Giolì & Assia: On Their Own Terms

Between hybrid club sets, fully live performances and the visual world they have built around Diesis, Giolì & Assia have spent years developing a project that can exist in several environments without reducing itself to one format. In 2026, their attention is turning towards a new album, new locations and the next chapter of a creative partnership built around independence, instinct and two people sharing the same stage.

For Giolì & Assia, the distinction between the club and the live stage has never disappeared. Their project moves between both, but each setting asks something different of them. Club shows allow their own music to sit within a wider selection, adapting to the venue while retaining the instruments and vocals that define their presence onstage. Their live performances operate according to another principle entirely.

“ We love to play between both sides, but the difference is that the shows we do in clubs are hybrid, you can find the live elements like piano, drums and singing but there will be just a few tracks of us and the rest is a selection of tracks we love to play, adapting depending on the venue we play in. The live is a totally different story; it’s 100% our music and a full live instruments experience. This gives us the chance to always give the crowd, and especially our core fans, a unique experience!”

That ability to move between formats also gives them a certain distance from another pressure surrounding electronic music in 2026: the expectation of constant visibility. Music, touring and social media increasingly occupy the same cycle, with artists expected to maintain a continuous stream of releases and content. Giolì & Assia have never built their visual identity by following that pace. With a new album currently in development, they are choosing to give the project the time its wider concept requires.

“Not really, since we are mainly a live act duo, for both live stage and clubs, we don’t feel the pressure to keep releasing music or social media content every other week to keep up with the demand. We don’t like to follow trends; this is why we are actually working on our new album since our last release last year. We are thinking about the whole concept behind it and the story we wanna tell. It needs to be done properly, and it takes time! But for sure yes, we love to keep feeding our community with content, so we can’t wait to come back soon with new amazing material.”

The relationship between music, performance and image has long extended beyond the conventional stage. Volcanoes, islands, rooftops and remote landscapes have become recurring settings within Giolì & Assia’s visual world, particularly through Diesis. After exploring locations that have become closely associated with the project, their attention is now moving towards what those environments could become around the next album.

“We have played in all these amazing places, but we haven’t played all our cards yet! We have crazy ideas for the new album, and the question is correct: yes, there are still places that will change the way we will perform and the story we will tell! So stay tuned!”

The way those performances reach an audience has changed alongside the wider culture around them. Dance music now circulates through feeds built around speed, short-form video and immediate recognition, while Giolì & Assia have continued to work with extended performances and longer musical development.

“This is why our challenge is always to find a way to connect with people’s hearts with storytelling instead of catching people’s attention with crazy clickbait ideas. For example, in our last 3 Diesis Live, we produced 40 mins of unreleased music for each one of them. So people don’t know what is next and will be more interested to listen to the whole video, because they will find all new music.”

That openness to longer forms is also present in the music itself. Across their work, electronic production meets live instrumentation, vocals, and influences that do not always belong to the same musical category. Rather than narrowing those elements into a single scene or genre, Giolì & Assia see the freedom to combine them as fundamental to the way they create.

“We think it’s liberating. It’s only by mixing music genres, instruments, different roots and sounds that we feel we can create and deliver original ideas, instead of always sticking to a genre that has to follow exact rules.”

Maintaining that freedom also means taking responsibility for the decisions surrounding the project. Giolì & Assia operate not only as musicians and performers, but as producers and creative directors, roles that place artistic decisions and the wider identity of the project within the same conversation. Years of working this way have left them with a clear principle when it comes to protecting that independence.

“Never let anyone decide on your behalf or condition your ideas and decisions. Always trust your gut, intuition and your creativity.”

At the centre of those decisions remains a partnership that has developed over years of performing side by side. Repetition has created its own musical shorthand between them, particularly onstage, where instruments, selections and transitions require both artists to read what the other is doing in real time. Familiarity, however, has not removed the possibility of catching each other off guard.

“We have developed our own language and chemistry that is incomparable on stage. It’s like being one person with four hands. However we also keep surprising each other, maybe with some new track selection or cool transitions! We could never imagine performing on a stage alone, it’s meant to be shared!”

For somebody encountering Giolì & Assia for the first time in 2026, there are many possible points of entry into that world. Their choice, however, brings the story back to Sicily. Their performance at the Politeama Theater in Palermo arrived at the end of the Resurrection album tour, years after they had begun sharing performances filmed across their home island. The landscape was still familiar, but this time they were no longer performing without an audience.

“Probably our live from the Politeama Theater in Palermo. It’s a venue that we loved, not just because of the historical and architectural features, but also because it’s in our hometown. We started our journey sharing videos made in Sicily in beautiful locations but with no crowd, while the Politeama performance was the last show of our Resurrection album tour, finally with a crowd: a very special one, made of fans, family and friends. It was our way to say thank you to our land, and celebrate together our achievements.”