Mūzikas projekts NikNak (UK)

 

Turntablist and sound artist NikNak will perform at Riga’s 1983 bar (Vagonu street 21) on December 5. The event is organized as part of her sound art residency in the city in collaboration with experimental music festival Skaņu Mežs and EU-supported sound art project tekhnē. Tickets can be purchased at www.ticketservice.lv; they cost 15 EUR, with the first 50 tickets being available for 10 EUR.

 

NikNak (aka Nicole Raymond), an artist well-known for her creative and boundary-breaking work, has gained worldwide recognition with her unusual albums, remixes, and engaging performances. In 2020, she made history as the first Black Turntablist to receive the prestigious Oram Award that recognises women and gender diverse artists who are innovators in the fields of music, sound and related technologies. Not limited to any one genre or role, NikNak excels in composing, sound design, DJing, and electronic arts. With multiple releases, collaborations, and live shows, NikNak stands out in the music industry for her unique style. Featured in various publications as a rising star, NikNak continues to advance the boundaries of sound innovation with her complex turntablism and spatial music production.

 

NikNak also hosts "The Narrative", a podcast that focuses on and features Black female, trans and non-binary creatives in music, art, photography, dance and many more creative industries.

 

Her most well-known recordings are 2020’s “Bashi”, devoted to the concept of peace, 2023’s EP “Moon”, devoted to sleep, darkness and the unconscious, and this year’s “Ireti” - a bass music inspired album that “DJ Mag” described in the following words: “Turntablist NikNak has a unique style, cutting and scratching field recordings and samples into ambient tracks — but her latest album finds her leaning into the dance music you might hear in one of her club sets.”

 

It is also invisibly structured by an afro-futuristic sci-fi story that NikNak devised, inspired by the classic film “Blade Runner” and the video game “Cyberpunk 2077”.

 

In its review of “Ireti”, “The Quietus” writes thus: “Her patterns shimmer with eeriness, barren like a desert yet coloured in gleaming chrome. There’s a darkness churning within these glossy beats, something lurking and waiting to pounce – the anxiety of dystopia looms, and NikNak captures it and sends it out in mysterious waves.”

 

From December 4 till December 12, NikNak will be in creative residency in Riga. She will be working on a new sound art installation which will eventually be exhibited at gallery “Smilga” (34A Eduarda Smiļģa street).

 

NikNak’s concert and residency in Riga are supported by the European Union and The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia.

 

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_xEm67xW-E&t=254s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_HlbAj9g9g&t=320s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3M16z0AyYg&t=57s