Photo credit: Sophia Stefellé
ILĀ is an artist, producer, and vocalist working across voice, sound, and technology. Their practice spans live performance, immersive installation, and experimental composition. As co-founder and director of London Contemporary Voices, ILĀ has collaborated with over 25 Grammy-winning artists, including Florence + The Machine, Imogen Heap, and U2, and contributed to major projects such as the BBC Proms and runway shows for Burberry and Tommy Hilfiger.
Their recent work includes UN/BOUND, a holographic sound installation created with TRANS VOICES and MONOM for Feel the Sound at The Barbican. The piece combines choral voices with tone transfer models by NEUTONE and quantum computing tools developed with MOTH. ILĀ’s upcoming short film murmur features collaborations with Ai-Da (robot artist), Imogen Heap, Guy Sigsworth, BISHI, and Portrait XO.
ILĀ has performed and presented work internationally, including at the World Economic Forum, TED Countdown Summit, Silencio (Paris), Puzzle X (Barcelona), the University of Oxford, and Harvard University. Other commissions include Kindred (animated VR film), Loomaland’s Robot Swans, and a collaboration with Turner Prize-winner Jesse Darling on MISERERE.
They are a member of the Ivors Academy Future Sound Experience Council, the Earth/Percent Music Committee, a Redcliffe Advisory ambassador, and a research partner on AI and music at the University of Sheffield. In 2022, ILĀ co-founded TRANS VOICES, the UK’s first professional trans+ choir, which debuted with a music documentary for Guardian Films.
In this interview, ILĀ speaks about the making of murmur, working with artists like Imogen Heap and Guy Sigsworth, and recent projects that connect voice, technology, and live performance.
Your latest EP, murmur, features collaborations with groundbreaking artists like Imogen Heap, Guy Sigsworth, and Reeps One. What’s the through-line connecting all these voices, and what did you learn from working with them?
Murmur comes from a very deep and instinctual part of me - and is mostly all born from the voice in some way or another.
Of course, my identity as a brown trans person strongly informs my experience of life - and it’s lead to a lot of trauma - I think my early creativity was born from a very urgent need to give voice to that. I’m as interested in creating choral music with human singers, as I am in making electronic music or working with quantum.
For me, I find just as much beauty and possibility in both - I like go to the places I’m most scared of - because there’s usually some mystery there I want to tap into. I feel that intense curiosity in me is sparked around people like Imogen, Guy and Reeps One.
With the help of Portrait XO, I created hybrid voices of Imogen and I and Bishi and I. They are like a playful child - surprising, unpredictable. With Reeps One, there has been this exploration of permission - that the first idea is good enough.
But also finding a second self within these hybrid voices - that can almost act like a sparring partner - ever expanding what we can do. Guy would bring out this oxygenated side to my voice, putting together these phrases from what I would sing which I thought would be impossible for me to re-sing. Weirdly, I found myself able to - and went through these huge expansion of what was possible for me.
Photo credit: Sophia Stefellé
You’ve spoken at Oxford University, collaborated with the European Space Agency, and composed with quantum computing. What’s the wildest or most unexpected place your music has taken you?
I’m going to be singing with Nightingales with Sam Lee and violinist and composer Anna Phoebe. I’m so curious about it - being in nature, singing - creating with these mysterious little birds in the woods. I’m hoping to create a piece of music from it for Earth/Percent - the music industry’s climate foundation - who I’m on the music committee with.
You’ve worked with some of the biggest names in music, from Björk’s collaborators to Grammy-winning artists. Looking back, what’s been the most defining moment of your career so far?
I think Murmur marks a really shift for me. Creating it with Imogen Heap, Guy Sigsworth, Bishi, Reeps One, Portrait XO, TRANS VOICES and Jake Miller just blew me open. I admire them all so much and have this deep bond of trust there. I feel I found this more instinctive part of my voice. A freedom. It’s also the first release that has my first steps into quantum computer music in it. This also said, in the spirit of quantum, I actually genuinely feel that the most defining things are always the smallest. The culmination of all the momentary interactions - a going this way rather than that way in a melody or a conversation - those things change everything. I love the chaos that brings to life.
You’re constantly pushing into new territory—whether it’s AI music, DNA sequencing, or sonic storytelling. What’s next for you?
My next single Recurse comes out on 25th April. It has this playful rage in it - like a lightness but then it also felt so cathartic - like I could finally really embrace noise. I made it using quantum reservoir computing in partnership with MOTH. As part of it there will be an infinite quantum radio that will continuously stream an ever evolving of the piece that people can interact with. I got to do a performance of it at Havard a few weeks back.
I’ve also co-created my first installation piece UN/BOUND with TRANS VOICES and MONOM which is part of theFeel The Soundexhibition at The Barbican. It’s a immersive holographic choral piece with electronics I’ve made using quantum. Audience members can also transform their voices into TRANS VOICES’ hybid voices using a tone morphing model by Neutone. The exhibition is going to be going on a 5 year world tour. The exhibition opens May 22.
Interview by @ninakeh