Shida Shahabi

Swedish-Iranian composer and pianist Shida Shahabi moves between post-classical, ambient and drone. Piano, cello and electronics form the core of her soundscape. Shahabi is characterised by her approach to harmony: long sustained chords, modal fields and subtle resonances that do not move forward, but open up in duration and depth. Small structural shifts, pauses for breath and microtonal nuances create a tension that does not require accents. The cello complements these open soundscapes, while electronic layers introduce subtle changes and additional colours.
In the theatre space, this formation unfolds a special presence: silence becomes an audible part of the piece, instrumental colours merge. Shahabi's music opens up an experience in which sound is perceived as a movement of closeness and distance.

With his project Helen Island, Léopold Collin from Paris creates songs with lo-fi aesthetics, trip-hop influences and digital melancholy. The current album “Silence Is Priceless” opens up floating spaces between shimmering synth textures, beatless, trance-like passages and a voice that appears more as an atmospheric track than as classic singing. The compositions reassemble familiar song forms and reduce them to their essential elements, focusing on an aesthetic of reduction.