Ilya Ziblat Shay is a composer, performer, and researcher working in experimental music.  Creating and shaping sound stands at the centre of his practice, taking form through musical works.

 .

He works extensively with music technology, exploring the live interplay between musicians and interactive electronics. An ever-evolving set of digital tools – audio synthesis, machine listening algorithms, and interactive notation – allows him to shape dynamic interdependencies between humans, musical instruments, and the computer, while critically investigating what it means to listen with and to technology.

 .    

Samples of speech and other real-world sounds provide material for digital processing. Through it, he reconstructs language into fragmented sonic textures and evolving musical forms, examining the relationship between sound and meaning. He approaches contemporary realities with a critical ear, mapping social, political, and techno-ethical questions as augmented musical narratives. (‘Breathtaking mangled messes … a volatile document of a volatile time’, Jack Davidson, Noise Not Music).

 .

Exploring the continuous interplay between musicians, emergent musical structures, and autonomous computer systems, he invites the audience witness how musical processes unfold in real time. In parallel, he works with notation – often open and improvisation-based – and plays bass as his main instrument.

  .

Ilya collaborates regularly with contemporary music ensembles and musicians. His works have been performed at major venues and festivals across Europe (calendar).  He is a member of iii (instrument inventors initiative) workspace, and co-artistic director and performer at the Hague-based Catchpenny ensemble. He holds a PhD in artistic research from Leiden University and has lived and worked in the Netherlands since 2005. In 2026, he is an invited guest professor in the Electronic Music and Sound Art study program, University of Pécs, Hungary (link).

 .

  contact:   ziblatilya [at] gmail [dot] com