Maria Chavez
Born in Lima, Peru and based in NYC, Maria Chávez is best known as an abstract turntablist, sound artist and DJ. Coincidence, chance and failures are themes that unite her work across mediums, including improvised performance, sound and marble sculpture, visual art, book objects and an extensive history with multi-channel installation. Her approach is rooted in Deep Listening, a form of embodied listening developed by her late mentor Pauline Oliveros. Maria’s relationship with Oliveros was recently covered in a BBC3 radio episode of Afterwords, chronicling the late composers impact on a new generation of artists. She also graced the cover of The Wire in April 2023 with The Turntable Trio.

Maria is the only abstract turntablist in the world who performs with a rare needle known as the RAKE Double Needle. This special device contains two needles on one head, allowing it to read two different segments of a single record at the same time. Paired with her inimitable ability to create unforgettable sonic experiences from shards of broken records, each performance is truly unique.

Maria’s practice is profoundly expansive, responsive and curious. Her work has been featured and supported by a myriad of institutions over the past decades including Rewire Festival, Counterflows Festival, Donau Festival, MoMA PS1, The Getty, DOCUMENTA 14, the JUDD Foundation, Cambridge University Press and many, many more. Chavez’s 2012 book, Of Technique: Chance Procedures on Turntable has garnered a reputation as both an academic resource on turntablism and a foundational text for a new generation of turntablists.

La Macacoa
La Macacoa is Puerto Rican Bay Area experimental sound artist Alexandra Buschman-Román (she/they). As a singer and improviser, they use multiple microphones, electronic hardware, and body gestures/movement to expand the voice. As a composer and electronic percussionist, they draw from Afro-Caribbean music and Taino (indigenous Caribbean) stories. Performances are mystical rituals.

Part of Alexandra’s roots are in the Puerto Rican classical and electronic music vanguard studying composition at the Music Conservatory with Manuel Ceide (Berio student), and Rafael Aponte Ledée (Ginastera student). They moved to Oakland in 2007 to study Composition and Improvisation with Fred Frith, Chris Brown, and Maggie Payne, and Deep Listening with Pauline Oliveros at Mills College.

Alexandra is half of avant-tropical duo Las Sucias, with Danishta Rivero. They also perform and tour under monicker Demonsleeper, singing songs about nightmares and lucid dreams using dark ambient, drone noise, and heavy somnambulist pulses.