Ian Nnyanzi
(Uganda)
Ian Nnyanzi is a Ugandan multidisciplinary artist based in Kampala. Working across image-making, filmmaking, sound art, installation, and collaborative practices, his work investigates processes of meaning-making, with a focus on the intersections of culture and tradition within East African narratives.
Ian also works under the moniker Masaka Masaka, an outlet for his sound art and music production. 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.