The opening night of SONICA 2025 includes three singular artists, builders of captivating and immersive soundscapes that operate at the intersection of electroacoustic and experimental music

Portuguese guitar trailblazer Rafael Toral is returning to Ljubljana with one of the most critically acclaimed albums of 2024, Spectral Evolution (Drag City Records, 2024), which landed on the AOTY lists of outlets such as The Wire, Pitchfork, The Quietus and Bandcamp Daily. No surprise, as his music sounds as if it were populated by fantastic creatures from the phantasmagorias of the master Hieronymus Bosch!
Polish SHAPE+ platform protégé, vocalist, sound artist and composer Antonina Nowacka is inviting us into her fantastic sonic realms that grow from new age and neoclassical traditions. Her elfin vocals and the ethereal timbres of various instruments (zither, harp, ocarina and others) wrap listeners in a blanket of fresh flowers and transport them to a mesmerising dreamworld. 
While Slovenian musician and producer Jan Bajc Funa aka .čunfa is premiering his new project Stamor, an enthralling blend of dark ambient, ritualistic dungeon synths and black metal-via-doom riffs.

Rafael Toral (PT)
“We often talk of visionary albums, but Spectral Evolution should be celebrated for how visual it is, cracking open the listener’s mind’s eye to reveal an animated landscape populated by rare and exotic creatures.”
Jennifer Lucy Allan, The Guardian 

Producer, composer and performer Rafael Toral is one of the most singular experimental guitarists of our age, involved with rock, ambient, electronic music and free jazz. He pioneered a blend of ambient and rock, recording acclaimed albums such as Wave Field (1998). In 2004, he launched the alien-sounding Space Program, an ambitious long-term project exploring electronic music based on silence and inspired by post-free jazz. The resulting music, “melodic without notes, rhythmic with no beat, familiar but strange, meticulous but radically free – riddled with paradox but full of clarity and space”, has been described as “a brand of electronic music far more visceral and emotive than that of his cerebral peers”. Toral practices an understanding of silence as “space” with a clear function in music creation. The release of Moon Field LP (2017) marked the beginning of new creative trajectories with the Space Quartet. Returning to the electric guitar with a renewed interest in harmony, Toral synthesized all of the above on the masterpiece Spectral Evolution (2024), which landed on many AOTY lists. He has toured around the globe and collaborated with Jim O’Rourke, Evan Parker, Phill Niblock and Sonic Youth, to mention a few.
 

Antonina Nowacka (SHAPE+, PL)
“Nowacka has such a distinctive voice and way of singing that makes me feel she is singing from beyond a threshold. She opens a small portal to a world not quite the same as this one.”
Jennifer Lucy Allan, The Quietus 

Antonina Nowacka is a vocalist, sound artist and composer with a background in visual arts. Through years of sonic explorations in natural environments, studies of various music traditions and voice peculiarities, she has developed a deeply relaxing and hypnotic voice quality reminiscent of a theremin. Through her subtle soundscapes, she takes listeners on emotional imaginative journeys inspired by nature, space, dreams and otherworldly happenings. Her collaborators include names such as Agnieszka Polska, Nicolas Jaar and Sofie Birch. She performs all around the world in prestigious concert spaces, museums, art galleries and theatres such as Lincoln Centre (New York), Barbican Centre (London), Silent Green (Berlin), Centro National de las Artes (Mexico City) and Bourse de Commerce (Paris). She is an artist of the SHAPE+ platform for the season 2024/25.
 

Stamor (SI)
Live premiere of the album The Absurd (self-released, 2024)
“The album [...] leaves a great impression for its sophisticated, multi-layered production and well-thought-out dramaturgy. Its truly heavy mood plunges the listener into a black cloud of melancholy even on the sunniest summer's day. A soundtrack that doesn't require a film!”
Gregor Kocijančič, Mladina 

Stamor is a new ambient project by Slovenian musician and producer Jan Bajc Funa aka .čunfa, whose debut album The Absurd (self-released, 2024) is described as “a homage to Albert Camus and his absurdism”. Bajc has channeled his love for minor-key riffs and ominous metal ambience into The Stamor project. It seems as if instrumental parts usually used as introductions or interludes on a post-metal record represent the essence of his expression. The pensive guitar tones are not followed by blast beats, downtuned riffage and unholy growls, but rather they are expanded with synthesised bass lines, ritualistic percussion, gothic synths and hypnotic field recordings. His expression is reminiscent of Burzum’s dungeon synth releases, Earth’s cosmic drones and, at times, Muslimgauze’s mystical chants. The Stamor project is marked by a sincere desire to grasp the poetics of the absurd.

Bajc will be joined on stage by Manuel Brajnik (guitar, electronics) and Rok Babič (guitar, sampler) from the band Spiral Mind.

SONICA 2025: -STREAM
15 - 18 April 2025
www.sonica.si

Co-produced by MoTA - Museum of Transitory Art, SONICA Festival Institute and Cankarjev dom. Supported by the Ministry of culture RS and the Municipality of Ljubljana - Department of Culture. Antonina Nowacka is an artist of the SHAPE+ platform for innovative music and interdisciplinary art, co-funded by the European Union and Pro Helvetia.
www.sonica.si 

The Fabula Festival’s theoretical-humanistic event, in collaboration with the publishing house Analecta, is dedicated to Israeli philosopher and one of the leading contemporary theoreticians of capitalism, Noam Yuran. Noam's teaching and research turn to the history of economic thought as a way to explore alternative conceptualizations of the relations between economy and society. Yuran, a Senior Lecturer at Bar-Ilan University, studies how capitalist logic shapes our social norms, intimate relationships and consumer subjectivity. 

The event places focus on Yuran's book The Sexual Economy of Capitalism, to be published in Slovenian translation by Analecta. In Sexual Economy Yuran maps the erotic dimension of capitalism onto concrete economic questions around money, goods, private property, and capital. Yuran offers readers a powerful understanding of capitalism in its unique articulation of love, sex, and money. In analysing marital relations, advertising, consumption and financial practices, Yuran shows how capitalism exploits the boundaries between what can be bought and what is outside the financial domain – but only seemingly. His theory goes beyond classical economic debates. Yuran argues that capitalist society is based on a paradox where the category of what money cannot buy is not a form of monetary limitation, but extension. Capitalism, through the eroticisation of consumption and advertising, creates a cultural economy that transforms the relations between sexuality, consumption and power. The book also examines the role of visual media in shaping 20th-century consumer subjectivity, at the intersection of economy, eroticism and social norms.

In What Money Wants: An Economy of Desire (2014), Noam Yuran argues that money is not merely a technical tool in the administration of goods, but a vehicle for complex human desires. His works help us understand how deeply capitalism has penetrated the most intimate recesses of humankind, profoundly reshaping our values and attitudes.

The talk will be hosted by Alenka Zupančič.

The event will be held in English, with simultaneous translation into Slovenian.

In 2025, the Festival of World Literatures – Fabula has become an international partner of the European platform CELA (Connecting Emerging Literary Artists), which brings together young European authors, translators and literary professionals. CELA gives visibility to new literary voices, establishing links among translators and publishers, editors and the literary community across Europe, and strengthening the role of young translators in shaping Europe's literary future. Through this partnership, Ljubljana becomes one of Europe's major literary incubators, where literary creativity and professionalisation will enjoy a unique symbiotic relationship.

The Fabula CELA – Young Slovenian Translators is dedicated to Slovenia's promising translators who have spent the last three years translating works by contemporary European authors into and from Slovenian as part of the CELA project. Mojca Petaros, Zarja Lampret Prešeren, Rina Pleteršek, Sara Hočevar Mucić, Lucija Janc Novak, Tina Jurman, Natalija Milovanović, Aleš Belšak, Lara Potočnik and Maja Kovač will speak about their translation experiences, the challenges of working in contemporary European fiction, discussing the key stylistic and thematic features of recent European literature.

The panel will be hosted by Tanja Petrič, President of the Slovenian Association of Literary Translators.

Fabula x CELA as a Literary Incubator
As part of the Fabula x CELA – Young Slovenian Translators project, which runs in partnership with the publishing house Goga and the Slovenian Association of Literary Translators, the translators will also act as moderators at several literary evenings around Slovenia – the authors and translators will tour bookstore events in Novo mesto (Goga), Nova Gorica (Maks) and Maribor (Beletrina). In addition, a special networking event with local publishers and editors will be organised at Vodnikova domačija Šiška (Vodnik Homestead), where young translators will have the opportunity to form important professional connections for the further development of their careers, and an intensive closed-door translation seminar will be organised this year in cooperation with the Slovenian Association of Literary Translators.

The event will be held in Slovenian.

In 2025, the Festival of World Literatures – Fabula has become an international partner of the European platform CELA (Connecting Emerging Literary Artists). By building a growing network of literary artists across Europe through translating and promoting literary works in non-native languages, CELA aims to break through uneven literary infrastructures in different countries, and to open possibilities to reach European audiences beyond borders. Through this partnership, Fabula will contribute to the professionalisation of young literary artists and establish Ljubljana as one of Europe's major literary incubators.

Within the context of the Fabula x CELA project, in cooperation with Goga Publishing House and Cankarjev dom, a special literary event will feature three up-and-coming young European fiction writers. The event is dedicated to exploring contemporary European literature and discussing the creative currents that have influenced the coming generations of authors. The event will be hosted by Aljoša Harlamov.

Guests:
Filip Grujić (Serbia)
Born in Novi Sad in 1995, Filip Grujić is an award-winning writer and playwright, one of the most prominent voices among the younger generation of Serbian writers. He graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, where he now serves as a teaching assistant. Grujić is the author of several acclaimed plays and novels, including Podstanar (2020), which was nominated for the European Prize for Literature and the Nin Award, and Bludni dani kuratog Džonija (2017). With his most recent novel, I onda opet, iz doceko (2023), Grujić reasserts himself as a prominent voice in the Serbian literary landscape. His works explore existential questions, interpersonal relationships and issues of urban life.

Ekaterina Petrova (Bulgaria)
Ekaterina Petrova is a literary translator and non-fiction author. She holds a BA in Literary Translation from the University of Iowa, where she was awarded the prestigious Iowa Arts Fellowship. As a translator, she took part in various literary residencies, including the Art Omi Translation Lab in the US and the National Centre for Writing in the UK. Her translations and essays have been published in EuropeNow, Ninth Letter and Drunken Boat, among others. A leading name among Bulgaria’s young generation of translators, Petrova’s work opens bridges between languages, cultures and literary currents.

Francesco Aloia (Italy)
Francesco Aloia, born in Naples in 1999, is one of Italy's most prolific young authors. After studying at the prestigious Scuola Holden in Turin, he published his first novel, Questo sangue masticato, in 2024, which combines elements of a personal investigation, a family novel and a gangster story. He is currently pursuing the career of a writer and literary consultant and developing new projects. Marked by a vivid language and a blend of personal and social themes, Aloia’s writing ranks him among the most promising literary voices of the young generation.

Fabula x CELA as a Literary Incubator 
Within the context of the Fabula x CELA project, featured authors will participate in several literary events around Slovenia during the festival, including guest appearances at Goga (Novo mesto), Maks (Nova Gorica) and Beletrina (Maribor) bookstores. In addition, a networking with local publishers and editors will take place at Vodnikova domačija Šiška (Vodnik's Homestead), where young authors will have the opportunity to establish contacts and form connections with a view to supporting their further development.

The talk will be held in English, with simultaneous translation into Slovenian.
 

The Fabula literary evening is dedicated to the outstanding Mexican author Guadalupe Nettel, one of the most influential contemporary voices in Latin American literature. Nettel's distinctive poetics explores the boundaries between reality and the unconscious, telling the stories of socially excluded and marginalised people. Portraying otherness, her stories are laced with subtlety, empathy and psychological depth. She has received many awards for her fiction, including the Premio de Narrativa Breve Ribera del Duero and the prestigious Herralde Prize, one of the highest honours in Hispanophone literature

El huésped (The Host), Guadalupe Nettel’s debut novel, is a haunting story of a girl, Anna, inhabited by a disturbing creature – a mysterious, possibly imaginary "host". Anna wages an internal battle against this presence, which increasingly encroaches on her environment and leads to the disintegration of family ties. The novel moves between the conscious and the unconscious, exploring issues of blindness, otherness and community, questions that emerge when we fail to find our place within a society. With a remarkable sense of psychological precision, Nettel sheds light on the complex emotions that lie beneath the surface – fear, longing, acceptance and resistance. The author draws on her own experience, having been born with congenital cataract, which often inspired a sense of being an outsider, of having a disability. In the novel, she interweaves this experience with fiction, which raises important questions about the acceptance of self and others in a world that often does not tolerate deviations from the norm.

The event will be hosted by Ignac Fock, excerpts from El huésped (The Host) will be interpreted by actress Vesna Jevnikar.

The talk will be held in English, with simultaneous translation into Slovenian.

Guadalupe Nettel (1973) is a Mexican writer, author of award-winning novels and collections of short stories translated into more than twenty languages, including The Body Where I was Born, After the Winter, and Still Born which was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023. Her work addresses themes of physical and psychological otherness, anomaly and exclusion, presented as important aspects of the human experience.
 

This year’s featured author of Fabula Hub, a programme dedicated to young, up-and-coming literary voices, is the Italian-Pakistani writer Saif ur Rehman Raja. His moving autobiographical novel Hijra (2024) explores the complex transitions between cultures, gender identities and social prejudices, relating the story of a childhood spent in Rawalpindi and teenage years in Italy. Raja's work probes into the emotional core of an individual whose sexual orientation and cultural otherness make him a social outcast.

Hijra is an account of life before and after migration. "Before" is a traditional childhood in Pakistan, accompanied by shared family rituals and a mother’s tender affection; "after" is foreignness in Italy, where young Saif’s homosexuality makes him a stranger among both Italians and Pakistanis. Labelled hijra (half-human), he carries the weight of social expectations and exclusion, yet resolutely seeking his own autonomy. Weaving a painfully honest, poetic and confessional narrative, the novel asks profound questions about identity, exposing the social and personal wounds faced by marginalised groups in today’s world.

Saif ur Rehman Raja (1994) was born in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, and moved to Italy with his family aged 11. He graduated in pedagogy and devoted himself to research on multiculturalism and critical race theory at the University of Siena. His literary and research areas mainly concern migration, social exclusion and marginalised identities. 

The event will be hosted by Špela Setničar, excerpts from Hijra will be interpreted by actor Nejc Cijan Garlatti.

The talk will be held in Italian, with simultaneous translation into Slovenian.

Saif ur Rehman Raja is the author in focus of the Fabula Hub, a programme involving young authors in a series of literary events, professional networking and residencies in Slovenia. During the festival, Raja will spend ten days in residence at the Kulturna soseska (Cultural Neighbourhood) Celje, engaging with the localliterary community and focusing on his future work.  
 

The Fabula literary evening is dedicated to talented Croatian writer, screenwriter and filmmaker Dora Šustić, whose debut novel Dogs has enthralled critics and audiences alike. Her work explores the intimate relationships, inner conflicts and longings of the millennial generation, delving into the deepest recesses of the heart and life’s painful experiences.

The young protagonist of Dogs leaves her native Rijeka to study in Prague, hoping to get everything she desires from life. At a party, she meets a charismatic Turkish photographer, falls in love, and surrenders to passion, unaware of how powerful his dark energy is. Dissecting the couple’s relationship, the author explores the boundaries between love, loss, pain and psychological dependence, revealing moments of incertitude and self-destructiveness with brutal honesty. Through a poetic and raw narrative, Šustić addresses the dichotomy between material prosperity and spiritual vacuity, emancipation and vulnerability, illustrating how our lives are shaped by the limits of the body and the mind.

The event will be hosted by Nina Gostiša, excerpts from Dogs will be interpreted by actress Mojca Funkl.

The talk will be held in Croatian, with simultaneous translation into Slovenian.

Dora Šustić has established herself as one of the most promising voices in Croatian literature. Her debut novel Dogs, awarded the Drago Gervais Prize for Best
Manuscript, has been nominated for several prestigious literary awards.

Fabula literary event is dedicated to the accomplished Japanese-German writer Yoko Tawada, one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary world literature. In discussing her work, the author will address some of the main issues facing our world – the issues of language loss, migration, foreignness and the search for a sense of belonging.

The evening is dedicated to Tawada's novel Scattered All Over the Earth, (Chikyu ni chiribamerarete, 2018) translated into Slovenian by Domen Kavčič. The story follows a Japanese woman, Hiruko, who loses her homeland and mother tongue after a socio-ecological catastrophe and is trapped in Europe. With a diverse group of intrepid companions, outsiders and travellers, Tawada explores how language as an identity bearer can lose its meaning, but also offer an opportunity for new beginnings and creativity. The mind-expanding novel raises relevant social issues such as migration, natural cataclysms, sexual identity and cultural essentialisms, and invites reflection on the accepted notions of national identity. In using non-linear narrative, rich symbolism and interlacing reality and fiction, Tawada’s work ventures beyond a mere literary discussion, opening up new avenues for a broader understanding of contemporary challenges.

The event will be hosted by Blaž Šef, excerpts from Scattered All Over the Earth will be interpreted by actor Mario Dragojević.

The talk will be held in English, with simultaneous translation into Slovenian.

Yoko Tawada's work, especially after the 2011 tsunami earthquake and nuclear disaster in Japan, explores the loss of homeland, language and security, painting dystopian landscapes to echo the uncertainties of today's world.

The event is supported by Goethe-Institut Ljubljana.

Fabula's opening event at Cankarjev dom will feature British writer, journalist and activist Sharon Dodua Otoo, whose work explores complex issues of identity, race, gender and historical memory. She is the 2016 winner of the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize – one of the most prestigious awards for German language literature. Her debut novel, Adas Raum (Ada's Room), has captivated worldwide readers and critics alike with its innovative structure and universal themes.

Ada's Room, a kaleidoscopic novel spanning generations and continents, reveals the connections between four women all named Ada and all fighting for survival. Stricken with grief, a young woman in 1459 Ghana named Ada confronts colonial violence. A woman in Victorian England named Ada Lovelace is a mathematical genius and predecessor of computer programming. A woman named Ada, imprisoned in a camp brothel at Buchenwald in 1945, will survive one more day. As their interwoven narratives converge on a modern-day Ada, a young Ghanian woman who finds herself pregnant, alone, in Berlin, searching for a home before her baby arrives, their shared spirit will find a way to help her break the vicious cycle of injustice. Otoo's literary innovation includes non-human narrators – the voices of objects such as a broom, a hook and a concentration camp room, providing a unique perspective on historical events and the protagonists’ inner worlds. Otoo's non-linear structure blends historical accuracy, poetic language and surreal elements, imparting the novel with a particular depth and power.

The talk will be hosted by Aleksandra Gačić, excerpts from Ada's Room will be interpreted by actress Ana Penca Pavlin.

The event will be held in English, with simultaneous translation into Slovenian.

Ada's Room, translated into Slovenian by Sara Virk, confronts the reader with universal themes of injustice, oppression and resistance, while inviting reflection on how, in the course of time, women's personal stories impact the collective history of humanity.

The event is supported by Goethe-Institut Ljubljana.

A talk with Dušan Jovanović’s associates and collaborators will take place within the context of the exhibition Dušan Jovanović – Cultural Terrorist.

While pursuing the artistic career of a stage director, Dušan Jovanović constantly created new theatre collectives. He gathered people around him who inspired him and embraced his incredible creative vision. They often remained part of his productions and his life for longer periods of time. Milena Zupančič, Meta Hočevar, Saša Pavček and Drago Ivanuša will talk about his work, unrealised ideas and his personality, also relating personal anecdotes.

The talk will be hosted by Patricija Maličev.