Swarm

My wonder years, I’m keeping pace
With the darkest notion that I face.
I cut my name in weathered stone,
A mark for ghosts, a place unknown.

I’m flying low under black light,
Purple screams enfold the night.
There’s no great hand, no thread of fate,
No door to knock, no pearly gate.

My mind replays its cruelest games,
My memory sharp and scarred by names.
The mirror cracks, but I still stare,
At hidden truths that linger there.

The air is thick with what we’ve lost,
Each memory held at quiet cost.
The moments blur, but still they gleam,
A faded truth, a distant dream.

My mind replays its cruelest games,
My memory sharp and scarred by names.
The mirror cracks, but I still stare,
At hidden truths that linger there.

My fallen soul, in fractured grace,
Crimson streams slip down my face.
There’s no fate had, no deadened weight,
No grave to mark, no iron gate.

My mind replays its cruelest games,
My memory sharp and scarred by names.
The mirror cracks, but I still stare,
Those hidden truths they linger there.

Credits:

Brad Astra: Guitars, Bass, Percussion, & Soundscapes
Nayeli Astra: Vox, Hurdy-Gurdy, Guitar, Synths, & Dreams

Special Thanks:
To the ravens who guided our melodies, the universe for its endless inspiration, and to everyone who has been part of this journey. This music collection is dedicated to those who dream with their eyes open.

In Loving Memory:
To Rio, who always listened.

Recorded at:
Nude Studio, Calgary, Alberta

Artwork by: Brad Astra
Photography by: Brad Astra

Released under Painful Records Ltd.

© 2025 The Miracle Syndicate. All rights reserved.

Produced by Brad Astra

The Mirror Cracks (Unplugged)

WRU SLOWED (prod. zomb0cat)

10 Teen Suicide - Im So Fucking Bored

"Desequilibrio"

En tus ojos hay dolor, no recuerdas que pasó 
En tu boca hay cenizas que evocan compasión 
Sé que ocultas un secreto, haces creer que nada sucedió 
Quieres olvidar el pasado, dejar a un lado todo, sin razón! 

Sin embargo siento un desequilibrio 
Olvidando efectos del futuro de los dos 

El vacío me destruye, no lo puedo comprender, 
si el camino redescubre el secreto tu de ser 

Aprovecho cada momento, todo el tiempo estoy sintiendo 
evidentes sensaciones alrededor de nuestro universo 
En mis manos siento el fuego al acariciar tu cuerpo 
Trato de hacerte olvidar todo lo que estuvo mal 

Sin embargo siento un desequilibrio 
Olvidando efectos del futuro de los dos 

El vacío me destruye, no lo puedo comprender, 
si el camino redescubre el secreto tu ser

Desequilibrio

Defenestration Song

Destinos

The wound is where the Light enters you.  —Rumí

The Miracle Syndicate
Founded and produced by Brad Astra

The Miracle Syndicate is an independent alternative music collective formed by Canadian producer and composer Brad Astra. Emerging from the outer edges of post-punk, dream pop, and shoegaze, the band’s sound fuses analog textures with emotional memory to create songs that feel both haunted and deliberate. Since its quiet inception, The Miracle Syndicate has grown into a global presence, with listeners drawn to its deeply personal recordings and cinematic tone.

The project began during a period marked by grief, transition, and emotional exile. Music became a way to stay present. The first real sound came from instruments left untouched for years, carrying the dust of another lifetime. When Astra picked them up, it felt less like reclaiming them and more like listening to something that had been waiting. From that moment on, he began building a workflow that allowed his inner world to speak clearly. With limited gear and deep intention, he shaped a sound that resonated more with feeling than fidelity. Plugins and tools became secondary. 

The truth was already in the strings.

Silence plays an equal role in the work. Astra treats it not as absence, but as design. The pauses between tracks are measured, not left to default. A sudden stop may mark resolution, but songs that drift into a final coda are given space, a deliberate moment for reflection, like a breath held between movements in a classical piece. For Astra, silence is not the end of a song. It is the invitation to stay with it just a little longer. In The Miracle Syndicate, silence becomes its own form of listening.

The emotional core of the music is difficult to name, somewhere between nostalgia, longing, reverence, and grief. Astra likens it to opening an old box of forgotten belongings, photographs, letters, objects that once meant everything. In that moment, memory returns like a ghost. Not always sad. Not always warm. Just present. These songs carry that same essence, flashes of reverence, regret, gratitude, and time’s slow unraveling. The music blends melancholy with a quiet sense of hope, holding space for the listener to reflect on what was lost and what might still be waiting.

While Astra remains the central composer and producer, the project includes two essential collaborators whose personalities help define its emotional cadence and landscape. Nayeli Astra Xóchitl, with her instinctive phrasing and emotionally precise delivery, provides both lead and harmony vocals that shape the project’s most intimate textures. Elena Morgenstern, based in Berlin, contributes both front and background vocals along with her analog synth work, adding restraint and emotional tension in equal measure. Their contributions do not decorate the songs. They ground them.

"This project wasn’t built for attention. It was built to survive me. Every song is a small part of what I couldn’t say out loud."
— Brad Astra

There is no chase for resolution in the recordings. The tracks are sculpted with intention, often left slightly fractured, preserving the emotional architecture of what first inspired them. The sound is raw, cinematic, and deliberate, never aiming for polish, but rather for truth.

"The Miracle Syndicate became a place to keep the things I couldn’t carry. Over time, it turned into something that listens back."

Listeners often describe The Miracle Syndicate as a lifeline, music that finds them in moments of emotional disconnect and offers a place to land. These songs are not about escape. They are small remedies, designed to ease the quiet storms we carry alone. Astra’s work doesn’t just put sound to silence, it gives form to feelings that are hard to name and harder to share. The goal is never clarity. It is resonance. The Miracle Syndicate becomes a kind of mirror, reflecting back the parts of us we didn’t know were still trying to speak.

Astra writes for himself first. The songs must cut through his own silence before they reach anyone else. They begin as private reflections, emotional fragments shaped by time, distance, and a kind of love that never fully resolves. The music becomes a form of survival. Not in defiance of pain, but in companionship with it. The Miracle Syndicate is not just a project. It is presence. It is the way Astra remains connected to the emotional weather of a full life, not always visible, but always felt.

"I’ve stopped trying to be understood. I make these songs for the few who understand without needing to."

The Miracle Syndicate is not chasing recognition. It was never built for that. The music lives in the present, created with care, released with intention, and left to find those who are ready to hear it. Each song is like a quiet offering, sent into the dark in case someone out there needs it. There is no mapped-out future. No promise of clarity. Just the hope that a listener, somewhere, might feel a little less alone.

The music becomes a hand held quietly in the dark.

When the music stops, what remains is never loud. It is not legacy, and it is not noise. It is that final note, the one that plays behind the credits, stirring everything that came before. The Miracle Syndicate leaves behind a quiet trace, something just beneath the skin.

A sound that stays long after the song is over.

All releases appear under Painful Records, an imprint dedicated to works that remain personal, patient, and present.

Painful Records stands for independence, integrity, and emotion in sound. What began as a small studio project has grown into a creative collective reaching listeners across continents.

Painful Records may incorporate AI-assisted tools within its production workflow. All creative decisions, composition, arrangement, and post-production are directed by the artists. We do not use AI to imitate other artists or voices. Every release is human-guided, emotionally intentional, and protected under applicable copyright law.

Painful Records, 2025.