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SHAPE 2015 – 2025

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The platform for innovative music and interdisciplinary art, known first as SHAPE and later as SHAPE+, had been active for more than a decade.

While the individual partner festivals and venues will continue to develop new initiatives, SHAPE+ is reaching its conclusion at the end of December 2025.

The project has been co-funded by the European Union, in its last years also by Pro Helvetia.

SHAPE+ fostered exceptional emerging talent, connecting them to local communities and audiences through collaborative residencies, commissioned artworks, performances, and large artist meet-ups accompanied by a discourse program. The approach to artist selection has been diverse, spanned many genres of modern music and embraced interdisciplinarity.

Across its ten years of activity, SHAPE facilitated the careers of 676 innovative artists, and is thankful to them for their trust and participation. The creators of SHAPE owe much gratitude also to the core 18 adventurous music festivals of the platform, as well as external partner organizations, media partners, and participating entities from previous versions of the project.

The venues and audiences across Europe and beyond were equally important in making the project possible through their openness, enthusiasm, and interest in forward thinking music and sound.

At the time of this announcement, these are the member organizations of SHAPE+:

Construction Festival (Dnipro, Ukraine)
CTM Festival (Berlin, Germany)
Full of Lava (Bern, Switzerland)
INTONAL Festival (Malmö, Sweden)
Les Siestes Électroniques (Paris, France)
MeetFactory (Prague, Czech Republic)
Mutant Radio (Tbilisi, Georgia)
ORF / musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst (Graz, Austria)
OUT.FEST (Barreiro, Portugal)
Polja (Šutci, Serbia)
Rewire (The Hague, Netherlands)
Rokolectiv Festival (Bucharest, Romania)
schiev (Brussels, Belgium)
Skaņu Mežs (Riga, Latvia)
SONICA Festival (Ljubljana, Slovenia)
Terraforma Festival (Milan, Italy)
UH Fest (Budapest, Hungary)
Unsound (Kraków, Poland)

A full list of SHAPE artists from each year of the project can be found here.

01.05.2025

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SHAPE+ Showcases in 2025

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SHAPE+ 2024/2025 Roster Announcement

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Max Eilbacher Residency at Terraforma Exo supported by SHAPE+

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Terraforma Exo is a new cultural manifestation produced by Threes Productions, whose first edition will take place on June 15th and 16th in Milan’s Parco Sempione. Conceived as a curatorial intervention expanding beyond enclosed venues to explore new geographies, Terraforma Exo confronts the challenges of navigating contemporary cultural landscapes by facilitating moments of deep introspection and critical thinking.

Artist Max Eilbacher was invited by Threes Productions to carry out a four-day residency in Milan in the context of Terraforma Exo. The residency was supported by SHAPE+. During the residency, Eilbacher collaborated with two local artists, graphic designer Nicolò Pellarin and musician Giuseppe Ielasi.

The result of the residency can be summarised in four different outputs:

Development of the “Pluck” Synthesizer System: Max Eilbacher developed a synthesizer system named “pluck” for the Modular Organ System installation, on view for two days during Terraforma Exo. Initially conceived as a simple digital string sound (Karplus Strong), “pluck” evolved into a complex compositional tool capable of generating timbrally complex just-intonation string sounds for a multi-channel speaker methodology.
A live intervention during Terraforma Exo, in the context of the Modular Organ System installation and performance by Phillip Sollmann and Konrad Sprenger.
An artwork realized in collaboration with graphic designer Nicolo Pellarin and available for sale as a limited edition print. The artwork consists of a graphic signal flow/score inspired by a synthesis system Eilbacher used for the MOS intervention.
An interview by Eilbacher to musician and composer Giuseppe Ielasi, published on t-mag.

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SHAPE+ supported artists 2023 – 2024

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The platform SHAPE+ supported several activities by artists Cucina Povera, Felicia Atkinson, Francesca Mariano, Manja Ristic, Martyna Basta, Max Eilbacher, Nicola Ratti, Sara Persico, VISIO, and educational activities by legendary musician and theory David Toop and the collectives Slipmode & Hyperscapes Research Office.

The activities took place over the course of the 2023-2024 year as part of various projects organized by Threes Productions, including the listening sessions series Suites, the project La Terra delle Sirene in collaboration with the Madre Museum of Naples, the BASEMENT project in collaboration with Fondazione Elpis, Ars Sonora at Villa Panza, Varese, and the Terraforma Exo project in Parco Sempione in Milan.

Artists VISIO and Max Eilbacher were invited to carry out two residencies in Milan, in the context of the projects BASEMENT and Terraforma Exo. During his residency, VISIO collaborated with international artists Cecilia and Rustan Soderling. Max Eilbacher collaborated with Italian artists Nicolò Pellarin and Giuseppe Ielasi.

Cucina Povera: Maria Rossi’s solo project focuses on the marginal and observational, using everyday sounds and rudimentary equipment to create a stylistically resourceful, spontaneous hermeticism akin to peasant cooking. Cucina Povera performed in the context of Suites, in Milan, on the 27th of September 2023.

Francesca Heart: Francesca Heart’s music project integrates choreography, myth, and nature. Her work explores Mediterranean archaeology through a sci-fi lens, creating adventurous journeys in sound. Her latest album, Eurybia, was released in 2022. Francesca Heart presented a workshop at MADRE museum in Naples on the 25th of September 2023.

Manja Ristić: A multifaceted violinist and sound artist, Ristić’s work spans contemporary performance, electro-acoustics, and experimental radio arts. She has created commissions for various European radio art platforms and won several awards for her contributions to classical and experimental music. Manja Ristić performed at Settantaventidue in Milan on the 30th of June 2024.

Martyna Basta: A Krakow-based artist whose diaristic sound balances lush and haunting atmospheres. Trained in guitar, Basta transitioned to synth-based compositions, incorporating modulated voice, electronics, and field recordings, as showcased in her debut album, Making Eye Contact with Solitude. Martyna Basta performed in the context of Suites, in Milan, on the 28th of February 2024.

Max Eilbacher: A Baltimore-based sound artist whose work spans compositions, performances, and installations. Eilbacher’s projects, including the group Horse Lords, explore the relationship between sound and experience, focusing on structure, timing, and detail. Max Eilbacher took part in a residency in the context of Terraforma Exo on the 15th and 16th of June 2024.

Nicola Ratti: An experimental musician and sound designer from Milan, Ratti creates systems based on repetition and expansion. His work spans solo and collaborative projects, encompassing theatre, cinema, and sound art. He also teaches Sound Space Design at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts.

Ojoo: A Moroccan DJ based in Brussels, known for her eclectic mixes that blend various genres, from dancehall to experimental electronic music. Ojoo has established herself through meticulous DJ mixes, radio shows, and mixtapes. ojoo performed in the context of Terraforma Exo on the 15th of June 2024.

Sara Persico: A Berlin-based sound artist, vocalist, and DJ from Naples. Persico integrates her voice with analogue electronics, field recordings, and samples. She has performed at various international festivals and collaborated with numerous artists across genres. Sara Persico presented a workshop at MADRE museum in Naples on the 26th of October 2023.

VISIO: The alias of Nicola Tirabasso, a musician and visual artist who explores the arcane tangents between reality and the unexplainable. His work, including the album Privacy Angels, combines acoustic instrumentation with intricate sound design, evoking a new and distinct vision of the world. VISIO took part in a residency in the context of BASEMENT at Fondazione Elpis in January 2024.

18.01.2024

18.02.2024

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Fools Circel 9wys – VISIO (SHAPE+ Residency) – Basement

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SHAPE+ supported artists 2022 – 2023

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SHAPE+ supported artists at Terraforma, Nextones, Il Pianeta, and Tranceparenti with one-off shows by Aho Ssan, Marina Herlop, Perila, Bella Baguena.

Stefanie Egedy is part of a SHAPE+ residency realised in the context of Una Boccata d’Arte with artisan Laurent Jacquemod and videomaker Giovanni Sambo.

Stefanie Egedy investigates sound as a composer of conceptual pieces, music, commissioned works, and dance music. Currently, she is focused on researching possibilities with low-frequency sound, bodies and subwoofers. Her artistic practice stems from installations to live performances as sonic propositions. Sub-bass, bass, infrasound, subwoofers, and their capacity to make themselves present in a space, are the foundations of her work. Alongside the possibilities of interaction between human/architectural bodies and sound waves, using field recordings, analogue & digital synthesis.

Aho Ssan – Terraforma 2023

Aho Ssan is the artist name of Paris-based Niamké Désiré. After studying graphic design and cinema, he began to compose electronic music and create his own digital instruments. Shortly thereafter he went on to win the Foundation France television prize for his soundtrack to the film of Ingha Mago in 2015 and has worked on several projects related to IRCAM/GRM in France. His debut LP «Simulacrum» was released on the 7th of February 2020 via Subtext Recordings. Based on the concept of Jean Baudrillard, it navigates through society’s presentation of inclusivity and equality against my own experience of growing up black in France. Aho Ssan debuted “Simulacrum” at Berlin Atonal 2019.

Bella Baguena – Tranceparenti 2023

Bella Báguena is a Spanish trans non binary woman who works with different disciplines such as music, performance, jewelry and other media. Bella centers her artistic production in a gender self examination and an intuitive, emotional process, using her voice, body movement and identity, as well as objects, spaces and technologies, to create sound, video, sculptural or performative pieces in which the emotional charge and thought load of the trans woman’s identity becomes the key.

Perila – Il Pianeta 2022

Perila is a St. Petersburg-born, Berlin-based sound and visual artist, DJ and performer exploring sensitive borderlines and depths of subtle matter. Her sets are thick narratives drifting through rich sound palette immersing a listener into pretty personal trip. Constantly shifting moods and textures of mixes create comfort space for emotions to float, merge, evaporate and ride in a deep context.

Marina Herlop – Nextones 2022

Marina Herlop is often described as a pianist, a lingering remnant of her classical training. But what strikes the listener on Herlop’s breakout track miu is the intricate trickery of her voice, tracing rhythmical clusters around the subtlest of musical beds, in a technique inspired by Carnatic music of Southern India. miu, the opening track of Herlop’s new studio album Pripyat, was among the first songs that the young Catalan artist made on a computer, after two albums – 2016’s Nanook and 2018’s Babasha – that brought spectral elegance to the sound of piano and voice.

BABAU is part of a SHAPE+ residency realised in the context of Nextones 2022 with artists Bienoise and Flora Rabitti.

BABAU is the duo composed of Luigi Monteanni and Matteo Pennesi, both also founders of Artetetra records, tape label concerned with the latest developments in the concepts of digital folklore and transglobal exoticism during late globalization. BABAU is best defined by a pastiche combining the fascination for World Music 2.0, Fourth World galore and Mondo Voyeurism with the latest abstractions in computer music’s compositional techniques, which they call ‘Quinto Mondo’ music. Through the years they have played in festivals such as Club To Club, Fusion, Saturnalia, Outernational Days, Mondo Muzak and Camp Cosmic and have collaborated with Kiosk radio, NTS, The Wire, Sun Araw, Simon Reynolds, Senyawa and many others.

In 2023, Terraforma also hosted two educational activities supported by SHAPE+:

– Whitney Wei in conversation with architects Bengt Carling and Matteo Ghidoni (Salottobuono): “Architecture and the Musical Experience”

– Christine Kakaire “The importance of the archive as related to Black music innovation”

Award-winning culture journalist and critic Christine Kakaire will moderate a panel with secret guests to be announced soon. The panel is supported by SHAPE+ platform, co-funded by the European Union.

23.06.2023

24.06.2023

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Second wave of acts announced for SHAPE+ showcase with Mutant Radio

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SHAPE+ platform for innovative music and audiovisual art, co-funded by the European Union, announces the second and final wave of acts of the collaborative showcase with Tbilisi’s Mutant Radio. The two-day event will happen over two nights – June 23-24 – at Mutant Radio’s outdoor space and will gather more than 12 SHAPE+ artists alongside Georgian acts selected by the radio station.

Facebook event.

Second wave of SHAPE+ artists at Mutant Radio showcase

m.a.t.a.d.a.t.a. (LV)

m.a.t.a.d.a.t.a. is the latest dance/not dance solo moniker by electroacoustic musician, film and theater composer Toms Auniņš from Riga, Latvia. It came to life as a film score for Matīss Kaža feature film Neon Spring, a film for which Toms Auniņš attempted to create a full and total Riga underground techno and rave scene sound score with the help of local (Latvian-built) Erica Synths Techno System. Individually m.a.t.a.d.a.t.a. also serves as an instrument to sail the long presence in extreme music into a new, unknown sonic territory.

For the musician himself m.a.t.a.d.a.t.a. is a transfer to origins of consciousness, and ultimately a vessel for change.

NZIRIA (IT)

NZIRIA is an experimental project by artist Tullia Benedicta, the project integrates the main forms and themes of the Neomelodic song, while regenerating the cis-heteronormative scenario. Through a powerful and androgynous singing, they reinterpret the
stereotyped, almost archetypal stories of the Neomelodic genre, welcoming narratives of the LGBTQI+ community and singing of queer love and mercurial identities.

NZIRIA debuted on Gabber Eleganza’s imprint Never Sleep with a full-length titled XXYBRID. Recorded during a period of worldwide lockdown, the album represents the artist’s psychomagic act to redeem their Neapolitan origins and to reinterpret some of the topoi of the Neapolitan culture.

Felisha Ledesma (US/DE)

Felisha Ledesma is a sound artist and musician living and working in Berlin. Over the past decade, Ledesma has run project spaces, overseen festival curation and events programming, helped establish community programs around modular synthesis education, and performed live. More recently, Ledesma’s focus has widened to releasing solo compositions – two debut releases titled ‘Fringe’ and ‘Sweet Hour’ released on Ecstatic Recordings and Enmossed x Psychic Liberation, respectively.

On both releases, Ledesma draws extensively on a custom-made synthesizer called AMQR developed together with instrument designer Ess Mattisson, a collaboration that has since flowered into Fors, a music technology project focused on creating software instruments and effects. Exploring an emergent lowercase sound, Felisha Ledesma’s music shimmers with elusive timbres that occupy a unique space – neither electronic nor acoustic, but more a sort of observational sound that radiates tenderness and warmth.

Qow (EG/CZ)

Qow, aka Omar El Sadek is an audiovisual artist specialising in electronic sound design and animated visuals. His works focus mainly on documenting the fragile nature of his surroundings, including himself. He takes a similar visual approach, investing in poetic imperfections and unexpected intimacies. This principal appears mostly through his collaborations with artists such as MSYLMA & Ismael, ZULI, Drew Mcdowall and KNOW V.A. His works have been previously exhibited at audiovisual festivals such as Unsound Festival 2019, Lunchmeat Festival 2020 and Rewire Festival 2022.

Hui Ye (CN/AT)

Hui Ye (b. in Guangzhou, China) is an artist and composer based in Vienna. Her works use various media (semi documentary, video, sound installations, and live sound performance) to address questions relating to individual social identity and its entanglements with different cultural and political contexts. In her recent projects, the artist focuses on sociopolitical aspects of the act of listening in contemplation of exploring diverse correlations between sound and the different social phenomenon in contemporary societies.

Jaka Berger (SI)

Jaka Berger is one of the most active, creative and diverse drummers, percussionists, composers and improvisers on the Slovenian music landscape in the last fifteen years. Since 2014, he has been creating music for a prepared drum kit, with which he regularly releases solo works that are regularly published in international publications for improvised music. He is also active in the field of ambient music, experimental hip hop (DUF), and dub (Darla Smoking), experimental composition (Cornelius Cardew’s Treatise), noise, contemporary jazz and improvised music (Fresh Dust Trio, Shoe & Shoelace, Niemoy, …), installations (Party) and electroacoustic music. In recent years, he has been intensively involved in the field of modular sound synthesis, establishing and expanding new sound fields in his work.

ABADIR (EG/DE)

ABADIR (Rami Abadir) is a music producer and sound designer born in Cairo, Egypt. His work focuses on experimental, club, glitch and ambient music, and he’s one half of the duo 0N4B. ABADIR holds an MA in Digital Media Design from University of the Arts, Bremen.

Mutant Radio has also added the following names to the Georgian line-up of the event: Levan Luka Nakashidze, Zesknel, JD J, TINA & TEDI.

Program overview

Summarizing both artist announcements,, here is the program overview:

Friday, June 23

Levan Luka Nakashidze (DJ SET), ESI , Nziria*, m.a.t.a.d.a.t.a.*, Hui Ye*, The Stanley Maneuver*, Ale Hop*, Thea Soti*, ABADIR*, BMI (DJ SET), Nino Davadze

Saturday, June 24

JD J (DJ SET), TeTe Noise, TINA & TEDI, Zesknel, Roxane Métayer*, Maria Bertel*, Jaka Berger*, Qow*, Felisha Ledesma*, undo despot*

*Artists of the SHAPE+ platform.

23.06.2023

24.06.2023

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SHAPE+ announces new partners and first acts of Mutant Radio Showcase

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SHAPE+ platform for innovative music and audiovisual art, co-funded by the European Union, announces the first acts of the collaborative showcase with Tbilisi’s Mutant Radio and two new partner organizations, starting with its next working period. The two-day event will happen over two nights – June 23-24 – at Mutant Radio’s outdoor space and will gather more than 12 artists. The new partner organizations will permanently join SHAPE+ after July 15, 2023.

First wave of SHAPE+ artists at Mutant Radio showcase

Ale Hop (PE/DE)

Alejandra Cárdenas Pacheco (also known as Ale Hop) is a Peruvian-born artist, researcher, and experimental musician based in Berlin. Her body of work includes live shows, record releases, sound and video artworks, research on sound and technology, and original music for film, dance and theater projects.

Thea Soti (HU/SERB)

Thea Soti is a multi-disciplinary artist, working within the fields of experimental vocal music, electronic sound, installation, text-based media and video art. She uses digitally manipulated sound, human voice and poetry in various formats, continuously manipulating and processing her own voice. Her pieces often go over the auditive experience and bravely explore space and movement, thus creating dynamic spaces. She often reflects on current socio-political issues, such as modern escapism, non-binary identities, beauty myths or collective fear.

The Stanley Maneuver (HU)

The Stanley Maneuver is the solo project of András Molnár, a musician, dj and organizer based in Budapest. His practice focuses on weaving a web of fragile environments that have their own histories, desires, faults and secrets. Building upon improvisational and generative techniques he constantly repurposes his materials to explore territories in and around experimental music and intimacy.

Maria Bertel (DK)

Maria Bertel is a Danish trombone player, improviser and composer. The acoustic sound of her instrument amplified creates an output that draws inspiration from drone and noise music. What is normally not hearable is presenting itself, movements, metal and breath becomes a swirling part of her compositions. Changing organic patterns are emerging, tiny sounds becomes brutally clear as well as the range of overtones of the instrument.

Roxane Métayer (BE/FR)

Roxane Métayer was born in France in 1992. She learned to play the violin at a young age, and then continued her studies in Belgium, at the Ecole de Recherches Graphiques, where she obtained her Master’s degree, in Speculative Narration, Narratives and Experiments.

She continues her practice as a visual artist and musician, based in Brussels. She has released several albums with the labels Primordial Void, Kraak, Morc, Wabisabi tapes and Vlek with the duo Sage Alyte.

undo despot (UA)

undo despot is an experimental audio-visual artist from Odesa, Ukraine. Her musical practice is focused on combining deconstructed visual and music influences, coupled with academic techniques. At the same time she’s most known as a live artist, who combines various genre influences.

The event will also present a string of Georgian acts: BMI, Nino Davadze, TINA & TEDI, TeTe Noise.

Stay tuned for the full lineup announcement!

New partner organizations

After the showcase in July, Tbilisi’s Mutant Radio will become a permanent partner of SHAPE+.

Mutant Radio is a media platform that focuses on various directions: mixes, interviews, educational shows, live performances and discusssion broadcasts that are either live-streamed or filmed and streamed later on. It gathers various artists, DJs, and interesting personalities that have an opportunity to focus on the subject of their preference and their interest. What is unique about Mutant Radio is that it is mobile.

The physical station is a fully-equipped caravan-wagon that is based in Tbilisi yet also streams from other regions and special locations around Georgia. Apart from the live streams, Mutant Radio also has an open-air cafe, where like-minded people have an opportunity to enjoy quality music and a friendly vibe.

The second new partner is Portugal’s OUT.RA, responsible for organizing OUT.FEST. Started in 2004, and continuously held in Barreiro, Portugal, OUT.FEST is an annual festival celebrating adventurous and experimental music in all its diversity (improvised music, electronics, jazz, contemporary classical music, metal, new idioms), gathering and mapping, in its programme, music vanguard’s history, present and future.

Both organizations will start their work within SHAPE+ after July 15, 2023.

29.08.2022

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SHAPE+ adds four acts to its 2022 artist list

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The Creative Europe-supported SHAPE+ platform for innovative music and audiovisual art has added four additional acts to its artist list. They enter the project via collaborative residencies, implemented by musikprotokoll in Austria and SONICA festival in Slovenia.

The selection process

Unlike the artists of SHAPE+ that are announced at the beginning of each working year as a result of collective voting, additional artists are selected by individual festivals of SHAPE+ initially for the purpose of taking part in collaborative residencies. They will be added to the SHAPE+ roster via bi-monthly announcements as more and more SHAPE+-related events and festivals are confirmed.
New acts
Ulla Rauter and Hui Ye have been selected by Austria’s musikprotokoll festival to participate in sonic bricolage artist Yara Mekawei’s residency later in the year. Jaka Berger and Branimir Štivić, selected by Slovenia’s SONICA festival, will collaborate with Tony Elieh, veteran of the Lebanese experimental music scene. Keep an eye on the “Events” section of the SHAPE+ website to catch these artists presenting new works.

The platform

SHAPE+ is a new European platform for innovative music and audiovisual art co-financed by the Creative Europe programme. Running for the next three years, SHAPE+ will foster exceptional emerging talent, connecting them to local communities and audiences through collaborative residencies with multiple artistic outcomes, commissioned artworks, as well as one-off presentations and performances. Combining an open call and a curatorial selection, the platform members will select a roster of artists to support each year.

SHAPE+ initially consists of 13 partners in 13 countries with plans for further expansion, while adopting an interdisciplinary approach and committing to social and environmental awareness.
SHAPE+ builds upon the previous SHAPE platform, which from 2015 to 2022 supported 336 emerging European artists and presented their work at festivals, events and venues in numerous countries across Europe and beyond.

Continue to Shape

15.07.2022

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Terraforma presents nominated artists for 2022 – 2023

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Nominated artists for 2022 – 2023 are BABAU, Marina Herlop, Perila. Local artists for 2022 – 2023 are Bienoise, Flora Rabitti, Giovanni Sambo, and Laurent Jacquemod.

BABAU is the duo composed of Luigi Monteanni and Matteo Pennesi, both also founders of Artetetra records, tape label concerned with the latest developments in the concepts of digital folklore and transglobal exoticism during late globalization. BABAU is best defined by a pastiche combining the fascination for World Music 2.0, Fourth World galore and Mondo Voyeurism with the latest abstractions in computer music’s compositional techniques, which they call ‘Quinto Mondo’ music. Through the years they have played in festivals such as Club To Club, Fusion, Saturnalia, Outernational Days, Mondo Muzak and Camp Cosmic and have collaborated with Kiosk radio, NTS, The Wire, Sun Araw, Simon Reynolds, Senyawa and many others.

Marina Herlop is often described as a pianist, a lingering remnant of her classical training. But what strikes the listener on Herlop’s breakout track miu is the intricate trickery of her voice, tracing rhythmical clusters around the subtlest of musical beds, in a technique inspired by Carnatic music of Southern India. miu, the opening track of Herlop’s new studio album Pripyat, was among the first songs that the young Catalan artist made on a computer, after two albums – 2016’s Nanook and 2018’s Babasha – that brought spectral elegance to the sound of piano and voice.

Perila is a St. Petersburg-born, Berlin-based sound and visual artist, DJ and performer exploring sensitive borderlines and depths of subtle matter. Her sets are thick narratives drifting through rich sound palette immersing a listener into pretty personal trip. Constantly shifting moods and textures of mixes create comfort space for emotions to float, merge, evaporate and ride in a deep context.

Four local artists have been involved in two artist residencies. Musician Bienoise and designer Flora Rabitti collaborated with BABAU during their residency at Nextones. Artisan Laurent Jacquemod and Giovanni Sambo collaborated with Stefanie Egedy in the context of the project Una Boccata d’Arte;

27.04.2022

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Read our SHAPE publication

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Read our SHAPE publication

This book celebrates the second phase of SHAPE (Sound, Heterogeneous Art and Performance in Europe), between 2018 and 2022. The platform supports mainly emerging and at times less explored innovative music and audiovisual art from various parts of Europe. SHAPE is run by 16 festivals and organisations that worked with 192 artistic projects during this period. First and foremost, this publication is a collection of selected interviews with some of these artists.

The founders of SHAPE hope that these conversations will give to the reader an insight into the diverse world of adventurous European sound and interdisciplinary artists who, with some exceptions, have escaped broader international attention. When speaking to the artists, we got to hear what motivates and inspires them, what backgrounds they are from, what pleases or worries them about their current situation (both creatively and socially), and where they hope to arrive. Their answers were just as diverse as their work, and there are many colourful opinions – sometimes even contradictory ones – which allow the reader to conjure a hypothetical future of the fields of music and art.

Beyond that, this book is a catalogue of names in music and audiovisual art that the reader might want to follow in the future. By nominating them for the SHAPE project, curators from 16 festivals wanted to draw attention to the idiosyncratic and innovative work they have done so far, and to suggest that these artists represent ideas, methods, and trends that will shape the nearest future of both aforementioned fields.

HAPPY READING!

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SHAPE announces open call for 2022

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