Photo courtesy ISSUE Project Room by Noele Contreras

ANNIHIL is the alias of New York based composer, producer, and performer, Nihil Hell Lean. Traversing the realms of the underground since his youth, ANNIHIL uses live experimentations with hardware and sound synthesis to create compositions that are as dark, grimey, and textured as his roots in the freak experimental circuit. As a performer, ANNIHIL is interested in deconstructing the “live hardware set” associated with electronic music, exploring the tensions between body/voice/equipment.

Taking a multidisciplinary and subversive approach to electronics and hardware music, ANNIHIL utilizes his capabilties as a vocalist, movement artist, and composer as a way to invite  audiences into a shared ephemeral moment. Performances are meant to create a world built to exist in a temporary state, yet leave an imprint. ANNIHIL creates instances in which the push and pull between the internal world in which we create ourselves, and the external world in which we are forced to live, meet face to face.

 ANNIHIL has collaborated on live performances with a variety of artists, including power electronics artist Neuter, violist Anka Raczynska, movement/costume artist Violent Mirror, and butoh dancer Temmetsu. He has also collaborated on recorded music with producers Axine M and Kat Nzingha. ANNIHIL is also part of the noiseXperformance group Noisey Shore (Dagger Wound, Frank/ie Consent, Smiling Beth), who most recently presented their movement and noise based play entitled MANIFESTO OF BONES, with the support of Prattsville Art Center.

He has had toured and presented work across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Asia and Europe, and is a former artist in residence at EMS Stockholm, SE, Chaos Computer, and The Silent Barn. ANNIHIL is a grateful recipient of Creatives Rebuild New York's Guaranteed Income for Artists (2022-2023).

Work has been presented at various institutions, DIY venues, alleyways, and rooftops across the world. Some noteable spaces include ISSUE Project Room, SPACE Shinjuku, Coaxial Space, DAO Taichung, The Glove, and his friend's bathtub at his favorite former punk house in Boston, MA.

Find him at annihil.xyz or @ann1h1l.xyz