There is no one quite like Ariadne. In the world of electronic music, there has never really been a place for the spiritual, in any traditional sense of the word.

“It would be less weird”, says Benjamin Forest, 29, one half of Ariadne, “to be a Satanist, you know? That would be much more normal, especially if you go more in the metal and hardcore route. That's a common thing, no one’s gonna bat an eyelid.”

“It's totally uncool to put your faith out there.” Christine Papania, also 29, agrees, “but it’s not the norm, to be writing electronic music with a singer that sings classical-style vocals.”

In the subversive world of experimental electronica, it is clear that Ariadne have themselves, by some measure, become the subversives. This does not bother Christine and Ben. Even through the dim laptop screen as we Skype, their bright-eyed enthusiasm is palpable, ironically in contrast to some of the darker themes of their music.

Now on their fourth release, Stabat Mater, the pair originally met at Jacob’s Music School in Indiana in around 2008, Christine as a voice major and Ben as a recording arts major. Although they sang in the same choir, it was a year before they properly met at a party, bonding over their shared love of electronic music (influences include Bjork, Burial, Gazelle Twin, Arca, Death Grips). Both had sung in children’s choirs and had grown up around the church and around choral music in general. They began playing and composing together and formed Ariadne in November of 2014, creating their first release ‘Impromptu’ which they describe as an experimental ‘collection’ as they were feeling their way. ‘Ex tempore’ they consider to be their first EP and when they really found their voice, followed by their first album proper, ‘Tsalal’, unusually released on micro SD card as an audio/visual offering by the label Auris Apothecary.

“They were the perfect outlet to release it on”, says Christine, “They are a super-artistic label. Every release of theirs is physical and they always release it on a really weird medium. So, it's perfect and he give us total artistic control to just do what we wanted and we put the digital online but it's only the music.”

The ‘he’ is Dante Augustus Scarlatti, a contact they had made during music school, who had been blown away by Christine’s voice, describing it as a religious experience all on its own. Dante was attracted to Ariadne because of its “utter heaviness”: “Not in tone, but in aura. They take something so beautiful and destroy it beyond recognition at a glacial pace, then pick up the pieces to form a composition of immense weight.

“The melancholy atmosphere reminds me of Gregorian chanting and early liturgical works, but by adding a digital glitch element, elevates it to something entirely modern and standing on its own.

“Ariadne is dark, but not evil”, he adds, “dramatic, but not pretentious”.

The duo are certainly attracted to bleak themes. ‘Tsalal’, their 2015 debut album release, for example, was based on the idea of suffering, ‘Tsalal’ being the Hebrew word for ‘to be darkened’. 2017’s follow-up album, ‘Stabat Mater’, continues in the same vein and is an evolution of their sound into harsher, more abstract tones, released on limited edition cassette in both “light” & “dark” editions, as well as a fully immersive, online experience.

“Yeah it's weird”, says Ben, “I feel like us as people and Ariadne are pretty separate. We're really pretty happy, you know, sort of bubbly people and our music is very different.”

Doesn’t it get a little depressing, I ask....

“I would say there’s definitely beautiful moments in a really sad way”, says Ben. “I mean we don’t want the album to be a happy album. We generally gravitate towards darker music in general and sad undertones also, so we kind of went with that in mind.”

Public reception so far has been good. “People that will come up to us after shows”, says Christine, “are really excited to talk to us and tell us that this was the most unique thing they’ve ever experienced.”

“But it’s really surprising”, continues Christine, “because we played more like a noise, kind of breakcore, show, and I was like “oh my God we need to be like more aggressive, we need to play like noisier and I just started feeling really insecure about what we were going to do because I just felt like we were really different than everybody at the show and then it turned out, after we played, all these drum ‘n’ bass guys came to us and were super-receptive.

“I mean which is great. It was surprising, I thought for sure they wouldn’t like it, but they did.”

Does anyone find it strange?

“I'm sure some people don't like it, yeah”, says Christine.

“I feel like maybe it can be alienating”, says Ben, “if you don't have any experience with classical music or if you're the kind of person who's just kind of turned off by classical music for whatever reason.”

They chose the name Ariadne due to the character from Greek Mythology the daughter of Minos, king of Crete, who began as a mortal and then, according to some myths, became a god. “We also really like she was involved in the myth of King Minos and the labyrinth”, says Ben. “Especially the labyrinth being such a really interesting and very ancient symbol. I like how it's a really good symbol for the unconscious mind.” This connects to their interest in the dream analysis of Carl Jung. In fact, they are not the first modern musicians to reference themes and stories from Greek mythology. Daedalus took his name from the creator of the labyrinth and, incidentally, the ‘dancing-ground’ of Ariadne.

But what is sacred music?

Sacred music, tends to be seen as religious music - that is, music created for some kind of worship. But for Ben and Christine, although the music has its roots in choral music which of course is heavily used in and associated with Christianity, it is not allied to religion specifically. “Sacred is meant in a more abstract sense like a sort of spiritual and not totally secular but not necessarily religious”, says Christine. Artists who have straddled this divide tend to be those of a classical background and output, such as Sir James MacMillan - a Scottish classical composer and conductor and the late English composer Sir John Tavener. For electronic musicians, it is more of a rarity.

As I pry away, trying to understand Ariadne’s angle, Christine sympathises: “It's hard. I guess we’re not really one way or another but we kind of like the idea of sacred.” Ben is more pointed: “Well, we're heavily influenced by it and have grown up in it. It's kind of a part of who we are, whether we like it or not.”

“It is really interesting to play these electronic music shows and D.I.Y. shows. Where we’re really out of the box, you know, like come in with this sound and these ideas, it's very…It makes sense that people ask questions, it's not really the norm.”

Ben continues: “I mean that's why I wouldn’t have it any other way, you know, to be making art that makes people ask questions is...what more could you ask for?”