Qobuz x SXSW Showcase

Circuit des Yeux

The project of Chicago-based singer/songwriter and musician Haley Fohr, Circuit des Yeux creates haunting, emotionally complex music that is centred around the human condition. Circuit des Yeux's music can be identified by Fohr’s sublime four-octave voice and inventive 12-string guitar playing which took her from noisy, almost lo-fi beginnings, to exquisitely arranged and musically mature albums, such as her latest release -io. -io embodies the idea of the perpetual. "It is a place where everything is ending all the time … where mothers have vertigo, gravity is God, and grief hovers just below the atmosphere," Fohr says. "It is also the place that lent me the ability to openly explore the spiral of fear, sickness, death, and grief." Circuit des Yeux wrote, arranged, produced, and performed with a 24-piece orchestra on -io to bring these firmly fundamental ideas to life with rich, textured, mellifluous detail.

Moor Mother

Noise poet, artist and musician, Camae Ayewa aka Moor Mother, packages up her experimental ideas and delivers them to the audience in a way that is digestible, and more so than that, thoroughly enjoyable. Ayewa’s latest project, Black Encyclopedia of the Air, is a thirteen-course degustation that will leave you feeling full to the brim. This album is a journey through hip-hop culture whilst also being an insight into the genre’s future. Ayewa’s intentions are clear, although her previous work could be considered more left-field, she mentioned “I wanted to make it more accessible, and to get to ears that don’t really know me or have been afraid of me.” Usually performing solo with two microphones and decks, occasionally accompanied by a saxophonist, Moor Mother is a project that simply must be appreciated live.

Claire Rousay

Claire Rousay is an experimental electronic artist who combines field recording, collaging and composing sounds to create ‘mindful’ music. Rousay explores the sensitivities of sound always in relation to "the self" and "the other." Her work is always seen as a contribution to the act of engagement, which then becomes acts of considering, remembering, giving. Therefore, music becomes a context, or more precisely, a habitat. Rousay creates a space in which the listener can exist within her music. In 2021, she released three LP’s, namely her acclaimed softer focus, as well as A Collection, and An Afternoon Whine. On softer focus, field recordings are not just another tool in her ambient belt, but instead another way to create a space, an atmosphere or a feeling or memory. With ASMR like effects, Rousey captures a unique sense of intimacy and creates a world that seems familiar and personal, whilst also still feeling somewhat transcendental.

Marina Herlop

Barcelona based and conservatoire trained Marina Herlop is a specialist in aesthetics. On her first release Babasha, her training is evident as she creates a dialogue with composers like Chopin, building a unique landscape that combines effortless neo-romanticism with her fragile voice and electronic/sampled overdubs. As her career progresses, Herlop has an increasing interest in electronic music and her latest release miu is just a taste of what is to come as she prepares her third album. Miu is based on the Carnatic music of Southern India. With acapella layered vocals and tone clusters and samples that shift between harmonious and dissonant, this track pulls the listener into a rabbit hole of otherworldly sounds.

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