Workshop and Performance at Sonic Territories Festival 2025
Written on October 22nd , 2025 by AH
Image: Nyokabi Kariũki performing at the Sonic Territories Festival 2025 at WUK Wien.
Body Percussion and Live-Electronics Workshop + Performance at Sonic Territories Festival 2025
Nyokabi Kariũki, Alex Hofmann, and Astrid Bin started researching approaches towards combining Body Percussion performance with live-electronics in 2023. Based on the experiments on technical setups, repertoire, performance practices and by involving inputs from workshops that were held in Irland and Kenya, Astrid and Nyokabi developed a dedicated wearable percussion instrument that allows to interface live-electronics sound synthesis through body percussion performance. Based on this wearable setup, Nyokabi developed her live performance entitled “Body, bend” that was premiered at the Sonic Territories Festival 2025.
Nyokabi and Alex also presented an interactive lecture-performance/workshop at WUK. During this lecture performance the topic of Body Percussion and Live-Electronics was explored from multiple perspectives: First, from the artistic perspective of composer and performer Nyokabi Kariũki from Nairobi, Kenya, who is currently working on a longform experimental sound work that will serve as her exploration of the complexities of post-colonial African identity. In this work, she centers herself as a performer on voice and body percussion, the latter of which plays a vibrant role in various folk musical traditions across Africa. Second, from the perspective of live-electronics performer and researcher Alex Hofmann, who is investigating questions of live-electronic performance preparation strategies. Kariũki and Hofmann are currently exploring the intersections of their respective research.
During the workshop, they show some of the music they created under this collaboration; where live-electronics were used in conversation with the body, exploring the way the body’s sound can be understood, enhanced, and disrupted. In addition, insights were provided into a custom-made wearable that was designed by Astrid Bin for Nyokabi’s performance. Workshop participants actively explored body percussion playing techniques during the workshop and were encouraged to develop and discuss new concepts for combining body percussion with live-electronics.
