One of the most influential creative forces in electronica, an AI's imaginary journey through Renaissance art, and posthuman music from another planet

Oval _DE / Thrill Jockey
Markus Popp aka Oval continues to be one of the most prolific and influential creative forces in contemporary electronic music. He began his career in the early 1990s and quickly gained recognition within the scene for his innovative ideas. For many years, the composer defended software intuition over his own role in music creation, anticipating the trend towards the use of AI in composition by almost 30 years.

With extraordinarily evocative and emotive live performances, meticulous attention to detail and an outstanding sense of exploration and experimentation, Popp approaches his work more as an artistic director than a producer, introducing new elements and creative challenges with each release, always ready to reinvent himself and surprise audiences. In his performance at L.E.V. Matadero, the visuals will be presented by renowned Berlin-based artist Robert Seidel.

Riccardo Giovinetto F E M I N A _IT
FEMINA is a double screen audio-visual performance in which echoes of polyphonic madrigals are layered on the composition of original electronic music, while samples of Renaissance paintings are transformed into an evolving stream of images. The project, created by Italian visual and multimedia artist, physicist and university professor Riccardo Giovinetto, explores the idea of grace and the eye that defines it during the Renaissance, that of the painters, who accorded it par excellence to the feminine figure. Sound and video are informed by the same conceptual principles and mutually condition each other through the imaginary journey of an AI.

Venus Ex Machina & Xtrux Live AV _UK / TW / AD 93
Venus Ex Machina is the composition and production alias of Nontokozo F. Sihwa. She has contributed her attuned skill of sound and music to a range of projects spanning releases on labels such as AD93 NON Worldwide and Optimo Music, as well as applying it to outstanding installations exhibited all over the world. In 2021, she won the PRS Foundation Oram Award for innovation in music and sound technologies. Trained as a mathematician, she brings both a boundless curiosity and exacting precision to her work. Venus Ex Machina draws on her interest in futurism, posthumanism, and the phenomenology of radio-related communication, all of which inspire her otherworldly and distinctive music. At L.E.V. Matadero, she will be accompanied by the audiovisual work of the Taiwanese new media art laboratory Xtrux, which specialises in 3D animation and club culture.