9 Experimental Electronic Music Acts To Catch at Kochi’s Kappa Cultr Festival 2026

Kerala’s largest electronic music festival, Kappa Cultr, is taking over Kochi’s Bolgatty Palace from Feb. 20 to 22, 2026. Framed as an experimental electronic music and cultural gathering, the festival, now in its third edition, brings together over 20 artists who tend to treat the stage as a testing lab, including dance music mainstays, emerging producers, and international disruptors. And while this year, the festival is aiming to widen its culture-forward focus through interactive art takeovers, curated food offerings, immersive gaming arenas, and experiential zones with activities like slacklining and unicycling, the festival’s strongest offering remains its music programming. 

From modular synth reverbs to jazz-infused improvisations, left-field productions and growling techno snares, the historic palace grounds will bear witness to some of the most radical and relentless sounds on the circuit. Here are 9 acts we’re most looking forward to catching at Kappa Cultr 2026. 

Racing Nokia

Marseille-based DJ/producer Racing Nokia builds his sets around a sense of controlled chaos, where percussive force crash-lands into fluid synths. His palette pulls from trance propulsion, booty-techno punch and flashes of Latin swing, locking into high-velocity grooves punctuated by rolling basslines and glitchy sirens. Backed by selectors like SPFDJ and Salome, and as co-founder of the Marseille imprint Minuit Rapide, expect a set wired for speed and sweat. 

Solee

Across eight albums and millions of streams, Solee has forged a strain of melodic house and techno that feels engineered for memory. Since emerging under the Solee alias in the mid-2000s, the German producer/DJ’s catalogue has been defined by crackling synths and an atmospheric production style. His 2024 full-length album Goldglut stretches that instinct across a sweeping, club-ready arc, threading trance-leaning melodies through techno frameworks. He is also the founder of Future Romance, a dedicated platform for the melodic techno vision he continues to champion. In the booth, that sensibility translates into sets that favor slow burns over quick drops.

Bart Skils

Bart Skils has become a cornerstone of contemporary techno, known for sets that move with an unshakable momentum. A core figure on Adam Beyer’s Drumcode Records, he’s responsible for some of the genre’s most definitive anthems, from the seismic club fixture Your Mind to peak‑time staples like Roll the Dice and Universal Nation that have reverberated from Amsterdam to Ibiza and beyond. Meanwhile, his reworks of Underworld, Moby and Sven Väth tracks have managed to recast them for peak‑hour impact without losing their melodic heart. Skils’ influence stretches beyond the booth: his Voltt party series in Amsterdam has become a proving ground for boundary‑pushing techno, and his festival sets across Europe, South America and Asia consistently pull visceral responses from crowds. Whether he’s teasing a new synth line or bringing a floor to a boil, Skill’s performances and productions reflect a relentless pursuit for impact.

Tasnneem

Tasnneem approaches techno with a left-field brain, leaning into fractured drum programming, acidic undercurrents, and misted-out atmospheres. Across more than a decade behind the decks and in the studio, she has developed a sonic vocabulary that toggles between abrasion and warmth, building tension through texture rather than sheer volume. Her releases on Qilla Records, Wind Horse and Observant mirror that, favoring unconventional arrangements and tonal shifts that keep listeners slightly off balance. On stage, from DGTL to Echoes of Earth, Cymbal and Far Out Left, she draws crowds into a slow-burning spiral, where subtle rhythmic pivots and low-end pressure do the heavy lifting.

Unnayanaa

Bangalore-based producer and selector approaches Afro-diasporic rhythms, breakbeat shuffles and deep house flows with the Carnatic sensibilities that shaped his early listening. His sets feel percussive yet meditative, whether he’s steering a vinyl-only takeover with close collaborator Hamza Rahimtulla (who also happens to be on the lineup playing a B2B set) or stretching into a live AV format that blurs ritual and rave. Known for setting off a collision course where South Asian tonalities meet global momentum, he launched his label Alternate Art Forms in 2025, opening the chapter with the Osmosis Prelude EP ahead of his full-length Osmosis — a project that layers Carnatic and Hindustani vocals over Afro-electronic percussion and electronic abstractions. 

Ezequiel Arias

Hailing from Córdoba, Argentina, Ezequiel Arias has carved out a melodic and progressive sound that leans into patience over tension. With basslines that throb beneath luminous synth lines, and arrangements that unfold with a sense of deliberation, his tracks stretch across long passages and restrained drops that land with weight rather than flash. His work with labels like Anjunadeep, Bedrock Records and Sudbeat Music has helped him claim his spot in the growing vanguard of melodic innovators. Beyond the booth, Arias co-steers Melorama Música and curates the Limbo mix series, extending his fascination for mood-driven progressions into every corner of his output.

Obscuit

One of the most compelling voices to come out of the city’s underground music scene, Kochi-based DJ Obscuit first cut his teeth in Kerala’s psytrance scene in the late 2000s, a formative wave that shaped the city’s early rave culture. Over time, his curiosity drew him deeper into techno and leftfield territory while still carrying that psychedelic undercurrent, allowing him to bend genres without ever losing a sense of momentum. Defined by unexpected rhythms, off‑kilter textures and hypnotic peaks, he’s snagged a reputation for selections that feel deliberate and distinctly his own. 

Elias Mazian

Elias Mazian’s sets feel like improvisation in motion, with house grooves folded into jungle breaks, techno pulses, and shimmering pop fragments. A former resident at Trouw and De School, he’s built a reputation for shifting gears with precision, making him a mainstay in Amsterdam’s underground club culture. Off the decks, Mazian produces dance music and synth-pop, including his acclaimed album Alleen Bij Mij released via the label De Vlieger. He is also the long-running frontrunner of the Private Hearts radio show, a space for reflective sounds that remain untethered to genre.

Baawra

As a co-founder of the conceptual collective Maushi, Baawra is not just shaping sound but sculpting space for India’s underground, including a specially curated stage at Kappa Cultr, pairing emerging selectors with his own set. Over the past five years, the Bangalore-based producer has honed a sound that swings between stillness and sudden surges restraint, layering deep, emotive grooves with jolts of kinetic energy. His sets shift organically across moods and textures, letting each rhythm be guided by instinct rather than formulas.