Masaka Masaka & gugol maps (Co-Creation-Residenz Kampala / Berlin)
As part of the »Kampala / Berlin co-creation residency«, one Berlin-based musician and one musician from Kampala collaborate on a new work. The collaboration takes place during the international artist’s residency in Berlin. The results will be presented live for the first time at the Pop-Kultur Festival, the festival of Musicboard Berlin. The co-creation residency is a collaboration between Musicboard Berlin, ZK/U – Center for Art and Urbanistics, and Nyege Nyege, fostering artistic exchange and transcultural collaboration across two continents.
Between fragmented beats and densely layered soundscapes, Masaka Masaka creates music that is constantly shifting, dissolving, and reassembling itself.
The Ugandan producer, DJ, and artist’s work is characterised by highly compressed, at times distorted sound design, where percussive elements, jazz influences, and manipulated vocal samples intertwine. More recent productions have also drawn increasingly on techno and deconstructed club aesthetics.
At the centre are powerful, pulsating beats that are repeatedly fractured, displaced, and unexpectedly accented. The rhythms can feel irregular, yet always remain recognisable as a driving force. Industrial textures collide with moments of surprising warmth and near-dreamlike beauty. It is precisely this tension between hardness and fragility that defines the impact of his music.
Within these complex rhythmic constructions, moments of almost immediate beauty continually emerge before the music slips back into more abstract or challenging territory. The beat remains the central element throughout, yet consistently breaks with familiar patterns of predictability.
Masaka Masaka regularly performs at international festivals and clubs across Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, including festivals such as Norient, KREMA (Bern), Hyperreality (Vienna), Nyege Nyege (Jinja), and La Mazette (Paris), as well as events in Kampala and Nairobi.
Moving between club music, ambient, and bass-driven grooves, the Colombian producer, DJ, and performer gugol maps has developed a sonic language that connects personal and collective memories.
Rooted in Latin American rhythmic traditions, her work explores different areas of electronic music – from atmospheric soundscapes and dub influences to broken beats and weighty bass structures. Syncopated rhythms meet expansive synthesiser textures, reverberant vocals, and layered sonic details, giving her productions both momentum and openness.
At the heart of her artistic practice lies the question of how diasporic identities and experiences of conflict can shape the political and thematic dimensions of electronic music. Sound becomes a medium of memory, connecting individual stories with collective experiences.
Her music often exists in the space between intimacy and the dancefloor. Grooves carry a strong physical presence, while atmospheric layers and floating vocals create environments that feel both expansive and deeply personal. The result is a sound that blends club contexts with contemplative listening, understanding culture as a space for collective processing and healing.
