DADA

A mesmerizing journey through French 80s chanson infused with global sounds—North African raï, Latin American boleros, and Eastern European folk melodies. This set draws inspiration from Serge Gainsbourg's cinematic "Mon légionnaire," the politically charged poetry of Bernard Lavilliers' "Idées noires," and the hypnotic repetition of Jeff Brunner's "Non Non Non." The mix creates a sonic landscape where moody synthesizer textures dance with traditional instruments, spoken-word vocals layer over hypnotic world rhythms, and playful refrains burrow into your memory. Each transition reveals cultural connections—Parisian melancholy meeting Buenos Aires passion, French protest songs echoing North African resistance anthems.

This late-night voyage captures beauty in contradiction—serious yet playful, intimate yet universal—connecting timeless themes of love, loss, and resistance that transcend decades.

Samantha Simmons: Samantha, a sound artist and selector, investigates the transformative process of sound in contemporary culture through her research in sound installation and composition. Drawing from her experience in radio and residencies at platforms like WFMU, NTS, and Dublab, she explores how sound installation and composition can represent the transformation of sound in the listening process. She researches the constant flux of processing our collective sound environment: how sound is recycled and re-consumed to shape our listening experience in a process she calls a recycled listening. She has performed in Pau, FR; Lisbon, PT; London, UK; Berlin, DE; Istanbul, TR; Rotterdam, NL; NYC; and Los Angeles. She received the DAAD Performing Arts Award in 2020 and 2021, the MusikFonds Award in 2022, and the California Institute of the Arts Provost Fellowship with Laurel Halo in 2023.

Nina Verneret: Nina is a French professor and cinema curator. Her research focuses on representations of Lolitas in post-war French cinema, and she's interested in the intersection between music and cinema. She grew up in a hippy hub in the south of France, passionate about jazz sounds and 80s music—from French no wave to variété, from Gainsbourg and Christophe to Lizzy Mercier Descloux—she delves deep into cultural history and what can be considered the zest of problematic provocation in French identity.