A Conversation / reflection
Born from a SHAPE+ and Inkonst-supported residency, this new Malmö–Copenhagen collaboration brings together Italian percussionist Irene Bianco, guitarist/synth artist Sara Hausenkamp (aka 55 Cancri e), and visual artist Adèle Tornberg. United by a shared curiosity for transformation and ritual, they trace subtle shifts and dramatic ruptures through sound and image. Bianco’s debut solo album Kronblade (Permanent Draft, 2024) captures her whimsical blend of vintage percussion, electronics, and found sound. Hausenkamp crafts emotive layers with guitar, voice, and modular synths, while Tornberg manipulates microscopic textures into eerie dreamscapes. Together, they offer a meditation on becoming — abstract, honest, and quietly powerful.
We arrived expecting tension. After all, the residency only lasted a single day — how do three artists find time to connect, to create, to sync? We anticipated a story of struggle, of misalignment and resolution. Instead, we found something else entirely. From the moment we sat down to talk, it was obvious: Irene, Sara, and Adèle were already in tune. Watching them rehearse felt intimate, like witnessing a conversation without words. Invisible threads moved between them, guiding the flow.
The invisible sync
Sara calls the process “smooth.” Irene says she was surprised by how naturally their instruments responded to each other. Adèle joined after the first improvisations — and it just clicked. There was no need to explain much. Sound and image met each other instinctively. The collaboration didn’t evolve so much as it simply was.
Material moments
There are fragments, though — tangible traces of the process. Adèle brought lake water from her home into the visuals, captured through her microscope. Irene repurposed past sound materials, shaping them anew. Sara stays completely present, letting each moment dictate what comes next. There’s a soft layering here — past with present, internal with external.
Transformation
When we talked about transformation, there was no dramatic arc, no mythologizing. “It’s a natural process for each human,” Sara says. For Adèle, it’s something already embedded in the visuals she collects — light shifting, forms breaking and reforming. It’s not a destination; it’s something constant, already in motion.
Rituals in the margins
They rehearse, then immediately reflect. Their ritual is in repetition, in small refinements. Five sessions in, they’ve shaped a structure — but nothing is fixed. It stays open, porous.
Holding uncertainty
What do they hope someone might feel when experiencing the piece? They shrug. “It’s up to the audience.” They’re not here to define it. They hold space for ambiguity the way they hold space for each other — with trust. During the interview, they remained subtle, almost secretive, letting the work speak instead.
A dreamscape of
transformation
What they’ve built together is a kind of abstract dreamscape, but it’s rooted in something deeply real — the transformations every living being goes through. It’s dreamy, raw, and in moments, surprisingly intense. Watching and listening, we found ourselves slipping into a different mental space — not disconnected, but suspended. There’s an openness in the work that pulls you in, invites you to get lost.
This isn’t a collaboration that needs to be dissected or defined. It works — quietly, intuitively — and it leaves room for you.
Text:
Nadiya Vasylyeva @vasylyevan
photos:
Nadiya Vasylyeva, Adèle Tornberg
Artist(s) of the SHAPE+ network. SHAPE+ is a European platform for innovative music and interdisciplinary art co-funded by the European Union and Pro Helvetia
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.