SHAPE Bucharest

On Friday, expect some sonic mutations with three early evening performances and a friendly art selfie environment. Memories of go-go dancing to trance in trashy Italian Riviera discotheques blend in LORENZO SENNI’s intense performance (read The Quietus feature Baker’s Dozen feat. Lorenzo Senni, where he talks about his 13 favourite records, here). While others declared it dead, the Milanese musician managed to transform the ‘90s rave into something more abstract, but still surprisingly danceable. Dresdener MORITZ SIMON GEIST decided to take the famous TR-808 to another level: his robotic installation MR-808, a mechanical replica of the famous 1980s electronic drum machine. The electronic sounds of the influential machine become physical, with the robot arms kicking the drums. The evening will end with a special performance by RAZE DE SOARE, Rokolectiv’s proposal for the SHAPE 2016 pool of artists. Initiated as a tribute to Albatros, one of the most influential 90s prolet-pop bands, Raze de Soare also take cues from the bustling but traditional Romanian “lăutărească” or the more contemporary “manele” genre, blending minimal synths, Oriental motifs, and electronics in a nostalgia infused performance.

On Saturday, Polish artists RSS BOYS (read an Electronic Beats interview with the duo here) combine analogue hardware with e-drums in a project that celebrates the archaic roots of techno by exploring tribal musical traditions in a gut-level, provocative and hypnotizing performance. The veiled techno shamans are followed by Angola born DJ NIGGA FOX, who produces an unnameable hybrid infused by kuduro, afro-house, tarraxinha, and batida. Alongside a handful of like-minded producers from Principe Records, he is creating Lisbon’s sound of now. In the second part of the night, Parisian artist LOW JACK will emphasize the secret link between tribal sounds and industrial music. Low Jack feels at home in the world of postmodern sonics, where one can freely borrow tropes from styles and genres of the past and merge and mix them with their own experience – update them to v. 2.0. From power electronics through techno and house to dub to ambient, he embraces music without any preconceptions. Finally, a dark priestess that comes with the morning light, BORUSIADE, will end the night with poignant bass lines and obsessive themes. Her bold, obscure, yet by all means melodic sounds fluctuate mostly in the field of dark disco, minimal wave, and raw house, with a touch of acid.