Elf Traps & Shunya

Elf Traps at Soup

ELF TRAPS + Shunya: Debut Album Tour

Soup, Manchester | Doors 19:00, Curfew 22:00 | 18+

£12.50 adv / £15 OTD

Elf Traps play Manchester as part of their debut album tour, a homecoming for a project born in the city's underground scene. Formed by Mercury Prize nominee Rob Turner (Mammal Hands, former GoGo Penguin) and Liviu Gheorghe (former Matthew Halsall / Gondwana), Elf Traps fuse spiritual jazz with glitch, jungle and live electronica. Live drums and synths tangle with drum machines, samplers, chopped vocal fragments and custom robotic percussion, twisting in real time between meditative calm and explosive rhythmic peaks. No two shows are alike. Early champions include Graham Massey (808 State) and Gilles Peterson, think Squarepusher's rhythmic chaos, Four Tet and Floating Points'textural electronics, and the spiritual openness of Pharoah Sanders. Their debut album lands October or November 2026.

Special guest Shunya (Alan Keary) joins the bill. The Limerick born musician, son of Irish guitarist Dave Keary (Van Morrison), moves between violin, bass and vocals, blending futuristic Irish folk, jazztronica and electronic sound worlds. He's sold out Village Underground with improvised sets, written orchestral arrangements for Abel Selaocoe's BBC Prom at the Royal Albert Hall, and remixed GoGo Penguin. "Enigmatic new discovery," says Rough Trade Records.

Two of the UK's most boundary pushing live acts, one night at Soup.