Hüma Utku explores the possibilities of how sound textures and rhythm intertwine to evoke a sense of peace and calm in electronic music; Object Blue makes her debut in Madrid with visuals by digital and creative artist Natalia Podgórska.
| Duration: | 2 hours |
Hüma Utku
Hüma’s studies of psychology have provided the key inspiration for her second album 'The Psychologist', released by MEGO and presented in Spain for the first time. With a disregard for commercial labels, her practice fuses field recordings with instruments like the piano and a thick, dark atmospheric ambience, bordering on minimal techno with touches of noise and ancestral Middle Eastern rhythms. For this artist, music is a tool for telling us stories. Her compositions draw on the human condition, Jungian psychology, mysticism and the folklore of her native country, Turkey.
In late 2017 Hüma Utku (Turkey) was an artist in residency at the Submarine Studio of Yara Mekaw in Cairo (Egypt). After the international success of her first EP, 'Şeb-i Yelda', in 2018, Karlrecords released her debut full-length album GNOSIS in July 2019, gaining international acclaim for the artist. In the last two years her work has received notable press on platforms like The Wire, Noisey, Rolling Stone, Redbull Music, Groove Mag and Scene Noise. She has also collaborated with radio stations like BBC Radio 3, NTS radio, RAI 3, Resonance FM, YLE and Sveriges Radio. In 2021 she was selected to take part in SHAPE, the European platform that promotes new music and contemporary art. Her 2022 album 'The Psychologist', released on the Viennese experimental electronic label MEGO, can be read as a musical investigation of the human condition.
Object Blue
Presentation in Spain of 'Grotto', an album released in 2021 on the TT label featuring five tracks with a marked theatrical influence in which she explores a more melodically rich and ornamental direction. A virtual live show directed by Natalia Podgórska and inspired by the iconography of medieval carnivals accompanies the production.
Object Blue, a Japanese artist raised in China and now resident in London, blends experimental techno with the cold rhythms of grime, decontextualised club music and the maximalist sounds of 1990s trance, and has carved out a niche for herself as one of the most important figures on the new electronic music scene. Her third EP, 'Figure Beside Me', released in 2019, was unanimously acclaimed by specialised critics. That same year she collaborated with TSVI on Nervous Horizons, garnering support from all the online media and platforms like i-D, Pitchfork, RA, The FACE, Dazed, CRACK, Mixmag, DJ Mag and Hunger. In recent months she has been invited to DJ at the iconic Smithfields Market as part of Fabric's London Unlocked series and has produced remixes for numerous musicians. She performed at the Paris Fashion Week, composing music for Andreas Kronthaler for the Vivienne Westwood SS20 collection, and she has produced scores for Apple and Adidas advertising campaigns. Object Blue has played at festivals like Sónar, both in Barcelona and Hong Kong, and Unsound in Poland.
Sponsored by: SON Estrella Galicia
In collaboration with: Goethe-Institut
