Jaar |
Since 2008, Nicolás Jaar has released music under various guises spanning shades of pop, ambient, noise, and club music. Since 2013, he has curated the Other People label, releasing the visual & audio work of artists Africanus Okokon, Jena Myung, Maziyar Pahlevan and the music of Aho Ssan, Saint Abdullah, Dienne, and Lydia Lunch among others. He is a current member of performance ensemble ¡miércoles! Alongside choreographer Stéphanie Janaina, and part of the band Darkside. In 2019, Jaar assembled the Shock Forest Group, a collective which has been exploring the myriad layers of colonial, ecological and institutional violence that interlink on the site of a forest built to be bombed in Zandaam, NL. In 2018, Jaar transformed Dar Jacir’s food shack in Bethlehem, Palestine, into a sound studio where he has held sound workshops for children and artist residencies. In recent years, Nicolás has mainly focused on education, teaching sound-editing and listening workshops to emerging musicians and non-musicians alike in institutions such as the Museo de la Memoria in Santiago, Chile, AdBK in Munich, Germany, free.wav in Attappadi, India, Festival 4x4, Chiapas, Mexico, Dar Jacir and Alrowwad in Bethlehem, Palestine, among others. Nicolás is a Capricorn and once walked from Turin to Marseille.
Deena Abdelwahed ‘Jbal Rrsas’ Live A/V
(TN)
After her beginnings in a jazz band and multiple interventions in the electronic scene in Tunis, the Tunisian producer and DJ moved to France in 2016. She signed on the Parisian label InFiné and released two EPs, "Klabb" (2017) and "Dhakar" (2020) and an album entitled "Khonnar" (2018), acclaimed by several international media such as Pitchfork and The Guardian.
Her musical explorations are hopeful attempts to reclaim the elements that make up the diversity of Arabic music, drawing inspiration from electronic dance music influenced by Club music and the current avant-garde and experimental scene. She co-produced the track "an itch" that appears on Fever Ray's latest album, "Plunge" and has produced several remixes of Bachar Mar-Khalifé, Flore, Domenico Torti and Afrika Bambaataa, among others. She has also collaborated with the dance community, asked by Alexandre Roccoli to write and perform the music for Weaver in 2017.
In Live set or DJ set, Deena Abdelwahed has performed on stage in several festivals and events of renown such as Sonar Festival twice, Les Dunes Electroniques in Tunisia, CTM Festival in Berlin, Dekmantel in Amsterdam, Dour festival or Mutek Festival in Mexico City and clubs such as Concrete and Dehors Brut in Paris, the Berghain in Berlin and Mutabor in Moscow, among others.
KMRU
(KE)
For Joseph Kamaru (KMRU) a Nairobi-born Berlin-based sound artist, sound is a sensorial medium through which social, material and conceptual interpretations are manifested in his works. KMRU carries with him a repository of listening experiences from Nairobi and beyond expanding his sonic practices, bringing an awareness of surroundings through creative compositions, installations and performances. He has earned international acclaim from his performances and releases , at the Barbican, Berlin Atonal, Présences électronique, and releases on Editions Mego, Subtext, Seil Records. KMRU has carved out a serious and definitive space on the list of essential authors in ambient experimental music - one of the most prolific and innovative artists in his field.
re:ni
(UK)
re:ni will perform b2b with Laksa (UK).
re:ni’s DJ sets join the dots between her dub-wise techno influences and sounds from across the lineage of UK dance music. With shows at institutions like Panorama Bar, De School, Robert Johnson and fabric, she brings a distinct versatility to her sets, traversing across bpms and styles while maintaining a coherent narrative. On her debut release for Ilian Tape, the impressive EP Revenge Body (2022), she drew from elements of dub, jungle, baile funk and contemporary bass music to create four sub-heavy weapons designed to turn heads on the dancefloor. She started 2024 with a bang, releasing her sophomore EP BeautySick on Batu's label Timedance to great acclaim. re:ni was selected out of thousands of applications for the inaugural NTS WIP 2019, a programme aimed to provide mentoring and career development for eight artists. Since then she has become a monthly resident on NTS radio alongside Hessle Audio affiliate Laksa, with whom she also runs the esteemed south London party re:lax.
Laksa
(UK)
Laksa will perform b2b with re:ni (UK).
Running the label, club night and NTS show ‘re:lax’ with re:ni, Laksa has been consistently pushingbass mutations since his early EPs on Batu’s Timedance. A Bristol bass head at heart, his hybridsound has found a home on many respected labels such as Hessle Audio, Ilian Tape, Tra Tra Traxand AD93, cementing his place amongst the latest UK talent. He has added to this list with hisdebut EP for re:lax–Body Score EP–which had support from the likes of Surgeon and DJ Nobu toMantra.With shows at institutions like Berghain, Nowadays and Printworks, along with gigs across Europeand Asia, he effortlessly blurs styles and genres with a UK rudeness. With more music and releaseslined up for re:lax in 2024, Laksa will continue to explore his interests and sound, and push thingsFWD.
Martyna Basta
(PL, SHAPE+)
Krakow-based artist Martyna Basta’s diaristic sound shapes a delicate atmosphere that balances lush and haunting. Classically trained in guitar, the Polish composer escaped academia at the age of 18, replacing her native instrument with a synth. She soon developed a unique way of composing, involving modulated voice, electronics, and field recordings. This radical transformation was captured on her first album Making Eye Contact with Solitude released on the Slovak label Warm Winters, which introduced her as part of a new wave in the European experimental scene. After the release of her debut, she reached back for acoustic instruments like guitar and zither, establishing her unique electro-acoustic tone.
Martyna Basta is part of the SHAPE+ platform co-funded by Creative Europe.
Rắn Cạp Đuôi
(VN)
Rắn Cạp Đuôi has been at the forefront of sound art and experimental music in Saigon, Vietnam, since their formation in 2015. Their anachronistic musical approach is evident in their diverse performances, ranging from a nonstop 48-hour performance in a local gallery to a three-drum improvisation for Boiler Room: Sài Gòn. Rắn Cạp Đuôi is in a constant state of flux, deconstruction and rebirth, resulting in chaotic sheets of sound and compositions which border on violence and beauty. In their music, rooted in improvisation, melancholy textures fuse with home-grown influences, as showcased on their critically acclaimed album *1 (Nhạc Gãy, 2023). As The Quietus stated on their best albums of 2023 list, *1 is a free-flowing, freewheeling listening experience, almost like a four-deck ambient DJ set where textures are layered scrupulously, coming in and out of the mix – a kaleidoscopic collage of fantastical aural events.
NZE NZE
(FR, SHAPE+)
Possessed rhythms and guttural voice. NZE NZE was born in 2021 following a residency at Red Bull's Paris studio. Bringing together the three heads behind Sacred Lodge and the duo UVB76, the project crosses haunted chants, surgical production and dusk atmospheres. At the core we find the Fang warriors (Central Africa) and their stories. All around, sounds ironed through modular patches and effects pedals. At the end, a music that draws on industrial music, dub and post-punk.
NZE NZE is part of the SHAPE+ platform co-funded by Creative Europe.
rouge-ah
(SI)
Urška Preis, aka rouge-ah, is a composer, harpist, visual artist and writer. Under the moniker rouge-ah, they explore sound and are currently researching dreams, nightmares and other sleep disruptions. Their main instruments are acoustic and electric harp, with a tendency of extracting uncharacteristic sounds from them. Since relocating to Berlin in Spring 2022, rouge-ah has become a regular at some of the edgiest live music venues in the city, carrying their electric harp and effects pedals everywhere, from smoky underground basements to cosy Neukölln record shops to Berghain Kantine, always bringing fresh and unexpected sounds, from layers of delicate notes to roars of feedback and distortion that seem to conceal an orchestra or a choir in full flow.
Fujita Pinnacle
(SI)
Fujita Pinnacle made a name for himself in Slovenia’s underground scene by hosting the Štrom event series as a part of the local creative collective Nimaš Izbire. After a few prominent releases on Scumtapes, Chao Gardem and SNIF, he took on Europe’s alternative broadcasts, most notably performing at Hör Berlin and hosting residencies at Operator, Cashmere and Subtle Radio. His production and live performances pay tribute to the old-school rave legacy, while also incorporating unpredictable bits of internet-age freshness and ex-yu influence, always creating explosive dancefloor ordeals to look out for. His DJ sets are full of wide-ranging material from every possible era of old-school dance music, which he smoothly blends with percussively intense variants of contemporary music production.
SAUD
(RS)
SAUD (säwdĆ', saudade, sud) colours the vitalist legacy of hardcore continuum's breakbeat patterns with contemporary, iridescent gradients, gravitating towards a regenerated form of rhythmic psychedelia. Alongside Dorian Fuk, he is co-founder of Belgrade's future-oriented rave platform SUTRA that has brought artists such as Aisha Devi, Mumdance, Batu, Abadir, Aya, Ehua, Lee Gamble, Slikback, Lakker, Flore, Peder Mannerfelt, Ploy, Aquarian and others to Serbia over the last 7 years. Since his Boiler Room in 2019, SAUD has positioned himself as the foremost fwd-thinking DJ of the Belgrade scene specializing in multicolour hypersonics laid across divergent rhythms and tempi, never losing the grip on dynamics and physicality. Besides running the club night, last year he played in NYC, Berlin, France, Austria, Belgium, Norway, Czechia, Beirut, Istanbul, and all around the Balkans. Finally, in late 2023 together with artist friends he opened a new venue in New Belgrade, KC ŽIVA.
Nicola Ratti
(IT, SHAPE+)
Nicola Ratti is a multifaceted musician, composer, sound designer and professor of sound space design at Brera Academy. For years, he has been active in various experimental fields, theatre, cinema, performing arts and sound art. His approach to production relies on systems that take shape from repetition and expansion, with particular attention to the construction of environments that gravitate in relation to the space and architecture we inhabit, playing with emotional and perceptual orientations. Beside his solo work for labels such as Where To Now? and Room40, he is also part of other collaborative projects such as Bellows, NR/MA and What We Do When in Silence.
Nicola Ratti is part of the SHAPE+ platform co-funded by Creative Europe.
Iztok Koren
(SI, SHAPE+)
Iztok Koren will present his new solo project Spaces, a spatial exploration of timbres, harmonies, noises and drones.
Iztok Koren is a Slovenian multiinstrumentalist (banjo, gembri, balafon, guitar, effects, synth, drums, percusions, objects), whose singular artistic expression exists at the crossroads between improvised music, minimalism and outsider folk. He is a member of the critically acclaimed imaginary folk trio Širom, the post-rock act ŠKM Banda, the noise/industrial duo Hexenbrutal and other occasional projects. Reflecting the existential emptiness of 21st century life, in his music he intimately explores various shades of hope and sadness in search of zen.
Iztok Koren is part of the SHAPE+ platform co-funded by Creative Europe.
Bridget Ferrill
(USA, DE, SHAPE+)
The music of Berlin-based musician, composer and sound engineer Bridget Ferrill moves between composition and noise, exploring extended instruments, handmade electronics and experimental computer music. Her album with Áslaug Magnúsdóttir, Woodwind Quintet, was released in 2022 on Subtext Recordings. Her latest solo album Only was released on ENXPL, a joint cassette series of Psychic Liberation and Enmossed. Ferrill is also a well-known studio
engineer who regularly collaborates with well-known artists such as Bendik Giske, Caterina Barbieri, Julia Reidy and others.
Bridget Ferrill is part of the SHAPE+ platform co-funded by Creative Europe.
Pixel Bambi
(SI)
Beti Frim aka Pixel Bambi is a visual artist who combines digital and analogue media in search of different ways of coexistence. As a designer and VJ she collaborates with the collectives Ustanova and Nimaš izbire. She has also produced animations for the London-based Be More Childish label and Slovenian bands such as Masaž and mala roza muca of which she is also a member.
Marc Villanova
(CT, ES)
Marc Vilanova (1991) is a sound and visual artist working at the intersection of art, science and technology. Vilanova’s artistic production has always been led by a spirit of innovation fueled by an interest in new media. Merging research and artistic practices onto projects in which concepts such audio visuality, automation, machine self-expression, AI and superintelligence and the socio- political implications regarding society’s relationship with technology are explored.
Currently, he creates audiovisual installations while also working with performance and interdisciplinary collaborations with dance, theater, and moving images. His pieces have been presented in festivals around the world in Japan, the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Iran, Taiwan, South Korea, Russia and many countries in Europe.
He has received numerous grants, awards and residencies.
Supported by Ramon Llull Institute. 'Cascade' was partially realized within the framework of a European Media Art Platform residency program at gnration co-funded by the European Union. This presentation was co-funded by WRO Art Center.
