Nkisi (uk)

Nkisi produces intense, powerful club tracks equally influenced by African polyrhythms, hardcore techno, and '70s Italian horror films. The London-based musician and visual artist is one of the co-founders of NON Worldwide, a collective of experimental artists from across the African diaspora. 

After releasing several digital and vinyl EPs throughout the 2010s, Nkisi's full-length debut, 7 Directions, appeared in 2019. In 2020, Nkisi's new label INITIATION emerges with INT001, a 3 track EP melting rhythmic noise strategies with secret drum languages from Ancient Kongo traditions. As a fierce DJ, Nkisi channels 160+ bpm kick drums, metallic hectic percussions and hypnotizes the dance floor into a ritualistic transcendental space.

Melika Ngombe Kolongo was born in Congo, raised in Belgium, and began using the moniker Nkisi after moving to London in 2012. Gravitating toward the more aggressive side of dance music, yet maintaining a heavy emotional factor as well as a sense of dreaminess, she began producing music in addition to being resident at a club night called Endless. 

Her first vinyl release, Kill EP, was released by MW in 2017. During the year, she also curated the annual festival held by Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridge, which was titled Opaque Poetics. Nkisi's EP The Dark Orchestra was released by Warp's long-dormant Arcola imprint after it was revived in early 2018. Her debut fulllength, 7 Directions, was issued by Lee Gamble's UIQ label in 2019. The album was inspired by the African cosmology of the Bantu-Kongo, particularly the writings of Kongo scholar Dr. Kimbwandende Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau.

Summer Satana (be)

FR - Mi-succube, mi-goule, Summer Satana est une artiste, performeuse et productrice. Elle compose des live machines percussifs et frénétiques où elle manipule essentiellement des boîtes à rythmes couplées à des voix mutantes. Sur fond de beats saturés, de kicks énervés et de samples infernaux elle nous raconte des récits dystopiques affutés par des statements aboyés. Avec ses cris et chants hantés Summer Satana invoque une énergie enragée, X-trem et chaotique, réveillant les forces visibles, et invisible, d’une meute de chiennes déchainées.

EN - Half succubus, half ghoul, Summer Satana is an artist, performer and producer. She composes percussives and frenetics lives machines with principally the use of drums machines paired with mutant voices. Saturated beats, angry kicks and infernal samples as backdrop, she tells us dystopian stories sharped by barked statements. With her haunted screams and singing Summer Satana invokes an X-trem, furious and chaotic energy which wakes-up the visible, and unvisible, force of a unchainned dogess-pack.