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VNM Festival 2026
Open Frequencies: Day 3
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The annual VNM Festival returns with Open Frequencies, a three-day program spotlighting bold, globally engaged approaches to new music by artists working at the forefront of experimental, interdisciplinary, and cross-cultural sound practices.
Egyptian vocalist and composer Nadah El Shazly (Egypt/Montreal) in collaboration with harpist Sarah Pagé (Montreal) will blend voice, electronics, and harp, performing selections from El Shazly’s album Laini Tani (2025) as well as additional singles from her previous work.
Within Laini Tani, El Shazly’s immense, captivating voice weaves through impeccably crafted synth-work and a propulsive rhythmic foundation co-produced with 3Phaz, with Patrick Graham’s rattling percussion alongside. Layers of kinetic bass and scorching electronics intertwine like the labyrinthine backstreets of a city. Sarah Pagé’s harp adds a textural, dreamlike quality to El Shazly’s deftly constructed arrangement, an edifice of bold and physical design that’s also surreal and otherworldly. A mosaic of unconventional instrumentation interacts throughout, with Nadah at its centre as the architect and cynosure. Her commanding performance and vocal stylings act as a guide through this intricate ecosystem.
World PremiereA dynamic live performance by musician, composer, and producer Priyanka Chakrabarti (Piu), blending live electronics, raga-inspired vocals, and field recordings. Traversing genres and cultures, the set moves between contemplative and energetic moments, creating an immersive and deeply textured listening experience.
This work is also informed by material from her debut album Milao (2026), presented in a reimagined live rendition that expands the compositions. Milao, which means “to come together,” is an exploration of memory, time, and the shifting landscapes of belonging. Inspired by Indian raga and folk music, the album weaves analog textures, live vocals, and field recordings, creating a rich sonic experience.
Layering modular and analog synthesizers with her own vocals and organic textures, Milao becomes a meeting ground: of cultures and places, of past and present, of grief and renewal. It is an act of gathering and holding memory while reshaping it into something that can move forward.
To purchase a Festival Pass for all three nights, please visit: Open Frequencies - Festival Pass
Since the release of her debut album, Ahwar, the singer and producer Nadah El Shazly has become a pillar of the Egyptian underground—in 2018, she appeared on the cover of the British music magazine, The Wire, in an issue announcing “Cairo’s New Wave.” The musician’s eclectic background, encompassing choirs, punk rock, and electronic music, prepared her for the electroacoustic reimagining of Arabic classical music that’s inherent to her work, exploring new sonic and harmonic frontiers. June 2025 saw the release of her long awaited studio album, Laini Tani لاقيني تاني, via One Little Independent Records. Backing up her release with extensive worldwide touring, Nadah has been featured in many local and international festivals including Roskilde, Primavera, Big Ears, and many more.
In 2024, she released the experimental noise album Pollution Opera with Welsh producer Elvin Brandhi. Facing hell in full defiance, their nine-track album covers the spectrum of electroacoustic fragments and vocalization, suspended between the roar of engines, evocative intonations and guttural retching.
Nadah is also known for her soundtrack work. In 2022 she scored the film Les Damnés ne pleurent pas and won the Best Original Music award at the Bordeaux International Independent Film Festival and at the Dublin International Film Festival. In the last year she also scored Last Party in R. Desert! by Mahmoud Sabbagh, and To a Land Unknown by Mahdi Fleifel.
Tracing the musical trajectory of harpist, composer, producer Sarah Pagé is quite the task—one would have to draw long, constellation-like shapes across genres, borders and histories. She is perhaps best known as a founding and longtime member of roots rockers The Barr Brothers, but a brief consideration of her resume reveals the fact that she’s equally at home within traditions as without them. Her first two solo LPs, Dose Curves and Voda, affirm this versatility and reveal Pagé as one of Canada’s most accomplished experimentalists. She has also been heard alongside such luminaries as Lhasa, Nadah El Shazly, Juana Molina, Joni Void and as a member of Sam Shalabi's Land of Kush.
Priyanka Chakrabarti (Piu) is a musician, composer, and producer who adorns ambient soundscapes with hard hitting synth riffs, raga-inspired vocals, and global rhythms. Her sound blends genres, cultures, and identities. Through both her studio practice and live performance, Piu invites listeners into carefully constructed sonic spaces designed for reflection, release, and intentional listening.
Anchored in her Indian classical training but pulled towards the frontiers of experimental and electronic music, Piu’s sound is simultaneously grounded and unbound. Her productions weave tactile synth textures, and field recordings, moving fluidly between genres.
Piu has released several singles, an EP, Illusion (2024), and her debut full-length album will be released in Summer 2026. She has performed at major Canadian electronic music festivals including MUTEK Montréal, and collaborates widely with artists across genres and continents.
She is also the co-founder of Margins of Sound Society, where she helps produce and curate events that support experimental music, interdisciplinary performances, and education in British Columbia, Canada.
