obi blanche
© Photo: Félice Hofhuizen.Thomas Azier X Noordpool orkest PHIL.okt 2023-2737_
Obi Blanche (FI) is an experimental guitarist, instrument builder, and music producer known for blending brutalist "béton brut" aesthetics, somatic performance practices, and forward-thinking sonic explorations. With a creative approach deeply rooted in prepared, modified, and augmented guitars, his practice bridges DIY-inspired building methods and technological innovation under #postdigitalpunk with a fellow researcher and collaborator Kristina Tica.
His diverse musical journey spans over 500 performances at venues and festivals such as All Tomorrow’s Parties London, Berghain, Boiler Room Berlin, Istanbul Jazz Festival and Lowlands, as well as collaborations with artists including Thomas Azier, Anika, Isabelle Wenzel, Yuri Landman and Norman Palm. He has held residencies at Amplify Berlin, Callies Berlin and WORM Rotterdam. Currently pursuing an MA at Tangible Music Lab (Kunstuniversität Linz), his research project "From Prepared Guitar to Post-Digital Guitar" explores gesture-controlled instruments, movement sensors, and innovative sound manipulation.
discography
© Photo: Sandra Eichinger_ 2025
© Photo: Sound Campus X ARS Electronica Festival - performance 2.9.25_photo Angélica Sabina @sabiswabis
A curated selection of performance video documentations and press/interviews in the last 5 years:
2020 Amplify Berlin hosted by Yuri Landman
- in collaboration with Brad Nath and Jochen Arbeit (Einstürzende Neubauten)
[Interview] [Interview 2]
- Showcasing self built guitar 'Rake' for the first time at Amplify Berlin
2020 Thomas Azier: Love, Disorderly LP - as composer / producer / guitarist
[review and comments]
2021 Instruments of the Body - Brad Nath & Obi Blanche
- first steps of somatic composition, residency at Callies, Berlin
2021 Obi Blanche: Paid/h [post-punk.com premiere]
2022 Birds of Paradise festival NL with Glossolalia [Interview]
2023 Glossolalia choir project with Thomas Azier
- using somatic methods and sound creation
2023 Thomas Azier: ‘The Inventory Of Our Desire’ LP - as composer / producer / guitarist
2023 Thomas Azier: Live Recording with Noordpool Orkestra - on guitar,
+++ live video of somatic playing (no sensor)
2020 Amplify Berlin hosted by Yuri Landman
- in collaboration with Brad Nath and Jochen Arbeit (Einstürzende Neubauten)
[Interview] [Interview 2]
- Showcasing self built guitar 'Rake' for the first time at Amplify Berlin
2020 Thomas Azier: Love, Disorderly LP - as composer / producer / guitarist
[review and comments]
2021 Instruments of the Body - Brad Nath & Obi Blanche
- first steps of somatic composition, residency at Callies, Berlin
2021 Obi Blanche: Paid/h [post-punk.com premiere]
2022 Birds of Paradise festival NL with Glossolalia [Interview]
2023 Glossolalia choir project with Thomas Azier
- using somatic methods and sound creation
2023 Thomas Azier: ‘The Inventory Of Our Desire’ LP - as composer / producer / guitarist
2023 Thomas Azier: Live Recording with Noordpool Orkestra - on guitar,
+++ live video of somatic playing (no sensor)
2023 Love, Disorderly on Original Soundtrack to a Hollywood film The Equalizer 3 - Antoine Fuqua, starring Denzel Washington.
[Composed by Thomas Azier and Obi Blanche, use of experimental guitar sounds on the main riff.]
2024 Sonic Fever, live performance with Boris Shershenkov - Ars Electronica Festival Linz / Sound Campus
- experimental electronics and somatic guitar practices [dorf.tv documentation]
2024 Room Of Possibilities with Isabelle Wenzel - music composition, sound design and performance
© Photo: Isabelle Wenzel. Room of Possiblities.
2024 #postdigitalpunk © first version of https://postdigitalpunk.cargo.site in collaboration with Kristina Tica - an online collection of works
2025 PAS, Berlin - solo guitar improv
2025 Sonic Arts, Corfu - performance with Boris Shershenkov
2025 Initiative.Raumschiff, Linz - solo guitar set with sensor augmented guitar
2025 Obi Blanche & Jonas Hammerer | Latent Bodies, Emergent Systems - Sound Campus 2025, Ars Electronica Festival Linz
Kristina Tica
© Photo: Seppe Durnez, DeKoer Ghent 29/11/2025
Kristina Tica (*1995, Belgrade) is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher, with most recent practice centred on the artistic and theoretical exploration of the aesthetics and ethics of machine learning applications in visual computational processes. Tracing the impact of emergent technologies in popular culture under critical theory and philosophy in media and arts, her work activity spans through various disciplines - from visual arts, to coding, writing, and music*.
Since 2024 collaborating with Obi Blanche as a duo, DJing and performing in Obi Blanche & B.O.B, as a vocalist and bass player [BRAKE] and being a co-author of the #postdigitalpunk project.
Currently pursuing her practical and theoretical PhD research at the intersection of critical AI, computational image and its aesth-ethics, media theory and law, between the Department of Media Theory at the University of Applied Arts (die Angewandte) Vienna and the Metaverse Lab [LIFT_C] at the Johannes Kepler University Linz. Formerly a Lecturer in Feminist Hacking Strategies, MA Postdigital Lutherie at Tangible Music Lab, Kunstuniversität Linz.
Exhibited at festivals such as Ars Electronica, Speculum Artium, ESOF Trieste, The Wrong. Works recently published in ACM Journals; Leonardo Journal (Vol. 57); and The Practice of Art and AI by Hatje Cantz.
see artsit website for more info