SAVE THE DATE
Full Of Lava 20.-23.11.25

Klein is an experimental musician, producer and artist from South London. With eight album/EP releases on Hyperdub Records and her own label Parkwuud Entertainment, Klein has established herself as a unique voice within the experimental music and art scene. She has a knack for bringing together a wide range of materials and atmospheres. Her artistic work is often a fusion of popular reference points with personal associations; of video, live performance, music and poetry. From piano-heavy solos to punk-pop guitars and bass drops, the music is supported by a persistent, almost hypnotic rhythm.

Klein has performed at London’s Barbican and ICA, filmed her own stage musical, collaborated with Wu Tsang and has Björk’s number saved in her contacts.

On her album marked, released in summer of 2024, Klein limits herself almost exclusively to a palette of shrill guitar sounds; nearly every minute is taken up by her guitar and distorted beyond recognition.

—__–____ is the collaborative music project of Seth Graham (co-founder of the experimental and visually striking Ohio label Orange Milk) and Brooklyn-based composer and multi-instrumentalist more eaze (a.k.a. Mari Maurice). With their 2021 album The Heart Pumps Cool-Aid, the duo made a name for themselves within the experimental music scene – despite their unpronounceable name.

The music of —__–____ is characterized by delicate, crystallizing and calm auto-tune vocals, pitch shifting, constant distortion and alternating between quiet sequences and brute noise outbursts. A pleasantly bizarre sensory overload of hyper-compressed guitars, violins and synthesizers, breakbeats and other chaos, which at times seems dreamlike and surreal.

The second album Night Of Fire seems to be the logical, perhaps even more bent continuation of the first album. «Inspired by gas stations, race tracks, county fairs, improper music production, a feeling of total disregard and that everything matters except the value placed on it » – this is how the duo describe their latest album on Bandcamp.

Double bassist, violonist, pianist and experimental sound artist – this is a very inaccurate description of Damsel Elysium’s artistic nature. Although she has been described by Vogue magazine as «London’s most stylish experimental sound artist» and has also performed on stage with FKA Twigs, Damsel Elysium is still a little-known name. Earlier this year, the British label AD93 (Coby Sey, Moin, Martha Skye Murphy) released the debut Whispers from Ancient Vessels, shortly before which Elysium made an appearance with the audio documentary/podcast «What does decolonization in music look like?»

Berlin-based Swiss musician and sound artist Samuel Savenberg has put together a band of well-known players of the local experimental and experimental pop scene: Producer and DJ Belia Winnewisser is just as much a part of it as accordionist Tizia Zimmermann, who usually works in improv projects, or trumpet player Hannes Rief from the German synth pop band Die Selektion. Together they create an organic, two-dimensional sound construct, a kind of electro-acoustic dark ambient.

claire rousay lives in Los Angeles and her sound assemblages are both a diary-like portal into her creator’s life and an exercise in dressing and undressing the audio field with compositional threads that feel loosely entangled yet carefully woven. With a series of recordings since 2020, rousay has come closer aesthetically to the temperament of an inward-looking world than many of today’s sound artists. claire rousay’s music focuses on personal emotions and the small details of everyday life – voice messages, field recordings – and decodes their meaning.

Her album sentiment, released by Thrill Jockey at the beginning of the year, marked a major musical leap forward. Now a good portion of pop and even folk music has found its way into her music. The voice has moved to the foreground (albeit mostly alienated by effects), guitars and violin are always present, song structures are no longer only slightly hinted at, but unfold openly. The combination of avant-garde techniques with melancholic singer/songwriter pop and slowcore is certainly unique in this way.

Spresso is a recent band project by Alpha Maid and Mica Levi – a clever, glitchy revival of noise rock and edgy, electrified post-punk.

Alpha Maid is the alias of experimental British artist, guitarist and producer Leisha Thomas, who combines lo-fi grunge and glitch electronics in her compositions. Mica Levi’s musical work spans various media – from orchestral compositions to band formations and film music (including Under The Skin, Jackie, The Zone Of Interest). Levi has released two highly artistic DIY albums in 2020/2021 with Ruff Dog and Blue Alibi, is part of the experimental band project Good Sad Happy Bad (fka Micachu and The Shapes), the music collective and label CURL (together with Coby Sey and Brother May) and a composer collaborator of Tirzah.

Spresso’s sound can be heard so far mainly on the three EPs spresso, FAST SET CEMENT and Rockstars, which have been released successively since 2023 and whose content is characterized by ghostly autotune vocals, noisy guitar riffs and cavernous post-punk rhythm spirals. Live, Levi and Thomas are supported by drummer and multidisciplinary artist Zach Thomas.

The Welsh vocalist, electronic musician and producer Elvin Brandhi is clearly one of the most sought-after players in experimental music in recent years, which ultimately led her to give up her permanent residence in Vienna and travel the world as a nomadic artist. After trying her hand at music for a few years in the noise/rap father-daughter duo Yeah You, she started her solo project and numerous duos shortly before the turn of the decade: With Lord Spikeheart, singer of the Indonesian band Duma, with Nadah El Shazly from Cairo (as Pollution Opera) and with the Japanese DJ Scotch Egg (as Soulsick). She also performs with PLF, a trio with the two Viennese musicians Peter Kutin and Lukas Koenig. However, the full uniqueness of her powerful, noisy and virtuoso music only really comes to the fore in her rather rare solo performances.

Chinese artist Lane Shi Otayonii aka otay:onii produces music like a captivating fever dream full of discomfort and boundless tension. Her powerful concerts incorporate elements of visual art and technology. As a musician, multidisciplinary installation artist, sound designer and film composer, otay:onii is keen to think in terms of diversity and crossing boundaries when creating her musical oeuvre. The palette ranges from contemporary electronic pop music to excursions into distant worlds and decades to sound collages.

otay:onii is an artist of the SHAPE+ platform for innovative music and interdisciplinary art, co-funded by the European Union and Pro Helvetia.

SHAPE+ is co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

Fractura is the music/performance project of Zurich musician Simon Grab with Argentinian dancer Miranda Codesal, filmmaker Jonathan Jäggi and choreographer Paula Monesterolo. Fractura is a scenic and immersive audiovisual exploration of organisms that emerge in the sound space created by Simon Grab. The performance with live music is aggressive, seductive and monstrous at the same time – more won’t be revealed here.

Simon Grab is known for his numerous electronic projects, primarily his duo with Togolese rapper Yao Bobby. Miranda Codesal was part of the Ballet Municipal del Teatro 3 de Febrero in Paraná and the Compagnie Vórtice. Paula Monesterolo from Buenos Aires explores the symbiosis between body, space and technology and creates new relationships through film, dance, electronic music and new digital image technologies.

Zubeyda Muzeyyen is DJ Haram – musician, producer and DJ from Brooklyn. She is also one half of the hip-hop/noise duo 700 Bliss, which she runs together with Moor Mother. In her own music, she combines her love of bass music with sounds from the Middle East and the methods of the North American DIY noise scene in which she moves. Muzeyyen is based on Kode9’s Hyperdub label and has produced Armand Hammer and worked as a remix artist for Fever Ray.

Violeta García is a cellist, improviser and composer from Buenos Aires, Argentina, living in Switzerland and Italy. After years of studying classical and popular music on the cello and later contemporary composition and improvisation, García realized that she wanted to make her own music and develop her own musical voice outside of specific genres. She performs in many art forms, including free improvisation, contemporary and cross-media experimental repertoire for cello and electronics, and collaborations with dancers, filmmakers and visual artists. She is also part of the «latinx experimental grrrl noise-punk rock band» Blanco Teta.

The mysterious English project Gazelle Twin from the county of Kent has been a source of confusion and goosebumps since 2010. While Elizabeth Bernholz, the person behind Gazelle Twin, initially performed exclusively in a stocking mask and with a musical partner, for the live project Gazelle Twin: Kingdom Come (to be seen during Saint Ghetto 2017) she sent musician friends on tour and stayed at home herself to prepare for a birth. For the album Pastoral, which in a way anticipated the folkloric return of many British acts like Lankum, there was a new costume and still a completely covered face.

For the current Black Dog project, the mask has now been removed. Instead, the live performance takes on an almost theatrical dimension, with Bernholz processing her experiences in her old Victorian family home on this album, the sounds, shadows and many other indications that the house was possessed or at least disturbed by something ghostly, far from any childish imagination. The simultaneously beguiling and disturbing electronic music and Bernholz’s haunting speaking/singing voice combine with an impressive stage presence and visual effects to create a masterful, conceptual concert.

As a British musician of Caribbean origin, Florence Sinclair soaked up the hip-hop and grime movement on the island and began developing a musical language of its own as a teenager. The complex personal identity is reflected in a fusion of different musical genres and production techniques. Dean Blunt is always audible as a major influence. Collaborations with Space Afrika and Iceboy Violet also give clear indications of scene affiliation.

The songs on the current album Departures, wonders & tears echo into each other like dreams and transition from enchanted club sounds to evocative and melancholy chamber pop. It’s a maelstrom of Black British history and culture that subverts nostalgia and recontextualizes familiar themes for a new generation.

This summer, London musician Martha Skye Murphy released an impressive debut album on the London label AD93. She has already appeared as a guest vocalist on albums by Squid and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, and now Um reveals the music that has lain dormant in her over the years. Opulently orchestrated pop music with a highly complex structure that could never be described as experimental. The comparison with Kate Bush, which cannot be dismissed out of hand, also fits here, but there are also flashes of memories of the Swedish The Tiny and Stina Nordenstram or the Danish Under Byen. «I want people to feel disoriented, erotically charged by the intimacy of a bedroom, then catapulted into a desert» says Murphy about her multi-layered and delightful work. At Full Of Lava she performs in a seven-piece full band formation.

Deli Girls are a queer, activist duo from Brooklyn who were driven by their interest in punk, noisecore and the extreme varieties of electronic music to become musically active themselves. If the term electropunk wasn’t worn out, it would apply perfectly to Deli Girls. Digital hardcore meets gabber and hyperpop. Overstimulating, positively confrontational, cathartic, inspiring.

Cally Statham is an English songwriter, electronic music producer, composer and performance artist from Oldham, England. Influences from David Bowie, Beth Gibbons and Aphex Twin shape her and her darkly dramatic song craft, bold vocals and the textures of her collage-like sound production. The sometimes spooky, mostly rumbling rhythmic experimental pop is likely to make a name for itself in the future. Currently there is still very little music to be heard from her, the streaming channels do not yet know her name. And yet she is already performing with a stage design created especially for her by the well-known scenographer Emmanuel Biard, who counts Aisha Devi and Evian Christ among his clients.

After her live performance on Thursday evening, Klein will play a DJ set on Saturday night. Expect the unexpected.

pr1nc1p3ss4 aka Binta Kopp is a photographer, artist and DJ. Her sets captivate with a playful yet sophisticated mix of deconstructed beats, pop music and experimental electronic sounds, which always reflect her broad musical and pop-cultural interests and knowledge.

Cellist, singer and composer Mabe Fratti comes from Guatemala and lives in Mexico City. Supported by electronic sound production, she combines contemporary elements such as shoegaze and dream pop with ancient influences ranging from Gregorian chants to Sephardic music. She does this on her outstanding new album Sentir Que No Sabes and at concerts together with a three-piece backing band. Mabe Fratti’s singing and cello playing are always at the heart of her enchanting and mesmerizing musical creations.

Antonina Nowacka is a vocal artist, composer and sound artist from Warsaw who combines a unique technique of vocal reproduction based on traditional techniques from different cultures with dreamy atmospheres and imaginary soundscapes. Last year, she performed with Swiss musicians Rea Dubach and Catia Lanfranchi in the caves of the Magdalena Einsiedelei, and now she is performing a solo concert on the Full Of Lava stage, sometimes accompanied by Catia Lanfranchi.

On her second album Sylphine Soporifera, released this summer, she expands her sound palette to include organ, zither, harp and ocarina sounds and synthesizers. The center of almost all songs, however, is still Nowacka’s voice, her wordless intonations and their echo in the discreetly interwoven music, which doesn’t pull on classical New Age registers and sometimes breaks out in the direction of Jon Hassel’s «Fourth World Music». Meditative and highly experimental at the same time.

Antonina Nowacka is an artist of the SHAPE+ platform for innovative music and interdisciplinary art, co-funded by the European Union and Pro Helvetia

SHAPE+ is co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

Studio Mondial is a monthly show on Radio Bollwerk presented by Trillion Tapeman, Heiko and Kia Mann. Music as a source of pure joy, fuelled by curiosity, and driven by the pursuit of perfect aesthetics despite the contradictions it presents. Researching the unconventional, embracing niche realms and defying boundaries are not merely a requirement, but an attitude. The concept lies in transcending and surpassing boundaries, making each performance a thrilling and enticing playground where the unexpected takes centre stage.