EXPOP 2025

Shortly after the world premiere at Rewire Festival in The Hague, we have the honour of presenting Lyra Pramuk’s new show at EXPOP.

The Czech word pramen – the root of Pramuk – refers to a spring or fountain. So perhaps it is a kind of fate that the musician and composer Lyra Pramuk has produced such a rich source of creative and flowing music. With her debut album Fountain (2020), Pramuk became an artist at the forefront of experimental chamber pop. On Fountain, Pramuk used her own voice as the only instrument, moulding and distorting it through electronic manipulations so that listeners could be swept away by the flowing atmosphere and undulating melodies. Pramuk’s futuristic folk music combines classical vocal techniques, contemporary club sensibilities and pop-tinged experimentation. Pramuk’s voice forms the centrepiece around which many parts are grouped: swirling synthesizers, string sounds and shimmering atmosphere are scattered throughout her organic-electronic sound. From all these fragments, Pramuk’s songs create a collage-like world of overlapping and interlocking parts. For her new programme, she collaborates with two live musicians.

Stef Van Looveren’s artistic practice is an alchemical journey—one that defies singular categorization, seamlessly blending video art with performance to activate sculptural installations. Their work is imbued with mysticism and magic, drawing upon alchemical processes and transmutation to explore the fluidity of existence.

In their latest performance, «CONFESSIONS», Van Looveren invites us to witness the construction and deconstruction of identities. What was once rigid and fragile melts and reshapes itself like a living entity, echoing the ever-changing nature of selfhood.

Rooted in body art, Van Looveren’s work pushes limits, weaving together religious iconography, technology, pop culture, and BDSM into a seamless, evocative form of self-exploration. Utilizing a diverse array of materials—from silicone and metal to wax and glass—they forge new symbols of transition, inner transformation and metamorphosis.

«CONFESSIONS» is an invitation to step into a realm where boundaries dissolve, identities shift, and transformation becomes tangible. Van Looveren crafts an experience that is both intimate and universal, urging us to embrace the fluid, alchemical nature of our own existence.

Rick Farin is a digital artist, director and musician whose work involves building cinematic worlds, virtual reality often in conjunction with electronic music. Through the use of game engines and digital design tools, Farin explores the intersection of technology, culture and critical storytelling, constantly blurring the boundaries of medium and message.

In 2018, Rick Farin founded Studio Actual Objects together with his partner Claire Farin. Since then, the two have continued to set new standards for the relation between music and visuals by mixing live recordings, AI techniques and futuristic visual effects. This has led them to develop a radical signature style that has flowed into work with and for artists such as Charli XCX, Eartheater, Caroline Polachek, VTSS, Sega Bodega, Bad Bunny, Yves Tumor and A.G Cook.

At EXPOP, Rick and Claire Farin present the audiovisual live show «CHAOS PLAY LIVE», which is based on and visually performs Rick Farin’s album Wretched (with collaborations by Eartheater and Sega Bodega, among others), released in 2024.

bela is a Berlin-based musician and performance artist. On stage, bela growls in a guttural voice – influenced by a long-standing love of death metal – across electronic pungmul music, a Korean folk music rooted in agricultural traditions. bela addresses facets of queer rage through the process of a kind of on ceremony, where the celebration of club sounds meets bela’s vision of folk music from homeland. bela has performed at CTM Festival in Berlin, Unsound Festival in Krakow and Rewire Festival in The Hague, supporting artists such as Pharmakon and Eli Keszler on vocals.

For EXPOP, bela will stand behind the DJ decks of the Dampfzentrale foyer and perform as a special guest at a concert – expect a surprise.

 In the realm between internet culture and the hard-hitting punch of reality is where KALIXYS lives. To her, there is no such thing as cringe, no shame in self-expression, no need to explain herself, and no reason to suppress extending her claws on you if she wants to. KALIXYS is warm and cold, nice and mean, shy and sexy, soft and hard, slow and fast, basic and camp – and always hits the mark. 

KALIXYS is a DJ, Producer, Performer, Promoter and Editor. Since 2018 she’s a resident at Klub Kegelbahn in Lucerne, Switzerland where she hosts her own nxc-party “meow meow :3”. She’s currently the editor-in-chief at a radio station, where she founded and hosted her own show “queertopia” highlighting music from queer artists like her. 

The music of the duo AKA HEX – consisting of Aïsha Devi and Slikback – combines Devi’s ethereal vocals and hypnotising sound aesthetics with Slikback’s frenetic, bass-heavy expertise. Produced by both musicians, the music is sometimes reminiscent of avant pop, other times of experimental club sound and is a highly ecstatic, energetic live event that was performed for the first time at Unsound Festival 2024.

Devi, who was born in Switzerland with Nepalese roots, has made her way through the underground as a producer, singer and curator over the past ten years. On her own label Danse Noire, she released the albums Of Matter and Spirit (2015), DNA Feelings (2018) and Death Is Home (2024), on which she has repeatedly combined sound design with mysticism and multidimensionality as well as avant-garde sensibility with spiritual resonance in a highly original way.

Nairobi-born Slikback is known for his kaleidoscopic approach to producing and composing. Drawing on club, noise, ambient and rap influences, he weaves intense, futuristic soundscapes that challenge and redefine dancefloor norms. His highly prolific output, which can be heard on his Bandcamp releases, culminated in the release of SLIKBACK, a double LP compilation featuring a large collection of his cross-genre productions.

Stef Van Looveren’s artistic practice is an alchemical journey—one that defies singular categorization, seamlessly blending video art with performance to activate sculptural installations. Their work is imbued with mysticism and magic, drawing upon alchemical processes and transmutation to explore the fluidity of existence.

In their latest performance, «CONFESSIONS», Van Looveren invites us to witness the construction and deconstruction of identities. What was once rigid and fragile melts and reshapes itself like a living entity, echoing the ever-changing nature of selfhood.

Rooted in body art, Van Looveren’s work pushes limits, weaving together religious iconography, technology, pop culture, and BDSM into a seamless, evocative form of self-exploration. Utilizing a diverse array of materials—from silicone and metal to wax and glass—they forge new symbols of transition, inner transformation and metamorphosis.

«CONFESSIONS» is an invitation to step into a realm where boundaries dissolve, identities shift, and transformation becomes tangible. Van Looveren crafts an experience that is both intimate and universal, urging us to embrace the fluid, alchemical nature of our own existence.

Tove Agelii from Sweden has been musically active since she was 15 and has ever since produced unconventional tracks between dancefloor and pop, performed as a DJ and walked the catwalks for Acne, Burberry and Dior. Now, 10 years later and with releases on PAN and Halcyon Veil (Mhysa, 700 Bliss, Rabit) to her name, she is releasing her debut album Toxe 2, which also marks her first appearance as a singer. At the same time, she leaves the DJ decks and performs on a few select stages in Europe and Asia. She recorded the songs on Toxe 2 while studying architecture in Holland and they are consistently sung in her parents’ language. «Som En Sol» takes centre stage as an energetic catchy tune. «Toxe is one of the coolest girls in the world» wrote Vogue.

Lolina is an electronic and digital musician. Her music was recently described by a friend of hers as weird trip-pop improvisation nonsense that sounds a bit like a certain kind of 70s prog. Lolina’s latest album Unrecognisable was released in 2024 on her own label Relaxin Records. She will be performing at EXPOP under her alias Balmainjeans – a new DJ project by Lolina.

In the realm between internet culture and the hard-hitting punch of reality is where KALIXYS lives. To her, there is no such thing as cringe, no shame in self-expression, no need to explain herself, and no reason to suppress extending her claws on you if she wants to. KALIXYS is warm and cold, nice and mean, shy and sexy, soft and hard, slow and fast, basic and camp – and always hits the mark.

KALIXYS is a DJ, Producer, Performer, Promoter and Editor. Since 2018 she’s a resident at Klub Kegelbahn in Lucerne, Switzerland where she hosts her own nxc-party “meow meow :3”. She’s currently the editor-in-chief at a radio station, where she founded and hosted her own show “queertopia” highlighting music from queer artists like her.