![A figure in a black cloak on stage in front of a wall of red light, performing for a silhouetted crowd.](/sites/default/files/styles/convert_to_webp/public/images-heros/actress_2018.jpg.webp?itok=q5EusDC5)
Actress + Toxe
Toxe makes some of the most raw and innovative club music emerging from Sweden. —FADER “(Actress is) inscrutable, unsettling and utterly unique” —Uncut
Bringing together Swedish upstart Toxe with British veteran Actress, this evening promises hard-edged beats tinged with mystery and mayhem.
One of the most stylistically elusive figures in UK electronic music, Darren Jordan Cunningham has been releasing music under the name Actress since 2004. Mixing club-ready techno with dark ambient and experimental sensibilities, Actress has built a catalog of iconic and genre-defying albums on Ninja Tune and Warp while headlining shows at the world’s dance-music proving grounds, such as the Barbican Center and Berghain Berlin. In April he released AZD, which Cunningham describes as “Non dance based civilian mind groove, mapped to an external soul beyond the collapsing black hole…Music is chaos R.I.P Music.” Part of the AZD project is an expanded live show that aims to integrate various MIDI and synthesizer technologies into one intelligent musical instrument that Cunningham calls “the music vitamin of the Metropolis.”
Opening the show is Toxe—AKA Tove Agélii—the Swedish producer who arrives at EMPAC for her first American performance. The Stockholm-based DJ is quickly becoming known for her aggressive beats and anything-goes mixes.
Main Image: Actress in Studio 1. Photo: EMPAC/Rensselaer.
![A Black man wearing a leather bucket hat with he union jack on the front and a patent leather coat looking directly at the camera in dramatic lighting.](/sites/default/files/images-media/Actress_2017_01.jpg)
![A black man wearing a leather jacket and over the ear headphones looking down with arms outstretched, focused on something of screen.](/sites/default/files/images-media/Actress_2017_02b.jpg)
![A black man wearing a black hoodie and headphones around his neck looking down focusing on a sound board and DJ equipment in front of him. A small crowd is behind him leaning against a concrete wall.](/sites/default/files/images-media/Actress_2017_03.jpg)
![A Black man wearing a leather bucket hat with he union jack on the front and a patent leather coat looking down with his hand over his mouth.](/sites/default/files/images-media/Actress_2017_04.jpg)
![Toxe wearing headphone and focusing intently in a wash of theatrical haze.](/sites/default/files/images-media/Toxe_2017.jpg)