Alliyah Enyo, Hidden Door Festival, Edinburgh, 2023, photograph by Rosie Sco
Alliyah Enyo (she/they), based in Glasgow, Scotland
Across her multidisciplinary practice, Alliyah Enyo harnesses song, somatics and sculpture, queering ancient mythology and folklore in widespread outcomes from recorded sound to installation and performance.
Her ambitious debut album ‘Echo’s Disintegration’, which embodies grandiose themes of reverence, memory and spatiality (The Wire, 2023), began as a live performance in the ornate surroundings of St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh. The live recording was intricately transformed through the electroacoustic manipulation of reel-to-reel tape; her echoing, mystical vocal explorations forming transcendent meditations on divinity.
In her live performances, Enyo’s prismatic vision is realized through detailed set design and choreography; the stage becomes a site-specific installation where responsive sound work is integrated with dance, movement and classical instrumentation. Previous iterations include her use of the lengthy natural reverb in the tower of the former iron mine at Norbergfestival, 2023 and her collaborations with harpists and cellists at Fiber Festival, 2023 and Hidden Door Festival, 2022.
Enyo’s ‘Selkie Tape Loops’, made for an installation at the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop in 2022, won the Award for Sonic Arts at the Scottish Awards for New Music 2023. This elaborate body of work, which explores siren and selkie myth through experimental vocal harmonies, will form an upcoming release with Somewhere Press in 2024.
Alliyah Enyo, IKLECTIK, London, 2023, photograph by Lizzie Urquhart
tim@somewhere.press