In collaboration with the renowned London art space Iklectik and Kino Šiška, Festival SONICA presents SONICA Serie. The series kicks off with a performance by the visionary Peruvian turntablist, sound artist and DJ Maria Chavez, the first appearance of one of the most outstanding artists in the field of contemporary experimental turntablism.
At the same time, we present the premiere of the second SONICA residency of the year, featuring local ambient duo Lip Rouge and Argentinian producer and vocalist Morita Vargas in a hybrid sonic fantasy of ambient music and dreamy pop.
FOR FANS OF: Marina Rosenfeld, Ale Hop, Lucrecia Dalt
Maria Chávez, born in Lima and living in New York, is known as an abstract turntablist, sound artist, and DJ. Coincidence, chance and failures are themes that unite her work across mediums, her practice being profoundly expansive, responsive and curious. Her work has been featured and supported by a myriad of institutions over the past decades including Rewire Festival, Counterflows Festival, MoMA PS1, Documenta, The Wire, Black Mountain College Museum, Cambridge University Press and many, many more, which, together with Marina Rosenfeld, Mariam Rezaei, and Evichsen, puts her at the forefront of experimental turntablism. She is the only abstract turntablist in the world who performs with a rare needle known as the RAKE Double Needle. This special device contains two needles on one head, allowing it to read two different segments of a single record at the same time. Her approach is rooted in Deep Listening, a form of embodied listening developed by her late mentor Pauline Oliveros.
SONICA RESIDENCY 2024: MORITA VARGAS & LIP ROUGE
Morita Vargas is a composer, singer and producer of experimental music. She immersed herself in digital music, opening up to a world of electronic tools to capture their sounds, interacting with the ‘ambient’ genre, ‘dream pop’ and ‘hybrid fantasy’. She belongs to a new women’s movement, builders of a new way of art for a sensitive society, open to curiosity and conscious listening. She has made numerous collaborations with artists from around the world and performed and participated at diverses festivals including: Mutek (AR), Marvin (MEX), Maintenant Festival (FR), Tecnópolis (AR), Les Femmes S’en Mêlent (FR), and Rewire (NL).
The duo Lip Rouge, consisting of Karmen Ponikvar and Eva Mulej, explores the transparency of sound through a combination of analog synthesis, voice, instruments, and field recordings. With their debut “Tūndâr,” released by the AmbientSoup label, they impressed music critics and performed at the MENT Ljubljana festival.They are driven by unusual acoustic combinations and intuitive sound exploration, and in collaboration with Morita Vargas, we can expect the weaving of new hypnotic ambient landscapes.
https://ambientsoup.bandcamp.com/album/lip-rouge-t-nd-r
IKLECTIK is a non-profit organisation based in London, founded in 2014. It focuses on fostering experimentation in sound, art, new media, and emerging technologies. IKLECTIK organises events, workshops, residencies, talks aiming to explore processes and techniques while addressing social, political, and cultural issues. It has hosted over 3000 artists in live performances, festivals, and fundraisers.
For more information, visit: IKLECTIK
Morita Vargas is part of the SHAPE+ platform, co-funded by the European Union.
