SHIDA SHAHABI

In the organizer's words:

Born in the Swedish capital in 1989, composer Shida Shahabi heard both 1970s Persian pop music and time-honored classical works in her childhood home, but, she insists, "it was the environment - my parents' enjoyment of listening and singing - that shaped my long-term relationship with music, not the genres or my family's CD collection." She began experimenting with her own compositions at the age of eleven, and when she began studying at the Royal College of Art in Stockholm in 2009, she decided to combine this creative urge with another, namely her passion for art. By the time she left the institute, she was already working as a freelance musician with numerous local artists and bands and was soon writing for dance, cinema, theater and visual arts.
In 2018, she released her debut album Homes, which was praised by BBC Radio's Mary Anne Hobbs and Gilles Peterson and Mojo Magazine as "half-submerged music that rewards the attentive ear". In the five years that followed, she recorded a five-track EP of her own, Shifts, as well as tracks for a split EP, The Sea at The End of Her String, with 130701 labelmates Resina and Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch, not to mention a reworking of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 26 for the Deezer project Beethoven Recomposed.
Shahabi also scored the short films Lake on Fire (2020) and Alvaret (2021), as well as the feature films Lovely, Dark and Deep (2023) and the award-winning Falcon Lake (2022). She has also participated in carefully selected live performances at prestigious events such as Max Richter and Yulia Mahr's Reflektor Festival, Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie and Film Four's first Summer Screen season at London's Somerset House.
In 2023, Shahabi released her second album, Living Circle, a carefully calibrated blend of classical and electronic elements. Combining ambient and drone techniques with traditional structures, its emotional resonance floats weightlessly in deeply atmospheric, uncluttered compositions rich in textural detail and imbued with a deep warmth. This unusually immersive style offers a sanctuary that invites a response that is as cerebral as it is sentimental. In fact, says Shahabi, "I don't see the need to make a distinction. We need both to experience art".

You too can enjoy this experience on April 4, when Shida Shahabi will be on stage in the beautiful resonanzraum.