EVICSHEN with EARTHBALL - SISSY XO - STEFAN MAIER

EVICSHEN with EARTHBALL - SISSY XO - STEFAN MAIER

Evicshen is the nom de guerre of sound artist, experimental music performer, and inventor Victoria Shen (she/her). Based in San Francisco, Shen's sound practice is concerned with the spatiality/physicality of sound and its relationship to the human body. Her music features analog modular synthesizers, vinyl/resin records, and self-built electronics. Shen's music eschews conventions in harmony and rhythm in favor of extreme textures and gestural tones.

Shen is notably the inventor of Needle Nails, acrylic nails with embedded turntable needles allowing her to play up to 5 tracks of a record at once. Shen's DIY approach extends beyond just instruments but also music releases. Her debut LP, Hair Birth, features copper album art that transforms the cover into a loudspeaker through which the record can be played. Recently, Shen has started releasing hand-made resin records embedded with found materials, each piece functions not only as playable music media but as unique art objects.

EARTH BALL are a wild ensemble practicing on The xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) and Snuneymuxw First Nation territories, Vancouver and Nanaimo. They have been embracing complete improvisation since 2019, with a collective sound enriched by its members’ work in experimental groups like Shearing Pinx, Kamikaze Nurse, Eschatons, Psychedelic Dirt, and CROTCH, as well as in collaborations with artists like Deerhoof, Chris Corsano, and William Hooker.

They’ve hit remarkable milestones for such a new project, with four releases to their credit, including the new LP It’s Yours on British label Upset The Rhythm, supported by a UK tour with drumming legend Chris Corsano. With a commitment to spontaneous composition and unrepeatable performances, Earth Ball push the boundaries of improvisation and sonic exploration, taking psychedelic free jazz punk rock into new transcendental territories.

With John Brennan drums, Jeremy Van Wyck guitar/vocals, Isabel Ford bass/vocals, Kellan McLaughlin guitar, Liam Murphy sax.

Sissy XO is an emotionally violent cybergrind project focusing on themes such as depression, guilt, grief, and reflection. Frantic bass guitar drenched in ethereal effects backed up by a relentless drum machine fronted by a human emotional breakdown. Think somewhere along the lines of The Dillinger Escape Plan meets SOPHIE meets The Hirs Collective. Queer as in fuck you.Following two live recordings, SISSY XO released their debut album Public Humiliation in February 2024. While Public Humiliation is full of punishing cybergrind, SISSY XO has performed at free improv noise events such as Teflon Spine (BC) and Bug Incision (AB), often joined by oboist Haley Bird.

SXO is Leda XO (she/her) and Nikko Whitworth (they/them).

Stefan Maier (b. 1990) is an artist and composer based in Vancouver, Canada — the unceded, traditional territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. His installations, performances, writings, and compositions examine emergent and historical sound technologies as tools for speculation. Highlighting material instability and unruliness, his work explores the flows of sonic matter through sound systems, instruments, software, and bodies, to uncover alternate histories, modes of listening, and authorship possible within specific technologically-mediated situations. Stefan works fluidly between experimental electronic music, sound art, installation, and contemporary classical music.

Host or Publisher John Brennan