+ A Waste of Damnation & DJs – Antisocial Services & Infected Senses

Aja Ireland is an award-winning sound and performance artist making deconstructed club and industrial techno whose live shows are described in The Wire Magazine as “shifting from ethereal diffusions to potent explosions”.
Following her recent explorations at the intersection of visceral sound design, club culture and AI, British electronic artist (and founder of Queer Noise Club) Aja returns with her new album Cryptid via Infinite Machine. A high-impact album steeped in themes of empowerment, resilience and mysticism. A vivid testament to the underground culture that shaped her, fusing blistering soundscapes, experimental lyrics, and club-ready energy to encapsulate Aja’s unique and confrontational artistry.

Collaborating with artist Joey Holder, the project captures an immersive installation, featuring distinctive costumes by LULALOOP. The visual projections, integral to the live set, transport the audience into a realm where volcanic, ritualistic circles of standing stones merge seamlessly with projections of microscopic creatures. Aja takes on the persona of a cryptid hybrid, adorned in sculptural fashion nightmares, eating green lasers and morphing into underwater creatures.

Within the live set, a comprehensive hardware setup reigns, blending experimental electronic, deconstructed club, industrial techno, noise, drone, and vocal processing. With drum machines, synths, and effects pedals, AJA promises an improvised journey, delivering an avant-garde sonic experience.
The album SLUG was released on Opal Tapes in October 2021. The video GRIME created by IMPATV and Aja, featured on Creative Review‘s Best Music Videos of 2021, describing the track as “brutal, visceral and unrelentingly noisy”.

Aja’s debut 2018 album was greeted with critical acclaim and she was featured in VICE, The Quietus, Elephant Magazine, Red Bull Music and The Dazed Magazine. IN 2018, Aja won the PRS Oram Award for innovative music production. Aja scored the spatial sound design for Joey Holder’s art installations Ophiux, Adcredo The Deep Belief Network (toured at Matt’s Gallery and 6th Athens Bienalle), Semelparous which was shown in The British Art Show, and Cryptic at Two Queens Gallery.

This event is an external hire

VENUE: EXETER PHOENIX, The Workshop

*Subject to a £1.50 ticketing system charge. We don’t charge this to make a profit. Find out more >>