Winner of the 2017 BASCA British Composer Award for Innovation, Shiva Feshareki is an experimental classical composer, radio presenter and turntablist of British Iranian heritage. Her work explores the sound of electricity through a wide range of practises and collaborative processes incorporating classical methodology.

Her turntable performances slice apart disparate sonic palettes before sewing them back together with expert sampling techniques. Cuts from old-school garage and d’n’b records electrify her sets, while deep minimalist composers such as Pauline Oliveros and James Tenney provide a layer of delicacy and complexity that has been responsible for transforming Shiva’s wider approach to music. In 2017, Shiva performed with her turntables at Montreal’s Mutek festival and at London’s Tate Modern gallery as part of a series curated by NTS Radio, the station on which she hosts her monthly show ‘New Forms’.

Turntabling is also a signature element of her compositional work, which explores the physicality of sound in relation to light and movement. Most recently, in ‘GABA-analogue’ (2017), Shiva employed space as a compositional tool to create a surround-sound orchestra inside London’s Printworks nightclub, while a different form of the composition was presented at Musikhuset, Aarhus in Denmark.

Shiva continues to work on site-specific compositions, while refining her live remixing skills and love of improvisation through performance. Future projects include a residency at the Zabludowicz Collection as part of Haroon Mirza’s installation ‘For A Partnership Society’, where Shiva will activate the space with a live improvisation on turntables modified with Haroon’s bespoke hardware.