Forgotten Futures’ Artist Residency aspires to increase equity and disrupt institutional racism by providing access and resources to people of color and LGBTQ+ populations who have been historically disenfranchised by the recording industry. Figure 8 Recording is our partner and the program is facilitated out of their studio in Brooklyn, NY.
The Residency is a 12-month program during which artists receive a generous stipend, studio time to record and/or mix music utilizing Figure 8’s unique blend of analog and digital studio equipment, and access to Forgotten Futures’ collection of over 100 fully restored early electronic musical instruments.
The Residency does not have specific compositional outcomes or public performance requirements; it is flexible in its offerings of time, space, and equipment because we believe that the Artists we are trying to support should be free to define those outcomes themselves.
Previous Resident Artists have been Holland Andrews and Erika Dohi. Each was chosen through a curatorial process led by Figure 8’s director Shahzad Ismaily alongside Forgotten Futures founder Wally De Backer. Future Artists in Residence will be chosen in collaboration with previous Residents, with the goal of inviting the artists themselves into the ongoing curatorial process.
Holland Andrews is an American vocalist, composer, and performance artist whose work focuses on the abstraction of operatic and extended-technique voice to build soundscapes encompassing both catharsis and dissonance. Frequently highlighting themes surrounding vulnerability and healing, Andrews arranges music for voice, clarinet, and electronics. As a vocalist, their influences stem from a dynamic range including contemporary opera, theater, and jazz, while also cultivating their own unique vocal style, often integrating vocal distortion. Andrews previously performed solo under the stage name ‘Like a Villain’.
In addition to creating solo work, Andrews develops and performs soundscapes for dance, theater, and film, and their work is toured internationally with artists such as Bill T. Jones, Dorothee Munyaneza, Will Rawls, and poet Demian Dinéyazhi. Notable musical collaborations include Son Lux, Christina Vantzou, William Brittelle, Peter Broderick. They are one of the first artists on the label Leiter, a Berlin-based record label spearheaded by composer, Nils Frahm. Andrews has gained recognition from publications such as The Wire, The New York Times, Electronic Sound, Uncut Magazine, Le Monde, and BBC Radio. Holland Andrews is currently based in Brooklyn, New York.
Erika Dohi is an Osaka-born and New York-raised pianist and multi-faceted artist who has been described as “virtuosic” by The New York Times due to her range from highly polished traditional classical to bold improvisation.
Dohi's debut solo album, I, Castorpollux, was released in May 2021 on the label 37d03d, founded by Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Aaron Dessner and Bryce Dessner (The National). Dohi is the co-founder of BLUEPRINTS Piano Series and accompanying festival, In Visible Roads, in collaboration with Metropolis Ensemble, as well as flute and piano duo, RighteousGIRLS. Dohi has performed composer William Brittelle's Spiritual America with Metropolis Ensemble at The Hollywood Bowl, Central Park Summer Stage with Ensemble LPR, in addition to a multitude of international festivals. She is part of the six-piano ensemble Grand Band and performs as a pianist for a composer and trumpet player Wadada Leo Smith’s Kikuyu Ensemble.
As a composer, Dohi has participated in Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at Mass MoCA, and Atlantic Center for the Arts with composer Judd Greenstein. She has been commissioned by Metropolis Ensemble, Switch~ Ensemble, Grand Band, and A24 for the Song Reader box set project for the movie Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Shahzad Ismaily (Co-Residency Director) was born in the States to Pakistani parents who emigrated here just before his birth. He grew up in a bicultural household, always following a multitude of paths and perusals. He is mostly self-taught as a musician, composer, recording engineer, and producer. He primarily plays electric bass, drums, percussion, guitar, synthesizers, and all manner of sound-makers procured in life’s travels.
He has recorded and performed with a diverse crew of art makers including Yoko Ono, Laurie Anderson, Beth Orton, Colin Stetson, Ben Frost, Bonnie Prince Billy, Damien Rice, Jolie Holland, JFDR, Secret Chiefs 3, Sam Amidon, and more. He has been an integral member of festival/residency/collective experiences such as the People Festival (the brainchild of Bon Iver, The National, and Michelberger Music), the Eau Claires festival, and the Moers Festival. He has done work for dance and theater pieces, such as the Oscar-nominated and Sundance award-winning film Frozen River, Inkboat (with a Butoh crew from California & Switzerland), and visual artist Laleh Khorramian. Currently based in Brooklyn and working out of the recording studio collective he founded and created, Figure 8 Recording, he has studied music extensively in Pakistan, India, Turkey, Mexico, Chile, Japan, Indonesia, Morocco, and Iceland.