Collaborator spotlight
Olive Yu
Artist, DJ & Instrument Builder
New York
Evilo (Olive Yu, they/them) is an artist, DJ, and instrument builder based in New York. Their practice moves between club sound systems, experimental electronics, and live performance. Rooted in hardcore and techno, Evilo’s sound has since moved in fluid and unexpected directions, an evolving practice rooted in learning, experimentation, and collaboration.
Alongside DJing, Evilo designs and performs with custom-built instruments, including Serenity Synth, a sculptural ensemble of synthesizers, MIDI controllers, and preamps built for improvisation and deep listening, inviting playful and embodied relationships with sound-making technology. Influenced by ecological patterns and the ephemerality of the natural world, their work creates openings for presence, co-creation, and care.
They have performed at venues including Nowadays and Bossa Nova Civic Club, appeared on TheLot Radio, and hold residencies on Beloved Radio and Moonglow Radio. Across radio, performance, and installation, Evilo explores how humans relate to machines, materials, and invisible systems—using sound as a site for experimentation, ritual, and presence.
“The music of people must always come from instruments.. but the music of the earth is the sound of the wind.. wind is breathing of the earth. when the wind begins to blow every opening there is responds with sounds Can you think of what a big wind is like? the wind blows and the openings in the huge mountain trees respond — some are like nostrils, some like mouths, some like ears, some are like circles or mortars and others like deep pools or shallow gullies”