<i>KATABASIS Cycle</i>

The KATABASIS Cycle was a series of multidisciplinary performances in the UK by Petal, working under the pseudonym 'lonely carp'. The concept album and accompanying summoning circles, debuting in Edinburgh's Summerhall, and returning to their anatomy lecture theatre for a weekend of ritual performances to close the cycle, acted as a catharsis of her traumatic experience of survival sex; one all too common amongst trans women. The album was released on Vinyl and Cassette thanks to the Do It Differently Fund, awarded by Help Musicians UK, in 2021.
The performance involved ingestion and regurgitation of flowers (representing the artist-as-survivor) and pomegranates (representing the artist-as-victim), self-paddling, and extended instrumental technique. It was 48 minutes in duration.

KATABASIS: an underworld opera performed on the historic Ross Band Stand in Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens, during StagEhd Festival

k11 — Edinburgh's Award Winning Venue, Sneaky Pete's saw the continued incorporation of extended instrumental technique, wherein Petal used large chains to whip the strings of an electric double bass, as symbol for her own experience as a sex worker engaging in BDSM dynamics in order to survive.

k13 — Wee Red Bar ritual, featuring self-flagellation and ingestion of Roses.

k27 — KATABASIS also ran as support for Divide & Dissolve's tour, at the Hug & Pint, Glasgow, as well as support for Extra Life, at The Banshee Labryinth, Edinburgh.

k24 — Two Summerhall performances in an unsettling atmosphere born from a converted veterinary operating theatre, saw the closing of the KATABASIS cycle.