C2C FESTIVAL / 20 YEARS OF

Arca is one of the world’s most transformative musical talents. Since breaking through with her 2012 EPs ‘Stretch 1’ and ‘Stretch 2’, she’s created an unprecedented body of work drawing from club music, experimental noise, and the ballad tradition of her native Venezuela, while reaching beyond music to encompass performance, visual art, and technology. As a collaborator with Björk, Kanye West, and FKA twigs, she’s stretched contemporary music’s sonic boundaries and helped set the sound of her era. As a Latinx nonbinary trans woman, she’s redefined the role of the diva for a new generation.

Autechre are an English electronic music group consisting of Rob Brown and Sean Booth, both natives of Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Formed in 1987, the duo are one of the most prominent acts signed with Warp Records. Their music has exhibited a gradual shift in aesthetic throughout their career, from their earlier work with clear roots in techno, electro and hip hop to later albums that are often considered more experimental in nature, featuring complex patterns of rhythm and subdued melodies.

The Autechre live experience is a classically pitch-dark mind-warping audio affair.

aya is actually a real person from the North. Her work is primarily concerned with the transfigurative power of experience and memory on the physical body. aya’s heavily anticipated debut LP ‘im hole’ is set for release with Hyperdub on October 22nd. she has previously released music with Local Action, 2BReal, Tri Angle Records, Astral Plane Recordings and Wisdom Teeth. She co-runs the label YCO with BFTT, a home things for all things Yes Come On. Asides from her philanthropic work as self-proclaimed First Lady of the Bootleg, aya is in her 3rd year of monthly radio residency with NTS, whom she loves with her whole heart.

Belfast-born, London-based duo Bicep (Matt McBriar and Andy Ferguson) released their
critically acclaimed second album, “Isles”, on 22 January 2021 on Ninja Tune. The record
reached #2 in the Official UK Album Charts, with the duo going on to be nominated for 2 x
BRIT Awards, an incredible achievement for an independent electronic act.
Two years in the making, “Isles” expands on the artful energy of their 2017 debut “Bicep”,
while digging deeper into the sounds, experiences and emotions that have influenced their
lives and work.
Bicep’s globe-trotting sound was forged as their own rapid ascent through the musical ranks
began after starting their legendary FeelMyBicep blog in 2008, its humble trove of Italo,
house and disco deep cuts grew into a runaway success.

Bill Kouligas is an artist, designer and musician based in Berlin. He is known as the founder and artistic director of the multidisciplinary platform and record label PAN, which has hosted artists such as Pan Daijing, Pelada, Anne Imhof, Puce Mary, Amnesia Scanner, Lucy Railton and Yves Tumor.
In his artistic practice Kouligas draws inspiration from diverse sources, traditions, and various subcultures. He adapts those sources and relates them to contemporary life through an evolving experimentation with different media in multidimensional works through sound, visual and performance.

Under several aliases, Kouligas has produced, composed and released electronic music for nearly 15 years to date, and performed in venues such as London’s ICA, MoMA PS1, Volksbühne Berlin, Kammerspiele Munich, V&A Museum London, as well as at global festivals and club institutions (Berghain, Mutek, Unsound, Transmediale, CTM to name but a few). Throughout his work, he has collaborated with artists such as Harm van den Dorpel, Seth Price, Paweł Althamer, Spiros Hadjidjanos, Amnesia Scanner, Mat Dryhurst and Nora Khan, among others.

His solo work and as well as his vision with the label shows a remarkable ability in pushing the boundaries of musical genres to undiscovered territories, which members of the global press (Frieze, Resident Advisor, Pitchfork, NPR, BBC, The Guardian, Red Bull Radio, MixMag, FACT Magazine, Flash Art and more) have rewarded with consistent appreciation.

Blackhaine is a UK based project operating between Noise and Drill.

With its origins in the static anxiety of 2020, their output focuses on the ‘transition from stomach knotted dread to exhaustive, prang-out negative ecstasy’.
A political act – the live show contains deconstructions of their existing sounds and future releases whilst experimenting with genre convention ranging from ambience to hardcore punk.
Previous releases include And Salford Falls Apart and Armour.

In 2014 Dan Snaith aka Caribou released Our Love to overwhelming critical acclaim and top 5 ‘Album of the Year’ positions for the likes of The Guardian, Mixmag, Loud & Quiet and NME. Now, five years later, Caribou returns with his seventh studio album Suddenly, a warm, untameable and constantly surprising album about family and the changes we go though as those relationships evolve. Our Love was an open-armed exploration of the concept of love in its grandest form, both as an expression of gratitude to his fans and as an examining of that one thing that matters most in life. Suddenly however takes that concept and winnows it down, directly applying it to real life and the people to whom that love means the most.

“It used to be easier to make music that existed in my imagination only,” says Snaith. “That sense of exploration and discovery, the visceral excitement of creating something, is still there, but it doesn’t seem like it’s possible any longer to have the changes in my life not make an impression on my music”.

Caterina Barbieri is an Italian composer and musician currently based in Milano. Her work explores the psycho-physical effects of repetition and pattern-based operations in music, by investigating the polyphonic and polyrhythmic potential of sequencers to draw complex geometries in time and space.

Approaching music practice as an integrative cognitive feedback between humans and technology lies at the core of her current sonic research, which focuses on the creative use of computation and complex sequencing techniques to trigger temporal and spatial hallucinations, often exploring states of trance and emotional focus. Pitchfork has described her music as “a mind-altering journey” and “a dreammachine for the ears”.

Her first release Vertical, composed for Buchla 200 and vocals, was produced between Elektronmusikstudion and the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and released via Important Records’ Cassauna offshoot (2014). Since then, her work has been extensively presented in festivals and venues across the world such as Atonal and Berliner Festspiele, Mutek, Unsound, Sonar, Primavera Sound, Dekmantel, Barbican Centre, Philharmonie de Paris, Berghain, Biennale di Venezia.

Her full-length debut album Patterns of Consciousness (Important Records, 2017) has been named as one of the best releases of the year and the decade. Her 2019 release on Editions Mego, Ecstatic Computation, has been critically acclaimed and is record of the year on Bleep. Caterina has collaborated with a variety of artists including Kali Malone (as Upper Glossa), Carlo Maria (as Punctum), Drew McDowall, Bendik Giske and Lyra Pramuk, as well as the visual artist Ruben Spini, who created the visuals for the A/V performance Time-blind.

She has recently signed her first movie soundtrack for Pascual Sisto’s “John and the Hole”, that was selected at Cannes 2020 and Sundance 2021, as well as scored fashion shows by Fendi, Gucci, Calvin Klein and Off-White.

She’s also the founder of the independent label platform light-years.

Barbieri holds a Master degree in classical guitar and a Bachelor’s degree in electroacoustic composition from the Conservatory of Bologna, Italy, alongside a Bachelor’s degree from the Faculty of Humanities and Philosophy of Bologna with a thesis in Ethnomusicology about Hindustani music and minimalism.

Based in Toulouse since 2015, Tunisian DJ and producer Deena Abdelwahed signed with Parisian label InFiné and released her first EP Klabb in 2017, followed by her first full-length album in 2018. Titled Khonnar, the work acts as a manifesto, declaring war against the violence and oppression imposed by borders, migratory constraints and repressive laws. Abdelwahed’s voice rings out like a siren amidst chaotic grooves, urging the listener to stand up and be counted. With her 2020 EP Dhakar, this queer experimentalist brings her message to the dancefloor with pieces that draw on the sonic influences of her birthplace, be it rhythmic structures, samples or other local roots; a highly versatile construct acting as yet another proof of the producer’s unique ability to merge the standards of Arab music with those of club music. Through live performances and DJ sets, Deena Abdelwahed appeared on stage at a number of world-renowned events such as Sonar Festival, Tunisia’s Dunes Electroniques, Berlin’s CTM Festival, Amsterdam’s Dekmantel, Belgium’s Dour Festival, Mexico’s and Montréal’s editions of MUTEK or Prague’s Lunchmeat Festival, as well as illustrious clubs such as Concrete in Paris, Berghain in Berlin and Mutabor in Moscow, among others.

Merging techno, Arab musical frameworks and hypnotic vocal harmonies, Deena Abdelwahed’s music doesn’t soothe; the sounds she crafts unambiguously reflect the frustrations and violence of the modern world, yet unleash a torrent of life-saving energy and rhythms intended to induce meaningful change.

DJ Plead is a Melbourne/Naarm producer, based in Berlin with a Lebanese background making unique club music. He is known for playing tough, functional, and percussive tracks with references from the rhythms, scales and timbres of Lebanese pop and traditional Lebanese wedding music, blending this with contemporary RnB, Club and other dance styles. As a producer, he has stripped back his sound creating a mix of frenetic yet refined and emotional tracks that are consistently played by the likes of Four Tet, Joy Orbison or Anthony Naples.

For his DECISIONS debut EP, DJ Plead delivers a unique set of deep dance floor tools with sumptuous percussions drawn from Plead’s Lebanese background, masterfully arranged to propel the listener into deeply mesmeric rhythmic zones with hypnotic vocal and synth loops gleefully entwined throughout the EP, The EP title simultaneously references dancing circles at Lebanese weddings and the anthemic samples of footwork producers such as DJ Roc.

In April 2020, Jamie xx ended months of speculation about exactly who’s behind one of the year’s most sought after club tracks with the release of “Idontknow”. Available via Young Turks, “Idontknow” is Jamie’s first solo artist release since his highly acclaimed BRIT and GRAMMY® nominated 2015 debut album In Colour.

Today sees the premiere of the accompanying ‘Idontknow’ video. The video stars acclaimed Belfast dancer and choreographer Oona Doherty, who co-directed the film with Luca Truffarelli. The pair filmed the video in Belfast in March 2020, the night before Northern Ireland went into lockdown. Jamie and Oona had originally connected during the making of ‘Idontknow’, with Oona and her friends responding to the track with a series of clips of them dancing to the track (which in turn inspired a host of dance-based responses from fans).

Jockstrap, the unique pop duo made up of Taylor Skye and Georgia Ellery, emerged out of a new wave of pop acts who refuse to confine themselves to any single genre, style or cultural reference
point. Having met at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, their sonic expertise allows them to take listeners on a wild ride jumping from powerful pop choruses to drill-inspired breaks, from classical violin to dancehall. Jockstrap are weird and wonderful
with an infectious energy that has garnered them attention and champions from all across the music world and beyond. Their eclecticism and their ability to appreciate the full spectrum of music, is what makes them so undeniably important because they reflect
the culture so perfectly. Jockstrap push the boundaries until the boundaries, barriers and boxes no longer exist- just pure unadulterated sensual pop!

Kode9 aka Steve Goodman is a DJ/Producer, artist and writer. He set up the record label Hyperdub in 2004, and in 2019 the sub label Flatlines to focus on audio essays and sonic fiction. From 2017, he co-curated Hyperdub’s monthly event series Ø. His book ‘Sonic Warfare’ was published on MIT Press in 2010 and with AUDINT he co-edited the book Unsound: Undead for Urbanomic Press in 2019. He has produced numerous installations, and his sound designs have also been presented as part of the Hyundai commission at the Tate Modern (2018) and the Barbican AI: More than Human in London (2019). He has recorded 3 albums, 2 with the late vocalist The Spaceape; Memories of Future (2006) and Black Sun (2010), and a solo album, Nothing(2015). He has compiled 4 DJ mix compilations, Dubstep Allstars vol.3 (Tempa 2006), DJ Kicks (K7 2011) and Rinse 22 (Rinse 2013), and in 2018, Fabric 100 with Burial. In addition to his record label Hyperdub, he has also released tracks on Aphex Twin’s Rephlex label, Soul Jazz and Rinse and remixed Mr. Fingers, Lee Scratch Perry, the Junior Boys, Battles and Dabrye/MF Doom among others.

Focusing on their craft, staying out of the fray, and holding fast their faith to find new ways to express the discord and delight of being alive, to turn the duality of existence into hymns we can share, Low present HEY WHAT. These ten pieces—each built around their own instantaneous, undeniable hook—are turbocharged by the vivid textures that surround them.The ineffable, familiar harmonies of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker break through the chaos like a life raft. Layers of distorted sound accrete with each new verse – building, breaking, colossal then restrained, a solemn vow only whispered. There will be time to unravel and attribute meaning to the music and art of these times, but the creative moment looks FORWARD, with teeth.

HEY WHAT is Low’s thirteenth full length release in twenty seven years, and their third with producer BJ Burton.

Lyra Pramuk fuses classical vocalism, pop sensibilities, performance practices and contemporary club culture in what can best be described as futurist folk music.

Devotional music, at its core, embodies the deep-seated human urge to express our innermost, primal emotions. For Lyra Pramuk, devotion is ingrained in her futurist folk music that harnesses the power and giddiness of technology to present the human voice as an object of limitless possibility. Growing up singing in choirs, Lyra struggled to conform to the images and expectations of her small Pennsylvania town, creating a deep and complex internet-fueled interior world in response presaging her view of digital worlds as extensions of our embodied consciousness, liberated from real-world notions of presentation and acceptable knowledge.

Lyra is based in Berlin, Germany.

Makaya McCraven is a beat scientist. The cutting edge drummer, producer, and sonic
collagist is a multi-talented force whose inventive creative process & intuitive style of
performance defy categorization.
Called “a sound visionary” (jazzinchicago.org) who is “not your everyday jazz drummer”
(thewordisbond.com), McCraven brilliantly moves between genres and pushes the
boundaries of jazz and rhythm to create forms of his own.
“You are listening to one incredible musician. His style and sound is unique, a heady,
skillful, sophisticated and boldly uncompromising mix of jazz and hip hop…” (UK Vibe)

My Analog Journal is a YouTube channel that is hosted by Zag Erlat, London based music producer, Dj and filmmaker, was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey.

Back in 2015, Zag, being passionate about film photography, would go on a lot of trips in the countryside where he would take a lot of pictures using analog cameras. He would then post them on the YouTube and Instagram accounts, called ‘My Analog Journal’ precisely after the analog photography. Because vinyl can be considered analog music, the connection was easily made. “Eventually, the music content began to gain a lot more traction than the analog photography”

By narrowing down the content, Zag was now able to focus more on the music and so he did a lot of research on the Anatolian rock genre, its golden era, the 70s, and the DJs that used to and are playing it. Through the magic of YouTube, he came to discover a lot of organic grooves and hidden gems from all around the world, like Brazilian funk, Thai Luk Thung, USSR jazz, Afro-funk and Japanese city pop (Japanese funk music). It’s fair to say that in the global 70’s and 80’s funk, his channel found its own voice.

London based composer, producer, and musician Nala Sinephro will be releasing her much anticipated debut
album, Space 1.8. Stepping out on her own with a deeply personal album, this is her first release with Warp
Records, due on September 3 2021
On Space 1.8, we discover Nala Sinephro’s unique sound world as she bends notes and tones, weaving them
together to craft a place of solace. Space 1.8 draws from Sinephro’s interest in frequency and geometry, and is
based on the premise that sound moves matter. The album takes shape as a metaphysical structure, where each
of the eight curative Spaces is a womb-like cocoon created by Sinephro in service of relief and an affirmative,
ecstatic freedom.

Nu Genea is the artistic project from musicians/djs Massimo Di Lena and Lucio Aquilina. The inspirational key comes from a historiographic investigation on dance music since its first steps: following the music routes around the world, Nu Genea collected the sonic echoes that, down the centuries, have touched the shores of Napoli, their hometown and inexhaustible source of cross-cultural sensitivity.

Their meticolous research stands out for exploring uncharted territories, scouting the music from the past and elaborating it in an original groovy equation fully pervaded by disco, funk, boogie, electronic, dub, folk and much more.

Pa Salieu is a majestic flow talent, author of a very personal stylistic code between dancehall and grime, who collaborated with artists such as fka Twigs e BackRoad Gee. “Frontline” was the most played track by Radio BBC 1Xtra in 2020.

Today, Romy releases her debut solo single “Lifetime”. Written and recorded in London during lockdown, “Lifetime” is a song about the dream of being reunited with friends, family and the ones we love, capturing the euphoria of being together again. Carefree and uninhibited, it’s a song that finds Romy giddy on possibility and, in her own words, is about “being totally in the moment and celebrating it”

“Lifetime” combines Romy’s love of yearning, emotional club music with timeless songwriting. Having co-written her band The xx’s three acclaimed albums, she’s also written songs for the likes of Mark Ronson, Jehnny Beth, Benny Blanco and Dua Lipa (including her GRAMMY winning hit single “Electricity”). At the same time as honing her craft as a songwriter, Romy has embraced a burgeoning DJing career. DJing since the age of 17 (when she got her first job playing records at a gay club in Soho), the last twelve months have seen her passion reignited, including appearances at Manchester’s Homobloc, Turin’s Club to Club and a closing set at this year’s Pride Inside for Amnesty. She was also a key contributor to 2019’s BBC Radio 1 Residency series.

These two musical loves come together on “Lifetime”, an exhilarating piece of driving, warm, club-influenced pop. Though it stops short of the full blown celebration of club classics, Ibiza house and trance that Romy hinted at via an intimate Instagram performance earlier this year, it’s without doubt the start of a transition in that direction. Produced with Fred again.. and Marta Salogni, it’s a timely moment of escapism during difficult times and an enticing glimpse of what’s to come from the London based singer and songwriter.

72-HOUR POST FIGHT is an Italian genre-bending musical project formed by producers Palazzi D’Oriente and Fight Pausa, joined by drummer Andrea Dissimile and saxophonist Adalberto Valsecchi. The project combines elements of electroacoustic music, downtempo and ambient with jazz, math rock, hip hop and emo.

Their self-titled first album, released in March 2019 on La Tempesta International, is a single entity without pauses, standing out for its ability to constantly challenge rigid genres’ divisions. Shortly after the release of their debut, 72-HOUR POST FIGHT announced a 100% remixed version of the album, which came out in October 2019. The remix album sees contributions by UK dj and producer Cooly G (Hyperdub Records), experimental jazz extraordinaire Ben Vince (Hessle Audio, 33 33) and italian-parisian Lamusa II (Ninja Tune, RBMA alumnus), among others.

NOT / UNGLUED is a two-track EP released in 2020, marking a decisive change of pace – where previously liquid atmospheres and formless soundscapes dominated, we now find rhythmicity and determination. 72-HOUR POST FIGHT’s mission is clear: recompose to create a new balance.

The band performed extensively following their debut, sharing stage with various international bands at Club To Club, Spazio Maiocchi (Kaleidoscope x Gucci), VIVA! Festival, Club Adriatico just to name a few.

Their second full length album is out in May 2022.