Line-up

Artists and projects for Semibreve 2025

+ installations, talks, workshops, cinema


Actress & Suzanne Ciani

present Concrète Waves

Co-curated as part of collaborative curation supported by TIMES (The Independent Movement For Electronic Scenes)

A groundbreaking new performance will bring together Actress (Darren J Cunningham) and Suzanne Ciani to present a work commissioned by Sónar and The Barbican, London. “Concrète Waves” will see the UK producer join forces with the five-time Grammy-nominated American composer and “diva of the diode”, drawing on both their shared sensibilities and distinct approaches in a collaboration unlike anything seen before. Both Actress and Suzanne Ciani have previously performed solo at Semibreve and now return to present their new collaborative work, “Concrète Waves”.

Actress & Suzanne Ciani

Ava Rasti

performing The River with a string quartet

Premiere
Commissioned by Semibreve under Re-Imagine Europe

In a commissioned performance by Semibreve, under the Re-Imagine Europe programme, Iranian-born composer, pianist, and bassist Ava Rasti will present her new album, “The River”, alongside a string quartet, experimenting on the interface between ambient, modern classical and drone.

Ava Rasti

aya

performing hexed!

Marking her return to Hyperdub, aya’s second album, “hexed!”, confronts the desperation and dysfunction of addiction. London-based experimental artist Aya Sinclair delivers one of the most powerful and intense albums of the year so far.

aya
© Dee Iskrzynska

emptyset

performing Dissever

Emptyset’s new album continues their ongoing exploration of the histories of electronic sound and media across the 20th century. “Dissever” (Thrill Jockey, out May 23) is the sixth album by James Ginzburg and Paul Purgas. First presented at Tate Modern as a live performance accompanying the exhibition Electric Dreams, a large-scale survey of the global history of art and technology, the duo will return to Braga after an unforgettable performance in 2012

emptyset
© Philomene Pirecki

Grand River

performing Tuning the wind

Created in 2022 as an installation piece, Aimée Portioli returns with her acclaimed third album, Tuning the Wind. The Dutch-Italian composer and sound designer recorded various types of wind, then reworked these sounds through layering and pitch adjustment to create a musical composition where the wind itself becomes a prepared instrument. In this extended piece, Aimée seamlessly merges nature and music, blending synthesizers and wind recordings so that they become indistinguishable, uniting natural sounds with human-made instruments.

Grand River
© Maria Louceiro

Heinali & Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko

performing Гільдеґарда (Hildegard)

Co-curated as part of collaborative curation supported by TIMES (The Independent Movement For Electronic Scenes)

Гільдеґарда (‘Hildegard’ in Ukrainian) is a unique reimagining of Hildegard von Bingen's music. It combines the vocal sound production approaches of authentic Ukrainian folk singing with the modular synthesis techniques drawing from high medieval polyphony and monophony. This innovative approach, brought to life by Oleh Shpudeiko, known as Heinali, an electronic music composer reimagining Early music in modular synthesis, and Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko, a singer practising authentic Ukrainian vocal tradition, brings to the fore the paradoxical viscerality inherent to Hildegard's visionary writing. It serves as a mirror, reflecting, processing and transcending the wartime experience and exploring the raw spirituality emerging from it. This performance of “Hildegard” is co-curated with Unsound, with the album set to be released on the Unsound label on May 30th.

Heinali & Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko
© Vincent Guis

João Galante

A key figure in Portuguese performing arts, João Galante performs solo under the name C001gate / Coolgate, exploring abstract soundscapes, digital imagery, and DJing. At Semibreve, he will deliver one of his rare DJ sets.

João Galante
© João Galante

Lucy Railton with Charlie Hope and Rebecca Salvadori

performing Not A Word From Me

Commissioned by Semibreve (Braga), CTM (Berlin), DE SINGEL (Antwerp) and FIBER (Amsterdam)

Not A Word From Me is the new live show that brings together the work of three distinct artists in music, video, and light design, building on recent releases and new compositions by British cellist and electronic musician Lucy Railton. She is accompanied by London-based, Italo-Australian video artist and filmmaker Rebecca Salvadori, and London-born visual artist Charlie Hope. This performance delves into an experience of sensorial exploration, immersing the listener in the visceral and psychoacoustic states for which Railton’s sonic work is renowned.

Lucy Railton with Charlie Hope and Rebecca Salvadori

Lyra Pramuk B2B Krzysztof Bagiński

In a rare appearance as a DJ, American multidisciplinary artist Lyra Pramuk joins forces with Polish artist and organiser Krzysztof Bagiński. Pramuk conjures a singular form of devotional music, shaping her performances into collective rituals. Bagiński is the curator of W Brzask (At Dawn), a series of experimental music events in Warsaw held at sunrise.

Lyra Pramuk B2B Krzysztof Bagiński

Marta De Pascalis & Marco Ciceri

performing Tell Me The Sun

Tell Me the Sun is the new sound piece by Italian musician and sound designer Marta De Pascalis. Her solo work employs analogue and FM synthesis alongside a tape-loop system, through which she carves waveforms into cathartic sonic bodies. The new work will be presented live in collaboration with Berlin-based Italian media artist Marco Ciceri, known for his immersive audiovisual installations and performances.

Marta De Pascalis & Marco Ciceri
© George Nebieridze

NAH

Since his early demos in 2011, NAH has crafted a distinctive sonic identity — blending raw percussion, visceral noise, and fractured rhythms inspired by DIY punk, noise, avant-jazz, experimental electronics, and the restless pulse of hip-hop. Armed with just a drum kit and a few samplers, his live performances burst with explosive energy, shifting seamlessly between chaotic intensity and playful spontaneity. A prolific solo artist, the percussionist, sound manipulator, and visual artist has also collaborated with a diverse range of musicians, including Wiki, MIKE, Moor Mother, Iggor Cavalera, Evicshen, and many others.

NAH

Nazar

performing Demilitarize

Nazar’s second album, Demilitarize, follows his acclaimed 2020 debut Guerrilla, released just as the world entered lockdown. That first record reimagined Angolan kuduro through distorted textures, field recordings, and media fragments, weaving a visceral narrative of civil war and exile — his family displaced in Europe while his father, a rebel general, fought in the jungle back home. With Demilitarize, Nazar crafts another immersive sonic world, but where Guerrilla was raw and confrontational, this new work drifts into something more dreamlike. It charts a journey from the weight of trauma toward a vulnerable, unguarded acceptance of a transformed reality.

Nazar

Rafael Toral

performing Traveling Light

Rafael Toral is part of a generation of artists who emerged on the global experimental music scene in the 1990s, pioneering a new form of electronic music that draws equally from rock, jazz, ambient and minimalism. Following the release of his acclaimed new work Spectral Evolution on Jim O’Rourke’s Mokai label, Toral returns with Traveling Light, a new piece set to premiere at the Venice Biennale, this year curated by Caterina Barbieri. Just days after its Italian debut, Traveling Light will be presented in Braga in one of its rare performances. For this occasion, Toral will be joined on stage by Yaw Tembe (flugelhorn), Rodrigo Amado (tenor saxophone), Bruno Parrinha (clarinet), and Clara Saleiro (flute), with lighting scenography by Marcel Weber/MFO.

Rafael Toral
© Vera Marmelo

Violet B2B Mix’Elle

Violet, co-founder of Rádio Quântica, is an artist, DJ and producer who plays a central role in Lisbon’s music scene and regularly performs internationally, with appearances at Berghain/Panorama Bar, Berlin Atonal, Unsound and Dekmantel. Throughout her career, she has collaborated with artists like ELLES and Ariel Zetina, remixed tracks by Matias Aguayo and Teto Preto, and founded her own label, Naive. Her DJ sets blend alien rhythms, imaginative techno, acid and breakbeat variations, and other unexpected sounds.
Michelle Borja, also known as Mix’Elle, is a seasoned and respected DJ in Portugal’s drum’n’bass scene, with a career spanning over two decades. This year, she debuted as a producer with her first EP, Spiritual Rhythms – a sonic journey shaped by jungle, drum’n’bass, and many years of experience behind the decks.

Violet B2B Mix’Elle

Yara Asmar

performing Stuttering Music

Co-curated as part of collaborative curation supported by TIMES (The Independent Movement For Electronic Scenes)

Acclaimed Lebanese multi-instrumentalist, video artist and puppeteer Yara Asmar is set to mesmerise audiences in person. Following two celebrated releases — 2022’s Home Recordings 2018–2021 and 2024’s Synth Waltzes & Accordion Laments — her latest work, Stuttering Music, emerged from a series of improvised performances originally broadcast on Palestine’s Radio alHara. It is a delicate and evocative exploration of sound and memory. The atmosphere evoked in Yara’s laments will feel achingly familiar to anyone living in the 21st century.

Yara Asmar
© Aurelien Haslebacher

Zancudo Berraco

The alter ego of multidisciplinary artist Henrique Apolinário, Zancudo Berraco seems to exist for the sole purpose of dismantling conventions and preconceptions around dance music. His sets are defined by a deep, visceral connection between body and modular synths, with live improvisation at the core, producing deconstructed bass, techno, and other forms of percussive electronica.

Zancudo Berraco

µ-Ziq & ID:Mora

performing Grush

Co-curated as part of collaborative curation supported by TIMES (The Independent Movement For Electronic Scenes)

Mike Paradinas needs little introduction. Best known under the alias μ-Ziq, the British artist was a key figure in reshaping leftfield electronic music in the 1990s. Alongside solo projects under names like Jake Slazenger, he also collaborated with Aphex Twin on the cult album Mike & Rich (1996). In 1995, he founded Planet Mu — a trailblazing label with a visionary catalogue that continues to chart the outer edges of the electronic music spectrum.
ID:MORA is a Czech visual artist based in Barcelona. A self-taught creator, his striking video work has been featured at festivals around the world. Known for his immersive and detailed visual language, he has collaborated with the Ad Noiseam label and artists such as Loraine James, Red Snapper, Meneo, and Mike Paradinas himself.

µ-Ziq & ID:Mora