Hyph11e

Shanghai-based Tess Sun, better known as Hyph11E, produces and DJs an intense, post-industrial hybrid of bass-heavy club styles and advanced sound design. Releases such as 2020's Aperture fuse footwork, gqom, noise, and breakcore while exploring themes related to biology and geology. Originally from Hebei, China, Sun grew up practicing piano for several hours a day. She eventually worked at a recording studio in Beijing, and after a friend took her to see Japanese dubstep producer Goth-Trad at Shanghai club Dada in 2014, she quit her job and moved to the city. Recording and performing as Hyph11E, her music was first heard on a 2016 compilation that launched the Shanghai-based Genome6.66Mbp label. Quickly attracting the attention of experimental club DJs and producers worldwide, Hyph11E signed to SVBKVLT, another Shanghai collective, and released her debut EP, Vanishing Cinema, in 2017, including remixes by M.E.S.H. and Tzusing. Performing frequently throughout Asia, she began making European performances in 2018, and an appearance at Uganda's Nyege Nyege Festival in 2019 coincided with the release of the EP Slip B, her collaboration with Kenyan producer Slikback. Hyph11E's debut album, Aperture, themed around the parasitic nature of holes, arrived in 2020. Its lead single, "Barnacles," featured a remix by Hyperdub founder Kode9. ~ Paul Simpson, Rovi