Surface Tension Night at Recombinant Network Editions 2025
December 5th, 2025 at The Gray Area Grand Theater
Live performances by:
HESAITIX (PAN)
LARA SARKISSIAN (btwn Earth + Sky) with Mher Mnatsakanyan (Clarinet, Duduk)
NIHAR (Surface Tension + Left Hand Path)
DJ sets by:
JASON P. (Surface Tension + TVOD)
DJ CZ (Surface Tension + stratus)
Once and future experimental club night Surface Tension reawakens, following a period of dormancy, to curate an evening of unheimlich electronics in San Francisco as part of Recombinant Festival 2025.
Launched in 2013 by Justin Anastasi, Nihar Bhatt, Damon Way, Jason P. and Chris Zaldua (aka DJ CZ), Surface Tension presented an alternative vision of club culture in which techno, bass music, and left-field experimental sounds were each constituent parts of a greater whole.
In pursuit of this conception, Surface Tension hosted S.F. debut performances by a slew of internationally renowned artists, including Sandra Electronics (Regis + Silent Servant), Beau Wanzer, Powell, Orphx, Djrum, E-Saggila, Inga Copeland, and more.
Lain fallow in 2018 by dissipations of vitality, Surface Tension's co-founders focused on other musical projects, including the record label Left Hand Path and the club nights TVOD, Vague Terrain, and stratus.
Seven years later, in collaboration with Recombinant Festival 2025, Surface Tension returns, reimagined by Nihar, Jason P., and DJ CZ. Sporadic events will soon follow. There will be no resting in the meantime.
HESAITIX
Cyberpunk visions of forgotten worlds. Unbodied timbres meet trip-hop dreams. Through a glass darkly, mystery becomes reality.
Hesaitix is the new moniker of London-based producer James Whipple, formerly known as M.E.S.H. In late 2024, after a period of recuperation, Whipple retired the M.E.S.H. alias and released Noctian Airgap, his first album as Hesaitix, on Berlin label PAN.
In 2025, Whipple began reworking and reconfiguring Noctian Airgap into a dynamic live set. Surface Tension will host the first Hesaitix performance in San Francisco.
LARA SARKISSIAN with Mher Mnatsakanyan (Clarinet, Duduk)
Born and raised in San Francisco and currently based in Los Angeles, Lara Sarkissian is an electronic musician, sound artist and founder of record label btwn Earth+Sky. She is a broadcaster on NTS Radio; a home for her narrative-style programs showcasing dance/electronic from around the globe, Armenian archival deep dives, and music from the underground that is reflective of her collaborations. Sarkissian formerly ran experimental electronic dance platform CLUB CHAI, and has also released with labels Tresor, Knekelhuis, Rocky Hill Records and All Centre. She has performed for venues and platforms Tresor, Public Records, Hyperdub, Unsound Festival, MoMA PS1, and Roskilde Festival.
Sarkissian has developed her unique approach to electronic composition over years of relentless experimentation across various disciplines — producing AV installations and scoring film and video projects that have been exhibited at La Biennale di Venezia, Centre Pompidou, Montréal's Musée d'art contemporain, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Music Center Los Angeles and Berlin's Gropius Bau alongside residents Brian Eno, Holly Herndon, and more. In recent years, Sarkissian has been able to advance the theory behind her art, publishing conversations with ethnomusicologists and unveiling her methodology in guest lectures at UCLA's Herb Alpert School of Music.
NIHAR
Cold electronics and deep zone missives from San Francisco-based artist and Surface Tension co-founder Nihar Bhatt. Dubby, dark, and drifting post-technoid music from a dancefloor veteran.
Nihar held court as a Surface Tension resident DJ since its founding in 2013. This December 5, he will perform a live set of his own compositions for the first time at a Surface Tension event.
JASON P.
DJ CZ
Two Surface Tension co-founders and resident DJs return to the fore—older, though not necessarily wiser—with vastly improved record collections. Left-field club tracks plus experimental music you can dance to. Move your body, empty your mind, the rest will follow.