The experimental music weekender at the National Concert Hall will take place this year on October 24th and 25th.
The Foggy Notions curated weekender in partnership with NCH has announced its lineup for three rooms of experimentally-minded music over two days in October.
Haunted Dancehall presents music across electronic, experimental, ambient, contemporary classical and noise categories.
Headlining the Saturday, is one of my favourite voices in music – Kelela, the R&B and electronic artist whose music always sound like it is coming from the near future, and there’s much more besides to get excited about – including Nosferatu (1922) with an original score performed by Circuit des Yeux accompanied by Low co-founder Alan Sparhawk, Scrata, the new solo project from My Blood Valentine’s Colm Ó Cíosóig, Chicago artist KeiyaA, Nialler-recommended West Cork producer and songwriter Caitlin Orla Eve, Scottish instrumental grime producer Proc Fiska and local heroes like Robocobra Quartet, E the Artist, Nashpaints and Shampain.
Tickets are €45 for Saturday and €35 for Sunday. Tickets on sale Friday 3rd July at 10:00 via nch.ie.
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Here’s the day by day:
Here’s the breakdown of the acts:
Kelela
The headline name this year. Following the announcement of her third album new avatar on Warp Records, Kelela arrives with a sound that fuses R&B, distorted guitar and experimental club music into something entirely her own. One of the most genuinely innovative voices in contemporary electronic music, and a live experience unlike almost anything else.
Circuit des Yeux feat. Alan Sparhawk – Live score to Nosferatu (1922)
Haley Fohr’s Circuit des Yeux performs a new live score to F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent horror masterpiece, accompanied by Alan Sparhawk of Low. Fohr’s recent album Halo on the Inside on Matador received effusive praise from Pitchfork and The New York Times – Bandcamp Daily called her “an artist who feels increasingly, thrillingly peerless.” Sparhawk has been releasing music again following the passing of Mimi Parker in 2022, most recently the solo album White Roses, My God and a collaborative record with Trampled by Turtles.
Brooklyn artist keiyaA’s debut album Forever Ya Girl was a genre-defying work of simultaneous self-discovery and self-determination, pulling from R&B, jazz, electronic music and soul, with vocals that cascade and float across slippery funk basslines, pools of synth and reverb, and samples of Black cultural touchstones. A singular voice and a significant booking.
Colm Ó Cíosóig (Scrata)
A founding member of My Bloody Valentine and co-founder of the Warm Inventions with Hope Sandoval, Ó Cíosóig presents his new solo project Scrata, blending organs, synths and drums. One of the most anticipated appearances of the weekend.
Robocobra Quartet
Belfast collective Robocobra Quartet bring their powerful, cerebral sound to the NCH. Drummer-vocalist Chris W Ryan is the axis around which meticulous arrangements and on-the-spot improvisations orbit – a band inspired in equal measure by Stravinsky and Dead Kennedys, invoking Fugazi, Black Midi and Tortoise. One of the most compelling live acts in Ireland.
Midwife
Colorado-based Madeline Johnston – who describes her sound as “Heaven Metal” – makes music that silences rooms live. Sparse, emotionally charged experimental pop built around grief and catharsis, produced with intricate care.
Voice Actor
Sheffield-based Noa Kurzweil blends haunting, deadpan vocals with dream-pop, IDM, trip-hop and hypnagogic soundscapes. Her sprawling debut Sent From My Telephone on STROOM contained 100+ tracks. She has played the Barbican, ICA London, OUT.FEST Portugal and MUTEK Mexico.
Proc Fiskal
Edinburgh-based electronic musician and DJ focused on forward-thinking club and experimental music – extreme genre diffusion and the pushing of new phenomena across worldwide dance music. Founder of label and club night Shleekit Doss.
A Good Year
Copenhagen duo Albert Hildebrand and Tobias Laust, reshaping the edges of Denmark’s alternative scene with cinematic textures, ambient pop and understated songwriting. Their collaboration ‘YSL’ with Horse Vision has passed 200,000 streams.
Nashpaints
Dublin artist Nashpaints – formerly of PRINC€SS – brings his atmospheric, genre-blurring sound to the NCH. His 2026 album Everyone Good Is Called Molly has gathered significant international acclaim.
E The Artist
Nigerian-born, Dublin-based E The Artist brings his explosive fusion of club music, rap and noise experimentation – jungle, grime and AfroPunk energy colliding with power electronics and extreme metal. Supported by Machine Girl and Kode9.
Shampain
Irish techno experimentalist, DJ and producer, founder of FREAK Magazine and G TOWN Records. A vital figure in Ireland’s underground electronic scene through cinematic DJ sets and emotionally charged productions.
Caitlin Orla Eve
Aindependent 24-year-old artist & producer from West Cork, Ireland. Composing, writing, producing, and mixing her own work, Caitlin brings her creative vision to life from concept to completion, fusing rich sonic textures and contrasting elements, making Caitlin’s works feel like their own self-contained, atmospheric worlds.
TURNSPIT
Drawing influence from surreal film, the experimental edge of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and Sonic Mook compilations, TURNSPIT have carved out a sound both cinematic and unpredictable – the kind of music that feels like it was made for a film that doesn’t exist yet and is better for it.
thredd
London trio formed by Will Lister, Max Winter and Imogen and The Knife during a now-legendary Laylow residency in West London. Their debut album It’s Lovely, Come On In on Scenic Route established their “cold pop” aesthetic – atmospheric electronics, sharp songwriting and textured production sitting somewhere between experimental pop, club music and moody electronic abstraction. Built a reputation for instinct-driven live performances before the record even came out.
feeo
London-based artist whose acclaimed debut album Goodness on AD93 moves fluidly between improvisation and song – ambient electronics, drone, minimalist dance music and poetic songwriting illuminated by haunting vocals. Centred on themes of connection, isolation and contemporary city life. AD93 is also home to Joanne Robertson and YHWH Nailgun, which tells you something about the label’s A&R instincts and where feeo sits within the current experimental music conversation.
Felicity J Lord is a band, a word which usually means a group of musicians (which is also true) but here means a group of misfits, internet lurkers, poets, polka-dotted ballerinas, CEOs, time travellers, and forever-kids. Felicity J Lord is a company, a family, a video game, a never-ending play in two acts. You are in Act I, welcome.
Full dates, tickets and programme details at foggynotions.ie.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
