The Abdullah Miniawy trio create deeply resonating works that blend dark sonic palettes with evocative singing. A multi-talented poet and performer, Miniawy’s performances are haunting and cathartic, mixing sediments of Egyption heritage with ideas of artistic freedom and civil diversity of the modern individual.
To collapse inward without shattering—this is the sensation Elischa Heller conjures. The artist sutures digitalismans into the sinews of performance art, auto-tuned vocals and fragile futurisms colliding with shrieking beats, layered noise, and expansive drones: equal parts synthetic and feral, a sleek internet-born vision that breathes, pulses, and smells faintly of incense.
The flensed intensity of industrial with the sweaty energy and philosophy of hardcore punk delivers catharsis—Donna Haringwey’s vicious bangers transmogrify despair into anger and hope, vitriolic synthesis with the sweaty energy and message of hardcore deliver an accessible yet powerful social commentary.
The SHAPE+-supported alys(alys)alys smashes experimental club and Soundcloud vibes into wild, unpredictable works and DJ sets that are as much party as experiment: playful, collage-heavy jams thriving in that sweet spot where genres clash and brains get dropped in the blender. Take a gander to get your medulla oblon-gotcha goosed.
Tarta Relena’s music emerges as a dialogue between the rich vocal traditions of the Mediterranean and the subtle whispers of synthetic nuance. Layered harmonies and sonic experimentation uncover new resonances in age-old melodies, drawing on diverse vocal techniques—flamenco’s raw intensity, the precision of lyrical singing, and the fluidity of jazz. Folklore is treated as a mutable and living tradition, unconfined by historical boundaries; melodies from the oral traditions of Sephardic Jews, Sappho’s poetry, and medieval hymnody are reinterpreted, suffused with a shared, time-transcendent language: grief and joy, divinity and earthliness, dissolving into a singular resonance.
Performing within the d&b Soundscape space, Eve Aboulkheir crafts her Delphian landscapes through an alchemy of electroacoustic techniques, modular synthesis, and meticulously warped field recordings. These shimmering acousmatic terrains draw from the places she inhabits and reimagine them as surreal auditory realms, at once grounded and otherworldly. Her project »Venus Road« winds through the uncanny interplay between nature and urbanity, inspired by a nocturnal journey through the forested expanse of Singapore's MacRitchie Reservoir. In the liminal space between city and wilderness, the sounds of wildlife seem to sync with the rhythmic pulse of human machinery, creating a symbiosis that unsettles even as it mesmerises.
Two artists appear within CTM 2025 with works that are amplified by short residencies with local Berlin artists.
The SHAPE+ supported artist Adela Mede met Marta Forsberg through a shared interest in collective singing, either with acoustic voice or computer generated choirs. For CTM they come together with light artist Nindya Nareswari to explore these topics through a special new performance of Mede’s original compositions. Mede’s blend of traditional folk influences and contemporary electronic textures weave English, Slovak, and Hungarian into her music. Each language carries fragments of memory and emotion that shift with the sound of her voice, creating a deeply personal yet universal experience. Her songs will be enhanced by Forsberg's experience in sonic minimalism and immersive environments, and Nareswari’s work with the ephemeral and emotive qualities of light and perception. The artists will also appear within CTM's Discourse programme, giving further insight into their practice.
SHAPE+-supported artist Lénok creates richly layered soundscapes that feel both haunting and freeing, using techniques that blend composition with creative deconstruction as a way to visualise alternative realities. Thanks to a short residency supported by SHAPE+, this world premiere performance will utilise lighting by Grinderteeth and set design by Synthati. Stay tuned for their special broadcast via Refuge Worldwide as part of our 2025 collaboration.
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.
