music
nabihah iqbal
In the early months of 2020, Nabihah Iqbal had a new album recorded and almost ready to be released. But fate threw her for a loop. Her studio was robbed and two years’ work was lost. As bad news never come alone, Nabihah’s grandfather fell ill and the British singer flew to Pakistan. A trip that had been planned for a fortnight ended up taking two months due to the pandemic. Far from the UK and without production equipment, the Londoner was encouraged by her grandfather to buy an acoustic guitar and an harmonium with which she began to design the skeleton of DREAMER (2023), her second album.
Once known as Throwing Shade, Nabihah rose to fame in the early 2010s as a DJ and electronic music producer. A close friend of SOPHIE, she provided vocals for the single “LEMONADE” (2014), one of the hyper-pop pioneer’s first albums. In 2017, she launched Weighing of the Heart, which marked her debut on Ninja Tune. Five years later, she unveiled DREAMER. Nabihah Iqbal’s second album is her most contemplative work to date and the first time the British singer has used instruments from her Pakistani heritage. Combining pure electronica with post-punk guitars and beats, and covert vocals reminiscent of shoegaze and dream pop, Iqbal has constructed a work that is both elegant and raw, praised by publications such as The Quietus and The Guardian.
xexa
On the same night, XEXA presents her new album Vibrações de Prata. The Portuguese afrofuturist artist mixes traditional African rhythms with synthesisers, sound design and voice. Her sound aesthetic is closer to ambient than to the dancefloor beats of her colleagues at Príncipe Discos. Dividing her time between Portugal and the UK, XEXA studied Sonic Arts at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where she performed “Clarinet Mood”, the song that closes her debut album. In Vibrações de Prata, XEXA seeks to “study the sensation of listening to music as an environment in which you dwell and not as a sound that follows you throughout the day”.
support portuguese republic – culture / directorate-general for the arts. rtcp – network of portuguese theatres and cinemas
