Opening and the music of Ultra Ref
The opening of ULTRA REF, on 20 September, is entrusted - not by chance - to a double concert that immediately expresses the soul of the entire event. Lyra Pramuk, spearhead of global avant-pop, arrives for the first time at the Festival with an unprecedented sound universe: deconstructed voices and classical instruments filtered through technological processes and artificial intelligence. Alongside her, Isabelle Lewis, a project born from the encounter between producer Valgeir Sigurðsson, countertenor and theatre director Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe and violinist Elisabeth Klinck - presented thanks to the support of Flanders State of The Arts - blends electronics and classical suggestions, sensual and romantic atmospheres, enveloping sounds and pulsating electronics.
The musical appointments at the Mattatoio continue with ULTRA CLUB, the new section curated by Matteo Antonaci, Giulia Di Giovanni and Federica Patti, which concentrates in a single week the festival's paths dedicated to pop music and technological research. Five days of music that will open on 23 September with a selection of five of the winners of the raster.call soundtrack Europe 20-25 curated by Caterina Tomeo (Ireen Amnes & Merlin Ettore, Amit Dagim, Maarja Nuut, Léa Paintandre and Camilla Pisani), accompanied by the visuals created by the students of RUFA - Rome University of Fine Arts. We then move on to female Italian singer-songwriters with Le parole delle canzoni - Treccani, a dialogue between Anna Castiglia, winner of the Targa Tenco 2025, and journalist Valentina Farinaccio, and with live performances by Gaia Banfi, who weaves together electronic music and songwriting tradition, and Ginevra (Asian Fake), who presents the album Femina with a full band, where intimate writing and political tension meet in a dark and refined pop.
There is no shortage of contaminations with tradition and Latin rhythms in the music of the duo Tarta Relena (presented thanks to the Programme for the Internationalisation of Spanish Music and Performing Arts, co-organised by the Instituto Cervantes and INAEM within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan - NextGenerationEU), and the return live - after seven years - of Populous with the new project Isla Diferente, enriched by the visuals of Furio Ganz and the dance of Francesca Santamaria (also the protagonist of Dancing Days). The digital and sound research continues with the renewed collaboration with RE:Humanism Art Prize, which presents Improbable Excess by Jess Tucker and Orynthia by Valerie Tameu, winners of the Romaeuropa Digitalive Prize, which explore artificial intelligence and virtual reality. Also from Spain, Maria Arnal, one of the most original artists on the post-Rosalìa global avant-pop scene, arrives in Rome for the first time, with her research rooted in Mediterranean memory and vocal tradition, transformed into a universal language through artificial intelligence and experimental electronics. On the same evening, Klang presents Sara Persico, an artist living in Berlin and part of the Naples noise underground, already alongside artists such as Caterina Barbieri, Andy Moor and Elvin Brandhi, and Érotiq, a project born in Rome, traverses electronic territories and symbolic imagery to construct a language that reflects on power, aesthetics and the forms of manipulation. Finally, the last evening of the section is dedicated to the most radical indie, with a special showcase by Dischi Sotterranei, featuring Gaia Morelli and the new entry Satantango, and concerts by Altea and Fuera with their hybrid electronic live specifically realised for ULTRA CLUB.
But the musical events also continue with the live performance of San Damiano, the documentary presented at the 2024 Rome Film Festival, now performed live by Cosimo Damiano and Pietro Pompei, accompanied by Gregorio Sassoli's unpublished images, in a sound journey suspended between dream and everyday life; with the electroacoustic performance by Martina Bertoni, who with her Electroacoustic Works for Halldorophone transforms feedback and generative systems into constantly evolving soundscapes; and with the lecture performance by Donatella Della Ratta, in collaboration with THE VOID (Tommaso Campagna & Jordi Viader Guerrero) exploring the "speculative violence" of images generated by AI.
