barbados in the early 20th century. His unique status as a master of his craft with a rare motorized vessel gave him access to waters that other fishermen couldn’t venture into. In the vein of 14th century Italian poet Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, Stratøs intends to use this motif to tell a story where Codrington descends from the surface of the sea all the way down to the Challenger Deep, the lowest part of Earth’s deepest ocean, the Mariana Trench. His journey will be the catalyst for Stratøs to explore themes ranging from the effects of climate change, the ever-mysterious contents of Earth's oceans, to the fates of enslaved African people whose bodies never made it to the Americas and beyond.
PROJECT INFORMATION
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• Stratøs: executive producer, composer, lead audio engineer, audio editor, production, mixing, tape transfer (tracks 01, 03-10), flute (tracks 02, 03, 04, 06-09), Native American Flute (track 06), Bb clarinet (tracks 02, 03, 04, 06-09), tenor saxophone (tracks 02, 03, 04, 06, 07, 08), bass clarinet (tracks 03, 06, 08), EWI 4000s (tracks 02, 03, 05, 07, 08), Minimoog Model D (track 04), Steiner-Parker Synthacon (track 04), Oberheim OB-8 (track 08), Roland Juno-60 (track 04), Roland Jupiter-6 (track 04, 06), Roland Jupiter-8 (track 06), Prophet-5 (track 06), Prophet Rev2, (tracks 01, 04, 06, 07, 08), Yamaha CS-15 (track 06), Mellotron (tracks 04, 06, 07), Grand Piano (tracks 01, 08) Wurlitzer 200a (tracks 04, 08), Rhodes Mark I (all tracks), Roland XV-3080 (track 05), Omnichord OM-84 (track 05), Fostex Model 250 (all tracks), lyrics (track 02, 06, 08, 09, 10)
• Julia Moffa: executive producer, vocals, lyrics, VoiceLive Touch 2 (tracks 02, 03, 06, 08, 09, 10)
Joshua Bryant: Prophet-6, Nord Electro 6d (track 06, 10)
Adam Hersh: Moog Matriarch, Oberheim Matrix 1000, Korg Minilogue, Rhodes Mark I, Rhodes Mark V (tracks 02-04, 06-10)
Daniel Durst: Moog Subsequent 25, electric bass, upright bass, Mellotron (tracks 02-04, 06-09)
Jermaine Paul: electric bass (track 10)
Myles Martin: drums (tracks 02, 03)
Ebs Daramola: drums (tracks 04, 06-10)
• Neil Cole: oboe, english horn (tracks 04, 07)
Madison SQRGRDN Dorsett: horn (track 04)
Kyra Harris: bassoon (tracks 04, 07)
Tristan Cappel: flute, alto flute, bass flute, soprano saxophone, Bb clarinet, bass clarinet (tracks 02, 03)
Yakiv Tsvietinskyi: trumpet, flugelhorn, Rhodes Mark I (tracks 03, 04)
Nathan Kay: trumpet, flugelhorn (track 02)
Nick Crane: trombone (tracks 02, 03)
Alex Mansour: piano, cello (tracks 02, 03, 06, 07, 09)
• Supah Mario: drums (track 01)
Melanie Charles: vocals (track 08)
Miguel Ateood-Ferguson: electric violin (track 09)
Telemakus: Sequential Trigon-6 (track 03, 10)
Olga Hornachenko: bandura (track 04)
Virginia MacDonald: Bb clarinet (track 10)
• Becket Cerny: assistant production, assistant engineering (drums) (tracks 02, 03)
Jordan Temple: producer (track 02)
• Conor Rayne: engineering (drums) (tracks 04, 06-10)
Chris Sorem: engineering (drums) (track 02)
Sierra Winter-Klepel: assistant engineering (drums) (track 02)
William Corduroy: tape transfer (track 02)
Samuel Peters: mastering (all tracks)
Jean Marie Moffa: co-executive producer
Frank Moffa: co-executive producer• special thanks:
Julie Ann Hancsak
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• Primordial (feat. Supah Mario):
O paradise, o paradise who doth not crave for rest?
Who would not seek the happy land Where they that loved are blest
Where loyal hearts and true
Stand ever in the light
All rapture, through and through, In God's most holy sight
• Dead Calm:
Look into my sunken stare
Where days drift into the light
A window to your hollow glare
And dark mellowed by the night
Empty sea of frozen air
Time is your destined plight
To live is to endure despair
So show me the way
And day after day
When sails will betray
Where stillness can play
So show me the way
And day after day
When sails will betray
Where stillness can play
So show me the way
Just show me the way
• Bad Move, Little Ant (feat. Julia Moffa & Joshua Bryant):
The sun, the sky, the moon, the stars, they shine Looking down, as they die
The fish, the waves, the whales, can't breathe Choking on a fishing line
The trees, the air, we breathe, is gone Sucked away, out of our lungs
The reeds, the grass, the cane, white gold Sugar sweet, soaked in blood
Bad move, little ant
Bad move, little ant
Bad move, little ant
Bad move, little ant
Ah ♫
Bad move, little ant
Bad move, little ant
Bad move, little ant
Bad move, little ant
Ah ♫
(2X)
• Point Nemo (feat. Melanie Charles):
Float away, let the waves
Wash away all of the noise
Finally, let me be
Guess I'm free,
I'm all alone here
Stay awhile, only room for you, point nemo
Far away, cannot stay
All alone, too far from home
Silently, killing me
Don't you dare, leave me alone here
Stay awhile, only room for you, point nemo
Stay awhile, only room for you, point nemo
• Blessed Rain After the Drought (feat. Miguel Atwood-Ferguson):
Open up your heart, your mind, your eye
Breathe it in, no fear, no sin, deliverance
May you find you're redefined as light beams through the clouds on a blue day
Through the murky fog, I saw you dreaming we could die
But a dream is but a dream within a dream
Poppies can grow from a crack in the concrete after all
Not afraid now, brave now, saved now, by this blessed rain
Not afraid now, brave now, saved now, by this blessed rain
Not afraid now, brave now, i am saved now, by this blessed rain
• Challenger Deep (feat. Ceddyjay, Zacchae’us Paul, & Virginia MacDonald):
America and Hell is quite synonymous
Haven't been well mentally, ain't it obvious?
Not another verse 'bout how I'm keepin' these blades tucked
Lookin' at these shores got me closer to God's touch (ah)
This inferno in my soul been nonstop
Fire in my spirit so these bones get real hot
As another atmos-lyric layer falls
Ancestors' bodies hittin' sea floors T
ypa shit that make you poof like C4's
So much pain in this flesh found in the lore
A confirmation of afterlife after all
Till my pop-pops saw a world, I ain't sure
Sometimes you gotta close your eyes to see more (right, right?)
Welcome to the end
To the next life
Let me show you
Nineteen-something in Barbados is my whereabouts
Mariana's Trench, fallin' in her creases now
Fallin' through Nipsey Blues, darkness start to deepen 'round
Hands on chest accept my fate this how I'm goin' out
How to describe something that is worth feelin?
It's hard to illustrate when you ain't quite near it
One blink and in that very same instance
Saw figures in the likeness of my pigment
Took my hand and then they walked me through necropolis
Shared stories of the lineage and the continent
Shedding tears of joy because it was so obvious
They lost they life but found the freedom they were robbed against
How to describe something that is worth feelin?
Took my hand and then they walked me through necropolis
It's hard to illustrate when you ain't quite near it
Shared stories of the lineage and the continent
One blink and in that very same instance
Shedding tears of joy because it was so obvious I
(Ad lib) Buh-da-da-dee-yah
Let me show you
Welcome to the end (bop-boo, bop-boo-doo)
To the Next Life
Let me show you
Dead city of gold, forgotten but still sacred
The end of the line, necropolis awaited (waited, waited)
Dead city of gold, forgotten but still sacred
The end of the line, necropolis awaited
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The Making Of Challenger Deep: