About

Photo: Irma Fadhila

Nguyễn + Transitory is composed of Nguyễn Baly and Tara Transitory. Their work crosses the disciplines of sound, performance, and installation. Working mainly with modular synthesizers and analog tape, they attempt to approach sound, synthesis, noise, rhythm and performance from a less colonial lens – looking into how frequencies, the physicality of producing sounds and its incidental vibrations relate to cognitive memories, stored emotions and catharsis. Their practice involves as well efforts to empirically learn more about various Southeast Asian + diaspora queer existences and lost histories.

Their recent works include the performance Symphony Of Intimacies, the sound installation Topography Of Vulnerabilities #1 #2 #3 & #4 and Bird Bird, Touch Touch, Sing Sing, an immersive site-specific installative sound performance which has been presented at CTM Festival 2019 (Berlin), Serralves Museum (Porto), Ultima 2019 (Oslo), WORM (Rotterdam), Submerge Festival 2019 (Bristol), HeK (Basel) and PACT Zollverein (Essen) amongst others.

Besides their artistic practice, they run their own mastering studio called Queer Ear Mastering and are the current research fellows at the Berlin Artistic Research Grant Programme for 2022-2023.


Tara Transitory
aka One Man Nation, makes work which some consider art, some consider music and some consider trash. Clearly, it never quite fits into neatly demarcated categories. She is trans, nomadic, and practices at the intersections of gender, noise, and ritual though sound, performance, and collective trance.

Nguyễn Baly is a Vietnamese-German sound artist. She graduated from the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies (Giessen) with a specialisation in Sound and Composition for Stage and Performance. Since 2010 Nguyễn Baly has been working at the intersection of sound and performing arts as a composer and sound designer. Her artistic practice attempts to navigate the cross-section of performance, experimental music and post-colonialism.