Photo Credit: Vivien Gaumand

This year, MUTEK welcomes numerous projects to its stage, each presenting a unique take on live electronic performance, from dub-drenched improvisation to radiophonic fiction and fractured techno futurism. These acts share a commitment to experimentation, sonic storytelling, and the creation of immersive listening environments.

Two figures of the UK techno underground, James Ruskin and Mark Broom, step into new terrain with The Fear Ratio, a collaborative project that twists decades of dancefloor experience into something far more ambiguous. Since launching in 2011, the duo has eschewed conventional 4/4 structures in favour of broken rhythms, ambient detail, and textured abstraction. Releases on Skam and, more recently, Tresor (Slinky, 2023) reveal a restless spirit: at once cerebral and bodily, their sound bends club energy into cinematic unease. Making their MUTEK debut, they promise a visceral, heady performance that reshapes techno into something unpredictable and deeply tactile.

Nicola Cruz and machìna return to the festival in a different formation: together as Kaiwa, a new live project. While Cruz is celebrated for fusing Latin American rhythms with analog electronics, and machìna for her crystalline vocals and modular improvisation, Kaiwa opens up a shared sonic language. Built around a hardware-based live set, their collaboration emerges as a living conversation. Drawing from their respective heritages and musical instincts, the duo constructs a liminal space between ancestral sound and contemporary expression, balancing movement with contemplation in a hybrid performance that resists easy classification.

Florence-Delphine Roux brings an entirely different kind of intensity with Chronique d’Éther, a world premiere born out of her 2024 residency with MUTEK and Avatar. A sound and media artist from Québec based in Montréal, Roux works at the intersection of science, technology, and listening. Using field recordings and electromagnetic signals, she crafts layered compositions that blur the boundary between fiction and perception. Chronique d’Éther captures spectral transmissions, such as ghostly voices and low-frequency waves, to create a subtle yet haunting sonic narrative. Roux’s practice, often described as a “cinema for the ear,” turns sound into sensation, inviting audiences to experience the invisible through deep listening.

From the experimental dub frontlines of London, Holy Tongue makes its first MUTEK appearance with a live set built on free-form energy and sound system heat. The trio—percussionist Valentina Magaletti, producer Al Wootton, and bassist Susumu Mukai (Zongamin)—melds ritualistic rhythm, cosmic jazz, and raw improvisation into electrifying performances. With releases on labels like AD 93 and a recent collaboration with Shackleton (The Tumbling Psychic Joy of Now), they continue to stretch the dub tradition into psychedelic and post-punk territories.

Each of these performances embodies MUTEK’s vision of sound as a space for exploration, connection, and transformation. From dancefloor energy to introspective atmospheres, these artists challenge us to hear and feel in new ways.

The full lineup drops next Tuesday, May 13th. Stay tuned and secure your passport or pass before the next price increase!

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