Budapest-based electronic and industrial project First Aid 4 Souls have spoken to Side-Line about “Progenitrix (feat. Divas of the Dark),” the album released on Alfa Matrix in December 2025. Founder István Gazdag explains that the record leaves the project’s harder electro-industrial manner behind, since in his view that sound does not suit the delicate female voices he wanted. A few heavier moments remain, he says, and he feels no fatigue with aggression, citing his parallel projects Stahlgeist and First Aid Tech as proof. “Progenitrix” is mostly new wave with fine industrial textures, built on vintage synthesizers: few tracks, a sound faithful to the eighties and early nineties, and modern studio technology brought in only at the final stages.
Female vocalists appear on every track, but Gazdag says he composed the base tracks, combined them with the vocals and added the effects himself, while the guest singers were given total creative freedom. No restrictions were needed, and the project’s ban on contemporary political or religious themes never had to be spelled out. The album has no single story arc but does have one guiding concept: he wrote it for his two daughters and asked the participating women to tell them what he, as a man, could not. He finds the performers’ honesty touching and says even he was close to tears while finishing the final song, “Du.”
“Progenitrix” opens a two-part cycle. Its male-voiced counterpart is still maturing and will sound entirely different; Gazdag stresses that it is neither an answer nor a counterpoint but an equal, different companion, and says he has talked it over with some well-known underground figures. Asked whether listeners will end up choosing sides, he argues that people are born into biological categories while spirituality is a matter of free will, that today’s moral confusion pushes everyone toward extremes, and that the concept behind the pair stays neutral, offering a fuller spectrum with no judgment or manipulation. He adds that he is working on new songs recorded live on an Osmose rather than through MIDI.
About First Aid 4 Souls
First Aid 4 Souls began in Budapest in 2007 as the continuation of Vacuum, István Gazdag’s earlier industrial/EBM band. Gazdag takes care of everything from founding and composing to production and engineering, and the project mostly runs on guest contributors instead of a fixed band, among them Havasi Zoltán and Vető Gábor.
A double-CD set from 2008, “My Favourite Pain With Some Bizzare Remix Package,” opened the catalogue, and five further releases appeared by 2014, including “Brutpop,” “Deathstep” and “Back To Shambala.” Gazdag then went on to work with Electro Arc (Germany) and later Poison Girls Records (Japan), and recorded with guests such as Brad Bishop, Linda Daemon and Victoria Moralez. “Trashcathedral” (2016) and “Dark Tunnel” (2017) came next.
After signing to Alfa Matrix in 2019, the project built up a steady catalogue there: the EP “Increased Sensory Perception” and “Keep This World Empty” in the first year, when Mortum of Human Vault, a singer from the US, joined the line-up, then “Fire,” “Dreambox,” “Stainless Steel Eyes” and “I Am The Night” through 2022. A 2023 run of “This Present Darkness,” “Dancing At The Abyss” and “Laudator Temporis Acti” led to “Progenitrix” in December 2025. More on the project is gathered on the First Aid 4 Souls tag page.
The complete question-and-answer session is on Side-Line: Read the full interview on Side-Line.
Listen to the album
“Progenitrix” is available now on the Alfa Matrix store on CD, and as a download you can stream it on Bandcamp.