ELEVATE 2027: FIRST ARTISTS ANNOUNCED!
© Jun Yokoyama
For its 23rd edition, Elevate brings internationally established artists, distinctive emerging talents, and experimental approaches to Graz. Across four days, concerts, DJ sets, and performances meet artistic works and a discourse programme addressing the pressing questions of our time.
Under the theme “Raw Power”, the 2027 festival explores the different manifestations of power: its concentration, exercise, and legitimacy. It also asks how empowerment and empathy can create room to move from powerlessness to agency.
In 2027, Elevate once again presents a multifaceted music programme highlighting current developments and contemporary movements across the international music scene. Drawing connections between pop and underground, club culture and the avant-garde, it offers fresh perspectives on music today and its diverse forms of artistic expression.
¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U: Unbridled Energy on the Dancefloor
One of the world’s most sought-after DJs, ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U comes to Graz as a festival headliner. The Tokyo-based artist combines pop, noise, techno, and trance with music from far beyond the club. His sets change direction unexpectedly without losing their momentum: improbable transitions become compelling connections, and musical contrasts unleash new energy.
What feels spontaneous and unrestrained rests on technical precision, an exceptional sense of timing, and total dedication behind the decks. Yousuke brings together musical adventurousness and an immediate physical impact.
Nubya Garcia, Uche Yara, and ARK: Distinctive Voices Between Jazz and Pop
London tenor saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Nubya Garcia will perform on the festival’s closing night. Garcia is one of the defining voices of contemporary British jazz. Her Mercury Prize-nominated debut album Source introduced her to a broad international audience. Her music brings together jazz, Caribbean and Afrofuturist influences, deep dub basslines, and syncopated rhythms. Her expressive saxophone playing unites these elements, creating space for intimate passages as well as driving grooves.
Uche Yara moves just as naturally between musical worlds. Born and raised in Austria and now based in Berlin, the singer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer with Nigerian roots combines avant-pop, R&B, rock, and club music into a distinctive blend full of soul, funk, and groove. Alongside her solo career, she has recently begun performing as Bilderbuch’s live guitarist; British music magazine NME also recently featured her in its flagship series The Cover. Having captivated audiences on a smaller festival stage last year, she returns in 2027 to headline Elevate’s opening night at Dom im Berg.
ARK brings together Austrian-born, London-based harpist Miriam Adefris and Vienna-based musicians Mona Matbou Riahi on clarinet and Lukas Kranzelbinder on bass. Working between improvised music, jazz, and electronically expanded sounds, the trio creates atmospheric pieces from finely woven textures. These sometimes build into dense passages and sometimes remain stripped back, bringing the distinctive timbres of harp, clarinet, and bass to the fore.
Mad Professor and Mia Koden: Dub History Meets New Bass Music
A living legend of dub, Mad Professor comes to Graz. Born in Guyana, producer Neil Fraser has played a formative role in roots reggae, lovers rock, and dub through his label Ariwa. Strongly influenced by his work with Lee “Scratch” Perry and King Tubby, he developed a distinctive, increasingly electronic musical language. With No Protection, his groundbreaking dub reworking of Massive Attack’s Protection, he built a bridge between Jamaican soundsystem culture and British trip-hop that remains influential today. More than three decades after its release, the album is also at the centre of his recent anniversary shows. Deep, throbbing bass, echoes, and delays make his music as spatial as it is physical.
Mia Koden brings a younger perspective on British soundsystem culture. Raised in Ghana and Nigeria and now based in London, producer and DJ Sancha Ndeko combines forceful 140 BPM rhythms with 2-step and steppas dub, drawing on roots reggae, drum & bass, and dubstep. Powerful sub-bass and irresistible grooves define her sets and productions, which have appeared on labels including Ilian Tape.
Djrum, Dorian Concept, and Holden & Zimpel: Virtuosity and Open Forms
For Djrum, the turntable becomes an instrument in its own right. British DJ, producer, and turntablist Felix Manuel combines jungle, dubstep, and techno with ambient and jazz to create richly layered musical narratives. His recent contribution to the renowned DJ-Kicks series, awarded “Best New Music” by Pitchfork, demonstrates the full range of this approach. Mixed on vinyl and subsequently reworked, it brings together atmospheric soundscapes, intricate breakbeats, and unexpected stylistic turns. Behind the decks, too, Djrum combines technical virtuosity with an intuitive sense of musical storytelling.
Viennese musician and producer Dorian Concept moves freely between experimental electronics, jazz, and club music. Releases on Ninja Tune and Brainfeeder, his work with Flying Lotus, and Answers, the recent album produced jointly with Bibio and released on Warp, have earned him international recognition. His improvisation “Hide” also reached a new audience as the viral soundtrack to TikTok’s “Dark Fantasy” trend. Complex timbres, idiosyncratic melodies, and a playful approach to electronic instruments define his music. At Elevate, he presents his new live set with a stripped-back setup, following its premiere in London just the week before.
A shared passion for improvisation and musical trance states unites Holden & Zimpel. British electronic musician James Holden and Polish clarinettist Wacław Zimpel interweave pulsating loops and flowing clarinet sounds. Their live performances unfold as an open dialogue in which recurring motifs gather density, shift, and open up new spaces – between deep absorption and spontaneous ecstasy.
Following collaborations with The Bug and The Body, Dis Fig returns her focus to her solo project. On her recently released, long-awaited second album, What To Make Of These Mortal Hands, US-born, Berlin-based producer and singer Felicia Chen brings together noise, industrial, and experimental electronics. Shaped by New York’s DIY and club scenes, Chen’s sound is confrontational and cathartic. Her voice has an extraordinary range: at times it pushes back against cavernous noise-scapes; at others, it asserts itself through vulnerable spoken-word passages. This tension gives her sound a particular intensity.
Japanese collective Violent Magic Orchestra, or VMO, brings black metal, techno, industrial, and gabber into collision. Distorted electronics, guitars, and extreme vocals meet glaring strobes, dense fog, and visuals. Their shows become immersive experiences between rave, concert, and performance art.
Elevate Discourse 2027: „Raw Power“
Between Domination and Self-Determination
Power shapes political decisions, social relations, and our everyday lives. It is concentrated, exercised, legitimised, and challenged. Under the theme “Raw Power”, Elevate examines its different manifestations and the possibilities for action that emerge in response.
How can we gain agency in the face of seemingly overwhelming structures? What roles do empathy, solidarity, and empowerment play? The discourse programme brings together perspectives from science, art, activism, and social practice to explore these questions.
