Gogo Penguin was formed in 2012, and since then, they have released several critically acclaimed projects. Their sophomore album v2.0 has received a nomination for the Mercury Prize. During their time on Blue Note Records, they sold over 300.000 albums, making them the best-selling contemporary instrumental artists on the label. The band composes and performs as a unit, and the band members refer to their music as &#8220;acoustic-electronica.&#8221; Their primarily (but not exclusively) acoustic music draws on break-beats, classical influences, jazz, minimalist piano melodies, powerful basslines, drums inspired from electronica, and anthemic riffs. The combination of &#8220;the human and the machine,&#8221; says Chris Illingworth, the band&#8217;s pianist, &#8220;will remain core to GoGo Penguin&#8217;s MO.&#8221;

GoGo Penguin has toured extensively internationally, performing at International Festivals such as Coachella, Outside Lands, Fuji Rock, Blue Dot, Montreal Jazz Festival, La Vienne, Pukkelpop, North Sea Jazz, and many more and have sold-out venues across the world from The Royal Albert Hall to La Cigale via Paradiso and Bowery Ball Room. In 2015 the trio debuted its own original score for the cult film ‘Koyaanisqatsi,’ performing the show to audiences worldwide.

GoGo Penguin

Known worldwide for their iconic sound and fiery live performances, GoGo Penguin (Chris Illingworth, Nick Blacka, Jon Scott) have been pioneers of genre-blending instrumental music for years, with their unique blend of influences from jazz, rock, electronic, and modern classical music.

British Band

Artist Playlist

GoGo Penguin Complete Collection

Before becoming an acclaimed musician, Carlsen was a pilot, something he “really wanted to become.” Gradually though, he drifted; away from flying – “I realised it wasn’t for me,” he says – and all around Europe. Back to music too, something he’d grown up with and loved, and something that came back into focus.

Playing both guitar and piano, his early influences were diverse and eclectic. An interest in production led him to a degree in Music Technology at the London College of Music. The music he started creating was imbued with aspects from both of these two, disparate professions – the pilot and the musician. “Feet on the ground, head in the sky,” is how he sums up this duality, and his music carries a wonderful, creative dichotomy.

Ed Carlsen

Ed Carlsen has always been a wanderer. A dreamer, even. Of faraway places and people, of a world to be explored. Perhaps it was growing up on an island, Sardinia; perhaps it was his grandfather, teaching him about the stars on warm summer nights.

Italian Composer & Producer

Grains of Gold

Fastelavn

Complete Ed Carlsen

Olivia describes her musical education as a &#8220;normal classical background.&#8221; She studied piano to conservatoire level, working her way through the classical repertoire and developing a particular passion for the works of the 20th and 21st century – from Ligeti and Stockhausen to the American experimentalists Cage, Crumb, Reich, and Glass. &#8220;I began incorporating some of these ideas in my own music,&#8221; says Olivia, who has always composed but until recently it was a &#8220;private thing.&#8221;

&#8220;I feel like, as an artist, most of what I do is to observe – the nature around us, how it changes and how the people interact with it. I spend as much time outside as I can. I try to capture the metamorphosis of nature in my music, and how the experience of living in this environment makes me feel,&#8221; explains Olivia. &#8220;I practice transcendental meditation and I feel the same peace through that as I get from rural life.&#8221;

Olivia Belli

Italian pianist and composer Olivia Belli is based in the rural Marche region of central Italy. Reflecting on the nature and the world surrounding her, and on how people find their own place in it, Olivia’s poetic and often optimistic piano music has reached audiences around the world.  

Pianist & Composer

Sol Novo (Live Concert)

The Light Endures

Island II

Grembo

Fingers, Be Rain

Sol Novo

As I Was

Visions To Come

Best of Olivia Belli

&#8220;As soon as I could stand, I was wandering over to the piano, wanting to play,&#8221; she remembers. &#8220;I started piano lessons aged six, then wrote my first piece of music aged seven, inspired by a storm outside.&#8221; By thirteen, she’d recorded a DIY album between classes at school.

Later in life, Evensen spent some time living in London and New York. &#8220;Whatever city I was in, I would find a piano. I needed to. Music has always helped me organise and understand how I’m feeling and release something that maybe I’ve been carrying within.&#8221;

Eydís Evensen

Eydís Evensen is a classically-trained pianist and post-classical composer from the Icelandic North. Her music reflects on the nature she grew up in and her years of travel abroad.

Icelandic Pianist and Composer

Fyrir Mikael

Bylur

Midnight Moon

Dagdraumur

Wandering II

Brotin

Eydís Evensen: Complete Works and Inspiration

Combining a shared passion for music and an impressive resume working alongside fellow Icelandic luminaries Björk, Sigur Rós, Ólafur Arnalds and Johann Johannson, the longtime friends began writing music together in 2013 and released their independent self-titled debut album Hugar.

Signed exclusively to Sony Music Masterworks, they’ve released their second longplayer Varða and the soundtrack album The Vasulka Effect &#8211; Music for the Motion Picture. Þjóðlög / Folk Songs marks their first release on XXIM Records, with their third full album projected for release later this year.

Hugar

Icelandic band Hugar, Bergur Þórisson and Pétur Jónsson, have forged a musical lane of their own with a genre-defying sound, mixing classical, electronic and post-rock elements.

Icelandic Band

volt

lost

Fagurt er í fjörðum

Vísur Vatnsenda-Rósu

Hugar: Complete Recordings

Label Playlist

XXIM:SOUNDS

XXIM:EXPO is our exploratory series for outstanding young talents from across the whole spectrum of progressive instrumental music. Each instalment is given to one artist to curate his or her own ideal EP, sharing their own unique musical vision. With XXIM:EXPO we want to give young artists a platform, while mapping out all areas and developments of our wide area of music. 

Playlists