music
For Félicia Atkinson, human voices live surrounded by many others. Voices of objects, landscapes, books, images, ideas, memories, voices that do not speak — at least not in the conventional sense of the word.
Born in Paris, the electroacoustic composer dedicates much of her work to bringing these silent voices to life, placing them in dialogue with her own. Drawing on sound collage techniques, many introduced by fellow French composer Pierre Schaeffer and his Groupe de Recherche Musicales (GRM), Atkinson combines field recordings, MIDI instrumentation, distortion, excerpts from texts and essays and, above all, poetry. It was, in fact, through poetry that she took her first steps in music. Inspired by the sound poetry of Christophe Fiat and Anne-James Chaton, she began composing in the early 2000s. She formed the musique concrète duo Stretchandrelax with Elise Ladoué, and became involved with spoken word through a collaboration with Sylvain Chaveau. The relationship between her music and poetic text is also the focus of a masterclass led by the composer on the morning before the concert, promoted by Circuito (see page x).
After her first experiments in duos and groups, La La La, her first album under her own name, finally arrived in 2008, released by the Japanese label Spekk. Shortly afterwards, she met Bartolomé Sanson and together they founded Shelter Press in 2012. In the following years, the label became a reference for promoting dialogue between contemporary art, poetry and experimental music, publishing books, magazines and records. Through Shelter Press, Félicia Atkinson released the book The Whisper and around ten albums, including solo works and collaborations with names such as Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. Among her many works under her own name, The Flower And The Vessel (2019), Space as an Instrument (2024) and Image Langage (2022) stand out. She recently released Sans Visage (2026), which proposes a new soundtrack for Georges Franju’s horror film Les yeux sans visage (1960), and Reflections Vol.3: Water Poem (2026), with Christina Vantzou, released by Rvng Intl. She has also collaborated with Stephen O’Malley and the Eklekto and Neon ensembles, and has appeared at leading venues and festivals such as Le Guess Who, Atonal, Issue Project Room and Barbican.
supported by mais frança, a programme promoted by institut français du portugal and part of novembre numérique.
portuguese republic – culture, youth and sports / general direction of the arts / network of portuguese theaters and cinemas (rtcp). portuguese contemporary art network (rpac).
