Jest Festival - Jour 3 - armor&murmur × Mai Mai Mai

armor&murmur (France, PACA region - Original work created as part of the Be On support program - Manon Couffon de Trevros, Romain Delatour)

armor&murmur was born from the collaboration between Romain Delatour, a member of Marseille metal band Harp, and Manon Tombe, a visual artist and singer. The duo explores a hybrid sound combining industrial metal, noise, drone and experimental pop, moving between dark, hard-hitting soundscapes and moments of pure melodic clarity. Their influences range from the industrial coldness of Godflesh and Nailbomb to the cathartic intensity of The Body and Hide, while incorporating the pop daring of Nine Inch Nails, allowing them to develop a rich and distinctive sound. The duo will release its first single, “FALLING X,” on July 2, 2026, heralding an upcoming EP. [ voice, guitar, synth ]

Mai Mai Mai - Karakoz (Italy - Toni Cutrone)

Karakoz, Mai Mai Mai’s new album, will be released in 2026 on Maple Death Records. True to its approach of “Mediterranean hauntology,” blending folklore, memory and field recordings, the album grew out of a six-week residency in Ramallah and Bethlehem in 2024, with Radio Alhara and Wonder Cabinet. Cutrone drew on Palestinian musical traditions, the Popular Art Center archives and local soundscapes, bringing his industrial and ambient world into dialogue with traditional songs, bouzouq, yarghul and field recordings, enriched by contributions from Maya Al Khaldi, Julmud, Osama Abu Ali and Alabaster dePlume. The title refers to Karakoz, Ottoman shadow theater and a symbol of gathering: the album thus becomes a space for dialogue between memory and the present, from which a new Mediterranean mythology emerges. [ electronic music ]