Elf Traps + Shunya

Elf Traps and Shunya share a jazz bill at The Jam Jar in Bristol, pairing a Manchester-rooted electronic jazz project with a multi-instrumentalist who moves between folk and electronic sound.

Elf Traps is a new project formed by Rob Turner, a Mercury Prize nominee who has worked with Mammal Hands and formerly with GoGo Penguin, and Liviu Gheorghe, previously with Matthew Halsall's Gondwana. Their music joins beat-driven electronica to spiritual jazz and psychedelic textures. The project grew out of Manchester's underground scene, where Graham Massey of 808 State and Giles Peterson were early champions. Its sound is linked with the rhythmic density of Squarepusher, the textural electronics of Four Tet and Floating Points, and the spiritual openness of Pharoah Sanders.

On stage, live drums and synths sit alongside drum machines, laptops, samplers, chopped vocal fragments and custom robotic percussion. The pieces move from meditative ambient passages to sharper, high-energy rhythmic peaks, shifting in real time through improvisation, so each performance differs from the last.

Shunya works across several styles, playing violin, bass guitar and singing, with electronics and drum machines. The music ranges from futuristic Irish folk and jazz-tronica to ethereal sound worlds. The evening takes place at The Jam Jar, a Bristol venue that hosts concerts and shows.