NON XCHANGE: GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Artist biographies

• Chino Amobi

  Born from parents of Nigerian descent, Chino Amobi's vision with NON was to break down long-standing Eurocentric perceptions of dance and experimental music -- focusing instead on musicians who are either African or of the African diaspora -- and letting the producers and singers have direct ownership over what is theirs, bending music-industry rules that are still largely colonial. It's a political label, for sure, but the music itself sounds like nothing else. After all, "bass music" has become its own blanket term for almost any sort of club music, and while most of NON's output could light the floor up like matches and gasoline, very little of it is easily classifiable or delineated by genre. Because like Amobi's own lineage, NON's music is first generation -- born out of histories and bloodlines given little voice before.

• Embaci

  Embaci is an 18-year-old singer-songwriter from Brooklyn who interweaves her lilting voice’s commentary on body and feminist politics with shattered, metallic off-rhythms. She’s also a friend of politically minded sound collagist Elysia Crampton – who invited her to perform at RBMA’s NON vs. N.A.A.F.I showcase at Tropical 128 in May of this year. Harley Brown caught up with Embaci after the show for an episode of RBMA Radio’s The Slice to talk about recording vocals in her parents’ bathroom, her first gig and more.

• Farai

  Listening to Miriam Makeba, Brenda Fassie and Oliver Mtukudzi, Farai's move to London introduced her to new musical influences such as Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus and Howling Wolf. While attending the School of Arts, she additionally developed an infatuation with the literary works of the Beat Generation and artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring and fashion worlds strong-womxn including Naomi Campbell, Rei Kawakubo and Phoebe Philo.

• Juliana Huxtable

  Juliana Huxtable is an American artist, DJ, and model who works in photography, video, performance, poetry, and music. After gaining visibility in the New York club scene, Huxtable came to prominence in the art world with her inclusion in the 2015 New Museum Triennial, Surround Audience. In her work, Huxtable uses her own body as a primary subject to archive and abstract representations of art history, the Internet, and her experience as a trans and intersex woman of color. She draws from a broad range of references, including the Nuwaubian movement. Huxtable is a co-founder of the night club SHOCK VALUE in Queens, New York and is a member of the Queens, New York-based collective House of Ladosha. She currently lives and works in New York, New York

• Klein

  South London based musician Klein is an artist who’s neoteric vision has seen her quickly become one of the UK’s most intriguing and unpinnable producers and performers. Her often playful and restive approach to composition is instantly alluring. Samples of obscure Nigerian B-Movies clatter into jagged beats. Distant piano loops lurk in the haze whilst beguiling vocals fade in and out of the sensory World she has created

• Oretha

  Oretha is an artist, DJ and noisemaker from London. Her mixture of music and samples explore the ways in which DJing is a form of storytelling and lecturing, and allows a commune between the present and other space/time. Some recent events she has participated and collaborated on, in her converging capacities as artist and DJ, are Swaying Feels with Black Sirens (2016); Sounding the Great Hall at Goldsmiths (2016); Video Vexens at HUB16 (2016); SOUNDS LIKE at the ICA (2016) and Against the Theatre of Distance in the Winkelwiese Theatre, Zurich (2016).