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Slowfoam, aka Madelyn Byrd, is a Berlin-based DJ, sound artist, and educator. Traversing beyond genre, they weave the sonic peripheries of left field ambient & experimental sound from drones, electromagnetics, eco & electroacoustics, spoken word, glitch, and off-kilter percussion. Their practice interplays the personal, political, and mythical to explore home and grief across somatic and planetary scales, while transducing hope, possibilia, and the magic of the in-between. Slowfoam’s live & DJ sets are crafted for deep listening, performance, and club environments, inviting artists into reflection zones for multifaceted moods, queered resonances, connection and catharsis,
in March 2024, Slowfoam released their acclaimed debut LP, Transcorporeal Portal, with Somewhere Press -- featured as one of Bandcamp’s Best Ambient Albums of 2024. They have also released music with Mappa, Lillerne, Knekelhuis, and Archaic Vaults, amongst others. Over the past decade, they have performed and toured across Europe, Japan, and North America. They recieved one of Musicboard Berlin’s scholarships in 2025 to produce their album, Rig, forthcoming in 2026. In 2025, Slowfoam won the raster open call: European Soundtrack prize in the ‘Elegiac’ category.
Slowfoam is currently 1/3 of the spoken word project, Songs for the Crossing, alongside Pablo Diserens and Lou Croff Blake, and 1/4 of the experimental quartet FEU FOU, alongside Diane Barbé, Mondlane and LOH. In response to a lack of diversity across ambient-adjacent music scenes, Slowfoam & slyn dreamed up and co-founded Gravity Pleasure in 2025 as a label & platform for diverse, FLINTA+ and more-than-human voices. For their project CHIMERA, alongside frequent collaborator Lou Croff Blake, Madelyn is currently a resident of School of Commons, hosted by Zürich University of the Arts.
Madelyn/Slowfoam is also an educator, project consultant, and creative mentor working with artists who want to expand & queer their practice, build creative resilience, and cultivate meaningful work amidst friction-filled times.