From November 11 until November 25, SHAPE platform for innovative music and audiovisual art will collaborate with the US-based online music magazine XLR8R on a string of exclusive live streams and mixes from a selection of 2020 SHAPE artists. The collaboration further highlights a path that the majority of SHAPE festivals chose to take during the tumultuous times of the coronavirus pandemic: a (hopefully) temporary switch from live events to online activities as a way to continue engaging their audience and supporting artists.
The two weeks of collaborations will form somewhat of an “online festival”, presenting either a live video stream or exclusive audio material from a different artist each night. The live video streams will be accessible via XLR8R‘s and SHAPE platform‘s Facebook pages (usually at 19:00 CET) and will be archived on XLR8R’s website afterwards. The exclusive audio – live recordings and mixes – will be posted straight to the XLR8R website.
The line-up of this event will consist of 16 acts – each member festival of SHAPE will present one artist that they initially nominated to the platform. The full list of participants can be found below:
Aquarian (CA/DE), presented by CTM (Berlin)
Farida Amadou (BE) and Steve Noble (UK), presented by Skaņu Mežs (Riga)
Elvin Brandhi (UK), presented by MeetFactory (Prague)
Dorota (HU), presented by UH Fest (Budapest)
Hugo Esquinca (MX/DE), presented by depart.one
Oli XL (SE), presented by Insomnia (Tromsø)
Borokov Borokov(BE), presented by Maintenant (Rennes)
Rojin Sharafi (IR/AT), presented by musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst / ORF (Graz)
LYZZA (NL), presented by Rokolectiv (Bucharest)
Sacrifice Seul (FR), presented by Les Siestes Électroniques (Toulouse)
Piezo (IT), presented by Terraforma (Milan)
Kӣr (RS), presented by SONICA (Ljubljana)
Jay Glass Dubs (GR), presented by RIAM (Marseille)
Ben Bertrand (BE), presented by schiev (Brussels)
c / a (UK), presented by TodaysArt (The Hague)
FOQL (PL), presented by Unsound (Kraków)
Additionally, to highlight the XLR8R+ subscription platform, a handful of artists have provided new tracks and commissioned works, including Jay Glass Dubs, Rian Treanor, and Poly Chain. XLR8R+ subscribers can also exclusively download all the audio content in advance of its streaming.
For those unfamiliar, XLR8R+ is a member-supported music community and curated music experience. Every month, visitors will get three exclusive tracks—sometimes more—by a wealth of amazing artists that XLR8R has supported over the years, as well as access to the member’s area where one can submit tracks and DJ mixes to be showcased in this feature series and to the XLR8R+ community, as well as exclusive editorial content, mixes, free passes to music festivals and events, playlists, and more. You can find out more here.
Each year, the 16 associations, involved in SHAPE, collectively choose 48 artists and musicians to participate in a mix of live performances, residencies, workshops and talks across festivals and special events. The platform is supported by the “Creative Europe” programme of the European Union.
To catch the live streams and new audio works of this online event, follow the Facebook pages of SHAPE and XLR8R as well as the XLR8R website.