Wednesday 22 September 2021, 7.30pm
Excited to host DJ, turntablist and 2020 Oram Award winner, NikNak, performing an improvised set on an 8 Channel surround-sound speaker setup. This will be the premier of NikNak's newest creations during the Sound Generator R&D, focusing on a futuristic surround-sound exploration into Turntablism and identity, as a young black woman starts to discover that she has superpowers.
"it’s clear [NikNak] is making experimental music far away from our expectations of what it should be. It mingles with other genres; it tells stories that can be personal, emotional, grounded in the real world..." – HCMF
NIKNAK regularly redefines and expands upon her role as a ground-breaking multidisciplinary artist. Her debut album Bashi was listed by Resident Advisor as one of their Best Albums in January 2021 and received airplay on BBC Radio 3, Worldwide FM and Threads Radio. Previously mentored by Shiva Feshareki, Anna Meredith and Supriya Nagaranjan, NikNak became the first Black turntablist in history to win the illustrious Oram Award in 2020. Her work has been featured in renowned publications such as Mixmag, Resident Advisor, Yorkshire Evening Post, Clash Magazine, Electronic Sound Mag, The Wire and DJ Mag. NikNak is dedicated to expanding her unique turntablism practice within immersive surround-sound compositions and improvised performances. She is also a DJ, radio presenter and producer, and a podcaster.
Xana is a freestyle live loop musician, sound artist, vibrational sound designer, composer, archival audio producer, spatial installation artist, bassist and theatremaker, who deconstructs words to make improvisational performances and composes scores for spaces through Xanas genres orchestral noise and thicc bass.
Xanas improvisational techniques have made way for Xanas work to feature in projects internationally as well as UK based across theatre, film, live installations, archiving, fashion and tech festivals.
Xana blends Xanas deep love and embodiment for Caribbean folklore, magical realism and science fiction in their live sets as a channel to burn down and build anew, inventing new streams of sonic layering and inviting audiences to be a part of making protest music that leaves you shook. Xana is the instigator of Soulcase collective, a sound research, inventors and music archive label for Black African and Caribbean people who invent new forms of musical creation and software.
