DIS FIG (US) ASCH

DIS FIG (US, Thrill Jockey)
As a producer, performer, vocalist, and DJ, Felicia Chen (Dis Fig) has long resisted simple categorization. She cut her teeth in New York City’s scrappy DIY noise scene before finding her footing in Berlin’s experimental electronic underground, where her distinctive artistic sensibility began to crystallize. Chen‘s work is defined by dense, immersive sonic worlds where crushing heaviness meets startling vulnerability, anchored by a voice whose instinctive connectiveness cuts through even the densest sonic landscapes.
Known for her intensely physical live performances, Chen dissolves boundaries between audience and performer, using her acrobatic voice and full body to transmit emotional complexity that’s deeper than language. Whether through overwhelming walls of sound or barely audible whispers, her work invites shared vulnerability and collective catharsis.
Dis Fig has become one of the defining voices reshaping what heavy music can be. On her acclaimed debut album ‘PURGE’ (PTP), she established a singular artistic language, distilling noise, industrial, electronic music, and melodic songcraft into a sound that moves effortlessly between tenderness and brutality. Since then, she has continued to expand that language through collaborations with The Bug on ‘In Blue’ (Hyperdub), The Body on ‘Orchards of a Futile Heaven’ (Thrill Jockey), and with Asian Dope Boys, contributing performance and score to Tianzhuo Chen’s immersive, ritualistic durational works. No matter the context, Dis Fig brings an unmistakable sense of cohesion and emotional intention, making even her most extreme sonic explorations feel deeply human.
Internationally acclaimed, her work has been recognized by The Guardian, The Wire, The Quietus, and NPR. She has toured extensively and performed at leading festivals including CTM, Unsound, Rewire, Roadburn, Le Guess Who?, Dark Mofo, MIRA, and Nyege Nyege.
Seven years after ‘PURGE’, Chen returns with her long-awaited second solo album, ‘What To Make Of These Mortal Hands’, released by Thrill Jockey on October 23. An ambitious widening of her sonic and artistic scope, the record expands both the scale and subtlety of her practice, carefully carving intricate detail from its sonic extremes. Spanning 63 minutes, her most emotionally expansive work to date unfolds like a film, exploring humanity’s capacity for both beauty and devastation.
What To Make Of These Mortal Hands by Dis Fig
“a strong contender for the most sonically arresting and intense release of 2026”

The Wire
ASCH

Familiar faces treading unfamiliar territory.
Asch is an experimental noise duo emerging from the underground noise scene in the Netherlands. Formed by longtime comrades Svartvit and Geseling, the duo creates abrasive soundscapes that blend textural sound layers and electroacoustic improvisations. Their live performances are known for dense layers of distortion, feedback and immersive sonic intensity, placing them within the contemporary European industrial noise tradition. Asch has recently toured Europe, and with a debut album on the way, they are set to make a strong impact on the Dutch underground scene.

FFO: Violent Shogun, Kyle Flanagan, Spring of Life