Xavier Velastín (born Xavier Adair Andres Velastín Vicencio, 17 March 1992), known professionally as XVelastín, is a British-Chilean sound artist, sound designer, experimental composer and creative technologist. He also considers himself an "accidental poet". He is noted for using water as an instrument in his live performances alongside the use of technology such as MaxMSP and hacked game controllers to create iterative sound worlds.
Early life and education
Velastín was born at the Royal London Hospital.
Velastín first came across experimental absurdist theatre as a pupil of Tiffin School in Kingston-upon-Thames, performing in a student production of Ubu Roi.[1]
He studied Music at University of Manchester[2], then went on to study Sonic Arts at Goldsmiths University[3] where he first began work on his seminal performance piece Me & My Whale in 2016.[4]
Career
Velastín is particularly well-known for his work regarding whales and whalesong. He has created two full-length performances pieces based on this theme.
Me & My Whale, first created as an experimental sound play at Goldsmiths, was further developed along with theatre-maker Hannah Mook to become a two-hander theatre piece which toured in 2018-2019.[5][6]
[whalesong] is a solo experimental music performance, created as a further exploration of this whale-based work. [whalesong] premiered at The Monkey House as part of the Camden Fringe in 2018 where it was highlighted by The Standard as one of the "best shows to see [at the festival]"[7] and has since had various iterations, most recently a full run as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2025.[8]
With a strong onus on improvisation, XVelastín is also a regular on the London experimental poetry scene. He often performs on bills alongside London-based interdisciplinary text artist and deliberate poet Iris Colomb.
In 2022, Velastín, Colomb, and filmmaker/video-artist Virág Pazmány co-curated a global, mycelium-like network of artists called Organism Collective, facilitating collaboration between artists of different disciplines.[9] Although technically still ongoing, this project culminated in 2024 with a net-art project called Symbiosis.[10]
Alongside his work as an artist, Velastín works in the video games industry as a Sound Designer and Technical Sound Designer.[11] He is also involved in LGBTQ+ game industry professionals' organisation Out Making Games.[12]
Personal Life
Velastín is openly pansexual.
He is in a relationship with lighting technician ariane.
His best friend is musician Fred M-G.
See Also
Dream Band