Abigail
Toll is a sound artist, composer and researcher who
engages with the physical and metaphysical aspects of sound in space. Her live shows melt together psychoacoustics and “noise” to both divine and terrifying effect. Toll’s second solo album 'Idol' is slated for release on 07 November 2025 on Superpang.
PRESS
Toll’s debut record ‘Matrices of Vision’ (rel. Shelter Press, 2023) premiered as an ensemble performance, featuring Rebecca Lane, Lucy Railton, and Evelyn Saylor at Klosterruine with KW Institute of Contemporary Art, Berlin. It was described as:
“40 exquisite moments” (Bandcamp)
“a fascinating record – hyper concentrated on [Toll’s] academic training [as] a kind of exorcism” (GRM/Radio France).
“Magical stuff, and the more you observe it, the more fascinating it becomes” (Boomkat).
EXTENDED BIO
Toll’s current installations and artistic research unearth and countermap* the more-than-human relations between psychoacoustics and pastoral tradition. In collaboration with several situated researchers, the body of work titled “Where Words Fail” explores the resonance between regional folk music, deep listening, drone, field recordings, pastoral traditions and sacred sites now imperilled by industrialisation and (settler) colonialism.
Toll studied English Literature and Art History (BA) at Sussex University (Brighton, UK), Electroacoustic Composition (MA) at KMH–The Royal College of Music in Stockholm (SE) and is the recipient of numerous scholarships. She was an artist in residence for the Amplify Berlin programme in 2018 with Caterina Barbieri and Maya Shenfeld, shortly after which she released her first EP Old World | New Ruins in 2019 under the moniker Ionian Death Robes. She is an artistic programmer for Tranceversal Voices – a multidimentional format for deep listening, drone, hypnotic club music and poetry resonating beyond categories, and at HOLON – an interdisciplinary format exploring the social discourse between art, music, design and emerging technologies. She presented a collaborative exhibition exploring data and co-creation with Stina Baudin for the series Rehearsing Moves on Hazy Paths in 2023. Her work and performances have been shown at: Heart of Noise (Innsbruck, AU); Gibanja, Kontejner (Zagreb, CR); tekhne, GMEA (Albi, FR); Casa del Popolo (Montreal, CA); Klosterruine; KW Institute for Contemporary Art; ZK/U; Kunsthalle Gent; The Lucerne School of Music (Lucerne, CH); LAS – Pawilon (Poznan, PL); Volksbühne (Berlin, DE); Swedish Association of New Music Promoters, (Gävle, SE); l’Ancienne Belgique (Brussels, BEL); The Drone Society (London, UK); Lisa (Lisbon, PT); UT Connewitz, (Leipzig, DE); Arttheater, (Cologne, DE); and with Tiara Roxanne at re:publica (Berlin, DE), Images Festival (Toronto, CA) and AMOQA (Athens, GR) among others.
Bookings: abigail.j.toll(at)gmail.com
Publishing: Abigail Toll Publishing