Z@p

Long nights at Phonotheque

In the basement of Phonotheque, the cult club in Montevideo, Z@p refined a DJing style that crosses warm house, hypnotic techno, electro, and breakbeat. He has been in the Uruguayan scene for over twenty years: a resident of the house since its seasons in the capital—a spot he still occupies—and part of a circuit he shares with DJ Koolt, Nicolas Lutz, and Bruno Gervais. He does not lock himself into a single genre: he searches for the exact point where groove, tension, and a brief melody still make sense on the dancefloor.

Berlin, Cartulis, and the HÖR booth

Since 2015, he intensified his European tours and in 2018 he settled in Berlin. The following year, already on the continent, he became a resident of Cartulis Music, a platform with which he has opened nights at clubs like FOLD in London. Today he lives in Barcelona and maintains both residencies simultaneously: Phonotheque in South America and Cartulis in Europe. In November 2021, he played at the Boiler Room Festival in Barcelona; in February 2023, he recorded a set for HÖR in Berlin. In 2020, he released RA.755, an oscillating house session recorded in his Berlin studio with Technics MK2 turntables and an Allen & Heath Xone:92 mixer.

Electricity, Fizmo, and Thoughtforms

As a producer, he has released on Cartulis, Cabaret Recordings, My Own Jupiter, Time Passages, Melliflow, Phonotheque Recordings, Traffic, and Montevideo Electric Recordings. Recent milestones include the EP Tracid (Cartulis, 2018), Mayday (Cabaret, 2019), Brutalismo (My Own Jupiter, 2019), Vapors of Utopia (Melliflow, 2020), and the double album Electricity (My Own Jupiter, 2023). In 2024, Submarino arrived for MER and, under his own alias and label Thoughtforms, the EPs Red and Blue. In 2025, he returned to Cartulis with Fizmo. In the studio, he avoids fixed formulas: he is interested in the mix of melancholy and acid, and has pointed to Japan as a place that inspires him when he travels.

Anikana, Signal Kommt, and the present

In addition to his main name, he has released as Anikana—a more organic and experimental side project started in 2007—and as Signal Kommt and Thoughtforms. In 2006, he launched the project Zapmuten together with Matias Muten. He remains, above all, a club selector: whether warming up or playing a peak-time slot, the priority is that the crossover of styles remains unbroken and that the night moves forward with its own pulse.