OSMIUM

OSMIUM alloys electroacoustic soundscapes with dense, metallic drones, barbed rhythms and bio-mechanical vocalizations. The experimental supergroup is made up of the Oscar-winning Icelandic composer and cellist Hildur Guðnadóttir – critically acclaimed for her iconic soundtracks for Chernobyl and Tár among others – Subtext label head, engineer and producer James Ginzburg, the Grammy-winning sound designer and producer Sam Slater and Rully Shabara, Senyawa's vocalist and one of South Asia's most recognizable underground artists. Absorbed by questions about the relationship between humans and technology, tradition and progression, the individual and the group, OSMIUM channel their experience and expertise into a set of sonic interrogations that skewer established cultural preconceptions.

While Hildur Guðnadóttir plays the halldorophone, a unique cello-like electroacoustic instrument, that allows the performer to harness unstable feedback loops, Sam Slater generates rhythms using a self-oscillating drum. James Ginzburg responds in kind, producing booming sonorities from a device he developed himself based on the monocord, an ancient single-stringed resonator. Rully Shabara‘s alien tones supply the band with their conceptual fulcrum. As part of OSMIUM, Shabara attempts to merge with the band's machines, warping his vocal cords to mimic the robotics and originate hoarse percussive cracks and eldritch tonalities. Their debut album, which they present in the post-industrial Gießhalle, draws from folk, doom metal, 20th century minimalism, industrial music and extreme noise. It will be released on 20 June 2025, but you can already listen to the single OSMIUM 1 on Spotify.