Noise Pop Festival 2026 Presents ESPRIT 空想 (George Clanton) Chroma Sea Manik Khan — ESPRIT began in 2012 as an anonymous outlet for George Clanton to explore sample-based music. Quickly embraced by the emerging internet genre known as vaporwave, ESPRIT’s early EPs—Girls Only (2012) and Summer Night (2013)—have since become foundational works, regarded as essential listening among genre devotees. In 2014, at a time when vaporwave was still largely defined by its use of found audio and manipulated samples, ESPRIT released the debut full-length virtua.zip, composed entirely of original material. This stylistic pivot also marked the public reveal of the project’s creator: George Clanton. — Chroma Sea is an audiovisual project based in San Francisco, California created by Paul Ouellette and Michael Valenzuela. The duo's sound has been described by White Crate as “an aqueous ambient techno adventure" which spans a range of genres from Vaporwave and Trip Hop to Shoegaze and Drum and Bass. Together with an ever-growing list of local visual artists, they create immersive and hypnotic visual worlds to be paired with their live performances. In 2023, they released their debut album Portals with Ryan Celsius Sounds on VHS/Cassette and have another on the way for 2026. — Manik Khan has been steeped in the ancient melodies of North Indian classical music since birth. The youngest son of the legendary Sarod maestro, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, he grew up listening to his father in countless concerts and attending his classes at the esteemed Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, CA. He initially studied Tabla under the guidance of Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri, but the greater call to follow in the footsteps of his family brought Manik, at the age of 13, to formally train on the Sarod with his father. He spent his formative years accompanying his father on stage, touring for the last decade of his father's extensive and iconic performance career. Manik's own solo career has brought him throughout India, South America, and the U.S.