Elvin Brandhi + Sara Persico, Assyouti, Colombian Drone Mafia, dj burrower

About

Elvin Brandhi and Sara Persico combine their distinct yet complementary practices in a duo that engages with layered, intricate vocal textures. Voice, rhythm, and abstraction interact continuously, oscillating between intimate whisper and industrial exhale. Elvin Brandhi, a global nomad originally from Wales, blends distorted beats with her improvised stream-of-consciousness lyrics, creating a volatile soundscape that is both chaotic and captivating. Her extensive collaboration history and participation in international festivals highlight her dynamic artistry and commitment to innovative music. Sara Persico, a Berlin-based artist from Naples, merges her powerful vocals with analog electronics, field recordings, and samples. Her music, featured at renowned festivals and venues, navigates abstract electronic sounds, bass-heavy club music, noise, and vocal experiments, reflecting her versatile and fearless approach. The duo constructs a precarious, semi-liquid soundscape in which splintered pulses, sparred voices, and interwoven peaks itch along the edges of perception to explore the intimate margins of the self. Their performances unfold as evolving, mutating sonic structures, constantly evolving and resonating with audiences worldwide. Born and raised in Egypt’s crowded and disordered capital Cairo, Assyouti is among his generation’s most distinct and unapologetic voices. Juggling hypermodern bass mutations, warped dancefloor snaps and percussive club experiments, he draws energy from the chaotic stimulus he grew up engulfed by. As a DJ, he balances his love of the hardcore continuum with sounds from the world’s furthest recesses, moving fluidly between supercharged, frenetic feverisms and moments of introspective emotional hypnosis, usually weaving (in and out of) both creating high-pressure dancefloor narratives fueled by a sense of theatrical disorientation. Since relocating to Berlin, Assyouti has become a regular on the European club circuit, appearing at venues such as Tresor, The White Hotel, Garage Noord, La Station, OHM and Ankali, as well as renowned festivals including Unsound, Berlin Atonal, CTM and Uganda’s Nyege Nyege. In 2024 he founded No_Stone alongside Barcelona-based DJ and selector Jehia, an event series and cultural platform reflecting his commitment to expansive, cross-pollinated adventurous music. His debut EP, Shakhrama, was released in 2022 on High Digital, showcasing his wide-eyed, borderless musical interests. Followed by a stronger second EP on Shepard Tone, exploring his own take on jungle and breakbeat mayhem, alongside releases on labels such as DAWN, Hundebiss, Paradoxe Club, PAYNOMINDTOUS and a slew of other imprints. Noisy and at times aggressive, his productions melt visceral but challenging rhythms with distorted vocal and drum samples, processed beyond recognition into buzzsaw post-punk sonics rich with detailed sound design yet still hitting with the blunt force of a sledgehammer. Colombian Drone Mafia is a cabalistic odyssey through shrouded realms of sound. CTM: "The alias of a shadowy composer whose craft bends the primal forces of synthesis and the raw immediacy of field recordings, CDM forges spaces where the experimental and the archaic coalesce. In live ritual, immersive drones slither like specters through tangled jungles, while furtive ambiences prowl, unseen but felt, threading through the undergrowth with predatory patience. The air hangs thick with sonic tension, a relentless intertwining of memory and dream, where the echoes of an ancient continent’s sprawling landscapes are reborn in sound. This is no mere music but an invocation—a descent into melodic primordialism that feels both intimate and immeasurable. Rhythms rise and fall like the breath of the forest, while the unseen vibrates with a spectral presence, leaving the listener ensnared in a web of half-forgotten reveries. This is a spell cast in sound, a communion with the unyielding spirit of the land." Philip Sherburne: “Colombian Drone Mafia is a music of tensions that refused to resolve, of frictions that throw off sparks that blossom like the flowers of their latest album’s title. It’s in that tension, that resistance, that dreams take root”. digging (for) the underground music scene in Cyprus for the better part of the last decade, dj burrower has been facilitating inner and outer motions on dancefloors, basements, seasides and forests, with some cult following, supragenre sets.