ZIGGLEWUMP

Polish producer Zaumne starts things off in Room 1 on Friday with his vaporous blend of dub techno, environmental recording and haunted vocals, before Glasgow artist Lanark Artefax, best known for his run of IDM-adjacent releases on UIQ and AD 93, debuts an entirely new A/V show for which he has created visuals and music. Shanghai’s 33EMYBW will also come together with British multimedia artist Joey Holder to premiere a new Unsound-commissioned hybrid performance, and London-based Polish DJ and producer VTSS will return to Unsound for a first-ever b2b session with the UK’s beloved Sherelle. Mad scientist ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U, hailing from Japan, will bring his distinctive, cross-genre style to Kraków with a genre-dissolving DJ set, and Warsaw-based DJ androgienia will test the limits of hard dance, piercing queer, euphoric sounds with experimental humour. Tonight’s in(ter)vention sees Ukraine’s Heinali present Synthtap, with Kraków tap dancer Beata Kędzia-Sowa.

Over in Room 2, Unsound has scoured the globe for some of the most exceptional fringe dancefloor sounds imaginable. Opening is Poland’s Piernikowski – one half of now defunct Syny – making a long-awaited return with the premiere of Beyond the Echo of Time. Presented with Nyege Nyege, Brazil’s DJ K will bring his furious ‘bruxaria’ variant of Brazilian funk from Saõ Paulo to Kraków, and Nigeria’s DJ Tobzy will introduce us to cruise beat, a fast-paced new genre that’s driven by TikTok dance videos, glueing together ideas from Afrobeats, amapiano and Brazilian funk. Aunty Rayzor is one of Nigeria’s most vibrant emerging artists, a rapper and singer who juggles phrases in Yoruba and English over furious, genre-shifted beats. Nikki Nair, the Atlanta-born DJ and beatmaker who won DJ Mag’s breakthrough producer of the year in 2022, will show the dancefloor his digger’s blend of soundsystem-ready bass and mischievous rhythms. Make sure you save some energy for Rama: Based in Berlin but hailing from Cairo, the savvy DJ peppers rap energy into freeform bass workouts that pull ideas from footwork, grime, jungle and beyond.