Getting into the Core
I woke early on day two, alone in my tent. Around me, the camp lay hushed, exhausted bodies still tangled in the night’s aftermath. The bamboo maze stood empty but open, inviting me to wander. I slipped between the towering stalks; the bamboo whispered as the wind tore through, bending corridors so close I could almost touch the leaves brushing my head. The sky peeled from the sun to thick clouds, raindrops falling lightly, chilling the air. The maze felt alive, shifting, pressing, as if something unseen followed my steps. Instead of retreating, I leaned into the unease, letting the maze unravel beneath my feet, until the faint hum of synthesizers and distant melodies called me onward to the main stage, where the day’s sonic journey awaited.
Mu tate opened the festival at 11:00, his dubbed-out ambient textures shimmering like a dream’s fading light along with NEXCYIA who deepened the mood, exploring otherness and memory with spectral intimacy. Forma Norte and ángela brought warmth through string-led improvisation, human breath softening the experimental edges. Afternoon brought a wild card from the 3XL realm; Special Guest DJ stretched ambient beyond its borders, weaving dubstep, bass, and breaks into kaleidoscopic motion with queer cowboy flair. EVEN’s hypnotic union of harpist Sissi Rada and dub experimentalist Jay Glass Dubs married classical virtuosity to sub-heavy dreamstates. Nazar’s fierce Rough Kuduro rhythms collided with the haunted folk-goth incantations of Tristwch Y Fenywod, whose Welsh-language chants summoned queer mysticism and post-conflict grief. Night edged in with MOBBS and Susu Laroche casting hexed trip hop and shoegaze shadows at the Bamboo 1 Stage. Klein fractured identity into whispered lullabies, a sonic fiction that haunted digital ruins. The night sharpened with AKA HEX, the relentless alliance of Aïsha Devi and Slikback, who blasted avant-club intensity into the dark. At 1:00 am, CEM claimed the Gate Stage with queered precision chaos, while Hesaitix’s return on the Bamboo Maze conjured haunting spatial logic that unsettled and embraced. Dawn broke with Torus closing, folding club politics into trance fragments, ending not with radiant fracture.

Apex Rituality
The final day retreated fully into the Bamboo Maze, its enclosed paths conjuring intimacy and electricity from dawn to dusk. Neo Gibson, as 7038634357, began with melodic precision and emotive pulses that rippled through the crowd. Significant Other expanded the emotional terrain, layering tender and raw electronic textures into chaotic yet resonant soundscapes. Fine’s folk-electronic songs floated like hazy reveries, a fragile contrast to the prior acts’ complexity. Brian Leeds’s Loidis project immersed the audience in dub techno and microhouse nuances, evoking a deep sense of place. Devon Rexi’s quintet brought lively diasporic vocals and intricate rhythms, inviting passage into liminal realms. The duo Takkak Takkak (Shigeru Ishihara and J. Mo’ong Santoso Pribadi) wove joyful, unpredictable sound worlds that bent boundaries with gleeful challenge. Milanese pair Hagva, CP1 and Not Mass, shattered musical forms with ruptured precision and low-end resonance, pulling listeners into chaotic transcendence. Luca Mucci’s Piezo spun hi-def synthetic textures through psychedelic frames, dancing with off-kilter rhythms and shimmering multiplicity; his performance took place along with Upsammy, whose sounds blurred the edge between reality and dream, leaving the audience suspended in sonic exploration.