HYENAZ Forthcoming Album “Foreign Bodies”: A Sonic Cartography of Motion, Migration and the Other
This Autumn, HYENAZ, the electronic performance duo known for their immersive auditory and somatic live experiences, are planning to release their decade-long excavation of movement, borders, proximity, and the politics of embodied presence, “Foreign Bodies”. This aural exploration traverses the politics and management of bodies: bodies in motion and bodies in migration; bodies managed by internal and external forces; bodies navigating boundaries imposed by States; bodies negotiating boundaries they set for themselves; bodies in flux; bodies in synchronicity; bodies in resistance to management and control.
“Foreign Bodies” is a meticulously crafted blend of 10 electronic tracks designed for the dance floor, juxtaposed with 11 “interstitial” tracks. These interstitial compositions serve as sonic gateways, exposing the field recordings and interview samples that have informed the creation of their dance tracks–a testament to the band’s unique soundscape architecture. Featured are voices of intellectuals, artists and activists such as griot singer Yusuph Suso, philosopher Erin Manning, writer Sivan Ben Yishai, artist Sylbee Kim, and choreographer Thomas Defrantz, to name a few.
Each track in “Foreign Bodies” is a testament to HYENAZ’s commitment to initiating vital conversations regarding authority, consent, and the myriad ways humans construct the concept of the Other. Borne in 2015 as a sonic response to the unease of migration and xenophobia present into Europe, Australia, and the United States, “Foreign Bodies” is the product of a slow journey in which they utilized trains, buses, hitchhiking, and biclyces to gather field recordings collected from human and more-than-human encounters: protests, quarries, oceans, refugee camps, artist communes, and occupied spaces. All the while, they examine the process of field recording itself as an extractionist concept, and stay focused on developing better practices for field recording to resist extractivism within the arts.
With the help of hypnotic and jarring videos and immersive live performances, the album poses urgent questions about who is allowed to move, who is mourned, and how physical and digital proximities affect our capacity for care. Foreign Bodies compels listeners to confront the militarization of borders, the precarity of migrant lives, and the entangled ethics of witnessing and collaboration.
Hyenaz ARE
Mad Kate and Adrienne Teicher. Producers, performers, musicians and writers.
“a project that dissolves borders, torpedoing the dividing lines between music and performance” (Tagesspiegel).
SELECT LIVE
2025 | Placek Festival, Brno, Czechia
2024 | Festival Transhumanze, Alta Mura, Italy
2023 | Theater Treffen with Sivan Ben Yishai, Festspiele Berlin, Germany
2022 | PEACHES Huxleys Neue Welt (support act) Berlin, Germany
2021 | Casa Tranzit, Cluj, Romania
2021 | Atelierie Mailmaison, Bucharest, Romania
2021 | Teater Discounter mit Sivan Ben Yishai, Berlin, Germany
2021 | Maxim Gorki Theatre – Pugs in Love, Queer Week, Berlin Germany
2020 | Münchner Kammerspiel with Sivan Ben Yishai, Munich, Germany
2020 | ARTE Concert + United We Stream #62: Female:Pressure Berlin, Germany
2019 | Back\Slash Festival, Stahl 6, Zürich, Switzerland
2018 | Club Sandwich, Le Romandie, Lausanne, Switzerland
2018 | Garbicz Festival, Poland
2018 | Le beau est toujours BIZARRE, Basel, Switzerland
2018 | Torstraßen Festival, Berlin, Germany
2018 | UT Connewitz, Leipzig, Germany
2018 | HYENAZ Proximate Movements at Garbicz Festival Poland
2017 | IDFA Melkweg, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2017 | Festival Belles de Nuit, Zürich, Switzerland
2017 | COVEN, London, UK
2017 | Genderbending Queer Party, WORM, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2017 | Loppen, Cristiania, Denmark
2017 | Chateau Perche Festival, France
2017 | Commune, Yerevan, Armenia
2017 | Success Bar, Tbilisi, Georgia
2017 | Pornceptual Does About Blank, Berlin, Germany
2017 | Strangelove Festival, Antwerp, Belgium
2017 | Underdog’s Ballroom MENU Presents, Prague, Czech Republic
2017 | Partial Eclipse of the Heart, Berghain, Berlin, Germany
2017 | Lumiere Bleue, IFZ Leipzig, Germany
2017 | Red Rattler, Sydney, Australia
2017 | Yo Sissy Goes Down Under Melbourne, Australia
2016 | Festival “Magnétique Nord” Paris, France
2016 | Open Mind Festival, Salzburg, Austria
2016 | Festival Explicit, Montpellier, France
2016 | UNA Festival Reitschule, Bern, Switzerland
2016 | Sled Island Music and Arts Festival, Calgary, Canada
2016 | Pretty Good Not Bad Festival, Victoria, Canada
2016 | RTS-Z1 Ritopek, Serbia
2015 | Technikum supporting PEACHES, Munich, Germany
2015 | Turn Around Bright Eyes, Berghain, Berlin, Germany
2015 | Open Air Festival, Hradec Králové, Czech
2015 | Sapfo Festival, Vilnius, Lithuania
2015 | SVOI at Otel’, Kiev, Ukraine
2015 | ich bin ein Berliner, SO36 Berlin, Germany
2015 | “Straight to Hell” – First Annual Queer Performance Festival – Wien, Austria
2015 | CONTROL CLUB – Bucharest, Romania
2014 | SODOM – Tokyo, Japan
2014 | MIDI Festival – Shanghai, China
2014 | Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art – Seoul, Korea
2014 | Queer Festival (supporting Bonaparte) – Heidelberg, Germany
2014 | Bahia – Mexico City, Mexico
2014 | SXSW – Austin, USA
2014 | 100 Grad Performance Festival – Berlin, Germany