Aki Traar, Anika, Cabaret Voltaire, Dame Area | Elevate

- ELEVATE FESTIVAL 2026 -

Elevate ist ein interdisziplinäres Festival mit einem starken Fokus auf kultur- und gesellschaftspolitische Themen, das einmal jährlich in Graz stattfindet. Das spartenübergreifende Programm bietet neben Performances, Konzerten, Installationen und DJ-Sets auch Workshops, Film-Screenings, Vorträge und Diskussionen.

20:00 Uhr Aki Traar live (at)
21:00 Uhr Anika live (uk)
22:00 Uhr Cabaret Voltaire live (uk)
23:00 Uhr Dame Area live (Mannequin/es)

- Anika live (uk) -

Anika (DE/GB) -- born Annika Henderson in Woking, UK -- is a multi-practice artist, first launched onto the music scene with her 2010 eponymous début album, created in a single jam session with Bristol-band Beak>, when she auditioned for a position as vocalist within the group. Produced by Geoff Barrow and released on Stones Throw/Invada, 'Anika', with its creative immediacy and sense of urgency, would carve a singular space for the artist in the musical landscape of the continent, and her first tour would go on to count Beak> members, Billy Fuller and Matt Williams, as her touring band throughout Europe and the US.

Stemming from her early work as a political journalist, Anika puts a strong emphasis on text and image, as one can see in her take on the tradition of the murder ballad in “Officer Officer“, and sprawls her artistic practice into other forms: poetry, photography, performance, DJing, and video -- as a means to better understand and make the world around us, build bridges between communities, unpick complexities, break down contradictory social norms. Henderson moves between the disciplines, in an on-going exploration of things and a multipronged attack of limitations placed on artists in our current socioeconomic madness. With her spoken-texts, she allows the electronic elements to flow and binds them to multidimensional performances. Her photography unmasks the solitude in our alleged hyper-connectivity.

She is a founding member of Mexican psych-band Exploded View (Sacred Bones), and has worked across the arts with the likes of film director Jim Jarmusch (co-writing the soundtrack to his latest film 'Father, Mother, Brother, Sister', 2025), Tricky (Massive Attack), punk legend Gudrun Gut (Malaria!), Shackleton (a full album, 'Behind the Glass', 2017), performance artist Melanie Jame Wolf, Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, Soundwalk Collective (On the 2024 album, 'It's All Breaking Apart' with Elvin Brandhi, Gudrun Gut and Nina Kraviz), n.b.k gallery Berlin, Clark (Anika features on 2023 song “Sus Dog“), computer programmer Raoul Sanders/A.I (The Writing Robot. 2017), fashion house Jil Sander and artist Philipp Geist, composing and performing a live soundscape for a light installation in Tehran, IR, in 2015. Her latest releases include the hopeful pop-indie album ‘Change’ (2021), a video art experiment called 'Anika - Alone In The City', in collaboration with n.b.k gallery in Berlin (2021), and her guitar, synth driven psychedelic experimental live album 'Eat Liquid‘ (live recording from Zeiss Planetarium, Berlin 2023).

In 2025 she released her third solo studio LP under the name Anika, entitled 'Abyss' on Sacred Bones and is touring extensively.

With Abyss, Anika invites listeners into a space for release, rebellion, and honesty, creating an album that speaks to the turmoil of our times while offering an emotional outlet. As she puts it, “This is a space for you.”

- Cabaret Voltaire live (uk) -

Cabaret Voltaire are seminal pioneers of experimental electronic and industrial music, formed in Sheffield in the early 1970s. Their groundbreaking blend of tape experimentation, abrasive electronics, post-punk energy and proto-techno rhythms helped shape the foundations of industrial music and left a lasting impact on generations of electronic and avant-garde artists.

Originally created by Stephen Mallinder, Chris Watson and the late Richard H. Kirk, the group became known for their radical live performances and constant reinvention. Over the decades, Cabaret Voltaire moved fluidly between noisy improvisation, dance-floor-driven electronics and pioneering multimedia approaches that were years ahead of their time.

In celebration of their 50th anniversary, Cabaret Voltaire returned to the stage with special performances revisiting key eras of their catalogue. Following this milestone, founding members Stephen “Mal” Mallinder and Chris Watson reunited to announce an Europe tour, billed as their last series of headline shows together. Their current live configuration focuses on classic Cabaret Voltaire material, reconstructed with vintage equipment and performed with the improvisational edge that has always defined the project.

Today, Cabaret Voltaire remain one of the most influential acts in electronic music, continuing to captivate audiences with performances that bridge their historic legacy and their enduring spirit of experimentation.

- Dame Area live (Mannequin/es) -

Dame Area is a Barcelona-based duo formed by vocalist and synth artist Silvia Konstance and producer/percussionist Viktor L. Crux. Emerging from the underground club and label collective Màgia Roja, they have developed a daring, idiosyncratic sound often described as “Tribal Wave” — a fusion of synth basslines, live percussion, industrial and tribal rhythms, with influences from EBM, post-punk, noise, and avant-garde electronics.

Since their debut in 2018, Dame Area have released several acclaimed albums and EPs, including Ondas Tribales (2021), Toda la mentira sobre Dame Area (2022), and Toda la verdad sobre Dame Area (2024), showcasing a visceral, raw energy that mirrors their explosive live performances.

On stage, Silvia’s multilingual vocals — ranging from melancholic melodies to screaming intensity — combine with Viktor’s pounding percussion and electronic soundscapes to create an immersive, unpredictable atmosphere. Each gig is alive, immediate, and unique, driven by improvisation, noise-laden textures, and primal rhythms.

Dame Area has toured extensively across Europe, earning a reputation as one of the most striking and boundary-pushing acts in contemporary industrial and experimental electronic music, delivering a powerful blend of dance-floor energy and avant-garde sensibility.