Sofia borges
Composer · Electroacoustic Musician · Intermedia Artist
Sofia Borges is a composer and electroacoustic musician whose practice moves between improvised and contemporary music, bringing together percussion, electronics, and visual media. Her work encompasses composition, improvisation, and performance, with a particular interest in timbre, texture, physicality, and the transformation of sound through acoustic and electronic means.
Her approach to percussion is expanded and electroacoustic, with acoustic instruments, objects, and electronics functioning as extensions of one another rather than as separate sound sources. As a performer, she develops a sound language in which percussion and electronics form a single instrumental practice, exploring the physical, spatial, and sonic possibilities of an expanded percussion setup. She designs and programs her own electronic systems, working with environments such as Max/MSP and incorporating customised electronic devices and controllers to create instruments, processes, and interactive structures that respond directly to her performance practice.
Her electroacoustic work has been developed through her solo album Trips and Findings, the sOnic alchemy duo with Klaus Janek, and Lagrangian Points, created with Peter Van Huffel and Rieko Okuda. These recordings have received critical acclaim for their distinctive approach to the interplay of percussion, electronics, and improvisation.
Her intermedia practice grows directly from this musical work and includes graphic scores, record artwork, motion graphics, and stop-motion video. Rather than constituting a separate field of activity, these works extend her interest in rhythm, notation, movement, and sound into the visual domain.
Borges has performed and presented her work internationally at festivals and venues including MaerzMusik (Berlin, Germany), Jazzfest Berlin (Berlin, Germany), CTM Festival (Berlin, Germany), Klangwerkstatt Berlin (Berlin, Germany), Hamburger Klangwerktage (Hamburg, Germany), WOMAD (UK, Australia, New Zealand, Spain), Percpan – Panorama Percussivo Mundial (Brazil), and Cork Choral Festival (Ireland), among others. Her collaborative work spans different musical fields and artistic practices, where she regularly performs as a drummer and percussionist. She has worked with musicians, artists, and ensembles including Axel Dörner, Craig Taborn, Robyn Schulkowsky, Ignaz Schick, Tobias Delius, Fay Victor, Klaus Janek, Nick Dunston, Marta Warelis, Yedo Gibson, Fie Schouten, Nozomi Hiwatashi, and Ensemble Unruhe. Her work has also led to collaborations with stage directors, choreographers, and interdisciplinary artists, including Meg Stuart, Alexis Blake, Heiner Goebbels, and Florentina Holzinger.
As a composer, Borges writes and has been commissioned to create music ranging from solo works to chamber and orchestral compositions, vocal music, and electronics. Her work has led to collaborations with ensembles and performers including Musicatreze, the Latvian Radio Choir, and soprano Andrea Conangla, as well as to projects in theatre and dance. In 2019, the Bauhaus Foundation Dessau commissioned her to create a stage work for the centenary of the Bauhaus.
Borges began her musical training in percussion, studying classical percussion, jazz, and orchestral music at the Escola de Música do Conservatório Nacional and the Hot Club of Portugal, alongside studies at Ar.Co – Centro de Arte e Comunicação Visual, the independent art school in Lisbon. She later pursued advanced studies in composition and computer/electronic music at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg.
