Relating to music as a pseudo-language, composer Angus Barnacle is influenced by music history in addition to popular contemporary vernaculars such as microtonality, noise and extended performance technique. His compositions include work for soloists, ensembles, orchestras and electronic mediums, drawing inspiration from ongoing research into tuning, noise and the techniques associated with sound production.
He has a masters (microtonality in contemporary music practice) from the Royal Conservatory in the Hague, and a PhD from Sydney Conservatory (Harnessing The Musicality of Noise: Formal Grammar in Music Composition). Among other prizes, most recently, his 2023 microtonal soundtrack to the Orchid of Redemption game “Joon Shining” won the Dreamhack composition of the year prize. In addition to digital media work, his music has been performed in venues including the Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, St John’s London, November Muziek Festival in Den Bosch, Korzo Theatre in the Hague and the Barossa Music Festival South Australia. Ensembles he has worked with include Bang on a Can, Nieuwe Ensemble, New European Ensemble, the Gelders Orchestra, Zephyr Quartet, Asko-Schönberg Ensemble and Southbank Sinfonia. Current projects include pitching an inter-dimensional dystopian adventure game at Sony, composing a microtonal flute concerto for flautist Frederico Paixão, sitting principal flautist at the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and setting a collection of childhood themed poetry by the English poet James Greene (1938 – 2023).
Tomás Cabado (b.1993) is a composer from Argentina, currently based in Mainz, Germany, who favores a simple approach towards material and form in composition, maintaining a considerable mobility regarding aesthetics and discursive positions, but with no intention of overlapping them. He was trained in composition, classical and electric guitar, and latin american contemporary aesthetics. His production goes from musical compositions to essays, songs, conceptual works, performing solo or within different musical communities in Argentina and Europe.
Haiyun Yu is a translator, writer and producer from Suzhou, China. With a background in linguistics and comparative literature, her artistic interest is to invite performativity to text. In her writing practices, she explores the intersection of cultural heritage, ecology and identity. Her artistic research focuses on decolonisation, cultural policy and intercultural communication. She received the Finland Scholarship in 2022 and is currently finishing her master’s study of Arts Management at Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.
Mark Reid Bulatović is a guitarist and composer from Slovenia and Scotland. His artistic interests are placed at the intersection of ecology, intimacy and ritual. A recent graduate of the Sibelius Academy, he has participated in international festivals in Shanghai, Edinburgh and Helsinki with a variety of groups.
As a performer he is interested in inviting other creative practices into aspects of the concert experience – Recently “Dismissal of the Great I” married classical guitar with a host of extra media, including sound installation, puppetry, and video in an attempt to deflect attention from the performer and give space to a broader concept.
Thokozani Mhlambi, Phd is a musician, performer, inventor and community builder whose work has a reverence for the past and the future. Playing on a custom-designed, handmade Baroque cello with gut strings, Mhlambi creates innovative work, both for himself as a solo musician and for ensembles. He regularly plays with ensembles in South Africa and North America.
Chief amongst Mhlambi’s theoretical concerns is about thinking beyond the colonial sound archive, in imagining an African sonic past and future. In 2023, Mhlambi was invited to be part of the Reimagining America Program 2023, where he worked with youth string-players from the city of Providence (Rhode Island). In 2024, Mhlambi’s performed in Atlanta. His show was rated as the best-gig-of-the-week by Arts Atlanta news. He has also been a visiting lecturer at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver (Canada), where he performed at the World Arts Centre. He has performed at the venues such as Elastic Arts in Chicago, Prachtwerk in Berlin, Minneapolis, New Orleans (Tulane), São Paulo, Maputo (Mozambique) and New York. Thokozani Mhlambi’s latest album drops on the 18th of September 2024 on all digital platforms.
Timo Viialainen is a multidiscliplinary artist working with sculpture, performance art, sound art and music. He first studied sound engineering in Sibelius Academy open Univesity (2003-2007), Metropolia (2008-2009) and later on sculpture in the Fine Art Academy in Helsinki (2014-2021). As a performance and sound artist he has performed in numerous events and festivals in 21 different countries. Currently he is mostly occupied making electromagnetic sculptures and playing electro-acoustic alto hurdy gurdy. Besides playing he is also modifying and developing the instruments electro-acoustic properties.
Eugenie Chao is an artist, educator, and musician based in New York City. She makes interactive sound objects in clay that are based on her research on historical artifacts made millenia ago. She is currently exploring the acoustic properties of clay, and she hopes her work will inspire curiosity and a feeling of connection with other times and cultures.
Robert Prakapovich– is a composer, improviser and a sound artist from Belarus, based in Helsinki, Finland. In his artistic practice, he explores the borders of free improvisation, diffusion of arts, microtone tunings and post-modern approach to narrative forms in composition.
Devina Boughton (they/them) is a versatile trumpet player, vocalist, composer and pedagogue hailing from rainy Portland, OR and currently based in Helsinki, Finland. After completing a Bachelors of Music from Berklee College of Music, Devina was a 2021-22 Fulbright Finland Grant recipient. They began a Master’s Degree at Sibelius Academy’s Global Music department in Fall 2023. Devina explores and intertwines different genres, building sound worlds that play with and cross borders between improvisation and composition. They are currently inspired by timbres, nature and technology, human experiences and stories and are passionate about interdisciplinary and cross-genre collaboration. You may find them drinking coffee or tea, exploring nature, practicing Finnish, baking, or plotting their next knitting project.
Dr Mohamed Louanjli is an interdisciplinary artist, creative technologist, designer, and educator based in Helsinki. His diverse practice spans multiple mediums, including code, photography, print, sound, and creative writing. Louanjli’s artistic investigations are deeply rooted in computational aesthetics, exploring the profound impact of the digital universe—particularly microprocessors, artificial intelligence, aerial imagery, speed, and war—on the human condition.
His journey into algorithmic music began during his postgraduate research at the Sorbonne’s École des Arts/UFR 04/Institut d’Esthétique et des Sciences de l’Art, where he first encountered Pierre Barbaud’s pioneering machine, Biniou, at Frank Brown’s studio. This pivotal experience ignited a deep interest in the interplay between music and technology, leading him to participate in workshops at IRCAM (Spatialisateur/jMax) and to develop a fascination with music created by non-musicians. Louanjli’s early exposure to microtonal music within his culture further fueled his interest in fretless instruments like the oud and violin. Today, his practice continues to explore stochastic systems in music composition, utilising machines such as the Organelle and contemporary micro-tuning solutions to push the boundaries of sonic expression.
Louanjli holds a PhD from the Queensland College of Art and Design at Griffith University, an MPhil in Visual Arts at the University of Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne, and an MFA from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He has received several awards, including the Australian Postgraduate Award, the Gerald Frank Brown Scholarship, the Maurice Colin-Lefranc Grant, and won the Ouvrez l’Art contest. His work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions and is featured in both private and public collections.