Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith is readying a new album. The composer and synthesist will release Ruin: It’s Not Just Music on October 2 through Someone Special, a label she co-founded this year with James Daniel. Below, listen to a title track of sorts, “Ruin,” via a video starring a pole-dancing Pedro Esteveaqui.

In a press release, Smith says the record’s heavier drums and breakbeats stemmed from a need “to make something confrontational, almost like sonic combat.” She added, “‘Ruin’ lives in that moment where everything breaks and something else asserts itself. It’s music for the shock and the aftershock. Sound designed for endurance rather than comfort.”

The record follows Smith’s pair of 2025 records, the electronic LP Gush and the more orchestral mini-album Thoughts on the Future. She is currently preparing a concert at London Barbican next week with London Contemporary Orchestra, celebrating the 10th anniversary of Ears.