Losing You
A speculative short / music video weaving longing, machine memory and African futurism into a single cinematic gesture. An example of the music-video and narrative work Future Kwaai delivers for artists and labels.
Est. 2020 · Johannesburg · The World
AI and Immersive storytelling, an audio-visual experience and more...
Music videos. Sound.
AI & immersive storytelling.
Future Kwaai is a collaborative studio for artists, brands and labels — music videos, lyric videos, sound production, YouTube tutorials, AI creative direction and speculative worlds. Rooted in queer African identity, broadcasting to the world.
▶ Watch the Future Kwaai Showreel
MUSIC VIDEOS
Direction & post
SOUND
Production · mix · master
AI
Creative direction
TUTORIALS
YouTube · workshops
Desert · Mirror · Neon City — speculative worlds
Ars Electronica
La Becque
Goethe Institut
Pro Helvetia
OneBeat
Wits AI & African Music
Boiler Room
Afropunk
Fak'ugesi
Norient
Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung
Vitra Design Museum
Ars Electronica
La Becque
Goethe Institut
Pro Helvetia
OneBeat
Wits AI & African Music
Boiler Room
Afropunk
Fak'ugesi
Norient
Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung
Vitra Design Museum
001 · About
A studio for music videos, sound production, AI creative direction and speculative worlds — built with artists, labels, brands and institutions.
Founded in 2020 by Umlilo Siya Ngcobo, Future Kwaai began as a label amplifying queer and gender non-conforming African artists. It has since grown into a worldbuilding studio collaborating on music videos, lyric videos, sound design, original scores, AI-native campaigns and long-form YouTube content.
We work with independent artists, majors, festivals, broadcasters and AI companies — pairing cinematic craft with cultural intelligence and an unmistakable African future-culture aesthetic.
002 · Ecosystem
Three orbits. One constellation.
An interconnected practice — the artist, the studio, the platform. Together they map a speculative African future you can listen to, walk into, and build with.
003 · Featured Projects
A catalogue of future artefacts.
Music videos, audiovisual albums, AI research and long-form video — each one a small rehearsal for a continent imagining itself out loud.
A · Music Videos
Music Videos
Cinematic, narrative-driven music videos for artists and labels.
Music Video — Featured
B · Audiovisual Projects
Audiovisual Projects
Cynthesia
Developed during the principal residency at La Becque, Switzerland, Cynthesia is a long-form audiovisual work investigating digital twins, emotional technology, and interdimensional storytelling through a unique African / Queer experience. The project treats the album as a speculative environment — a sensory archive of human–machine collaboration.
Cynthesia — Full Audiovisual Album
Zazi AI
ZAZI is a speculative AI framework — a "musical digital twin" enabling real-time voice, rhythm and storytelling interaction, trained against African vocal and musical traditions. Conceptualised by Umlilo with AI engineer Gideon Gyimah (Ghana), ZAZI was selected as one of five winning projects of the inaugural Wits University AI & African Music (AIAM) Project, with the prototype unveiled at the Chris Seabrooke Music Hall, Wits, on 16 April 2026.
C · Fashion Campaigns
Fashion Campaigns
Top fashion brands and companies are using AI fashion campaigns to forecast demand, reduce overproduction, and align inventory with real-time shopper behaviour.
Campaigns significantly reduce production costs and let you try new directions without a lot of risk — from editorial shoots to social-first storytelling.
Let's collaborate on your next social media branding campaign.
Start a campaignD · Future Kwaai Academy
Future Kwaai Academy — learn Tools on YouTube
- Future Kwaai: tutorials, studio docs, AI tool demonstrations.
- Umlilo Kwaai Diva: music videos, performances, and the artist's solo catalogue.
YouTube Channels
Two channels documenting the studio's universe — Future Kwaai for tutorials, sessions and behind-the-scenes; Umlilo Kwaai Diva for music videos, performances and the artist's solo catalogue. Plus our rolling Learn With Future Kwaai playlist below.
Learn With Future Kwaai — Tutorial Playlist
Learn With Future Kwaai — Featured Tutorial
Future Kwaai Academy · Newsletter
Want to join our newsletter and get toolkits we try?
Join the list. Occasional dispatches with the tools, prompts and workflows we're actually using in the studio.
003½ · AI Stack
The AI brands we build with.
An evolving toolkit of frontier models for music, video, voice and visual systems — composed into a single creative pipeline. Some links are affiliate links. We only feature tools we actually build with.
Reasoning & writingClaude
Ideation & scriptsChatGPT
Cinematic motionHiggsfield
Upscale & relightMagnific
Music generation· affiliateSuno AIVocal & song designUdio AI
Voice models· affiliateKits AIPerformance videoSeedance
Long-form video· affiliateKlingEdit & VFXRunway
Stills & moodboardsMidjourney
Voice & dubbing· affiliateElevenLabs…and so much more — the stack updates with every project.
Inside the studio · sound, vision & ritual
004 · Services & Collaborations
Hire us as studio, lab and creative partner.
For artists, labels, brands, festivals, broadcasters, AI companies and cultural institutions — single videos to multi-year residencies.
Available for single projects, ongoing retainers, and multi-year residencies.
Start a conversation01
Music Videos
For artists & labels
Concept, direction, production and post for artists and labels.
02
Lyric Videos
For artists & labels
Typography-driven motion pieces with bespoke African future-culture aesthetics.
03
Sound Production
For artists, labels & brands
Original scores, beats, vocal production, mix & master from Future Kwaai Records.
04
YouTube Tutorials
For creators & platforms
Long-form tutorials, behind-the-scenes and educational series.
05
AI Creative Direction
For brands & AI companies
Concept, prompt-architecture and aesthetic systems for AI-native work.
06
Branded AI Campaigns
For brands & platforms
Cinematic, culturally rooted AI campaigns for partners and platforms.
07
Workshops & Pedagogy
For institutions & festivals
Labs and curricula for artists, institutions and youth programs.
08
Live Performance
For festivals & biennials
Concerts, cyborg-operas and stagings for festivals and biennials.
09
Immersive Installation
For museums & cultural venues
Projection, sound and spatial works for museums and cultural venues.
10
Consulting
For AI companies & institutions
Cultural and ethical guidance for AI products engaging African contexts.
11
Speculative Storytelling
For film, games & brand
Worldbuilding, scripts and narrative IP for film, games and brand.
12
A&R / Label Services
For independent artists
Artist development and releases through Future Kwaai Records.
Have a release, a brand campaign or an album rollout in mind?
Start a collab005 · Studio Presence
Studio Presence
Future Kwaai has exhibited, performed, and collaborated across Africa, Europe, and the Americas — from Ars Electronica to Afropunk, La Becque to Boiler Room.
006 · Follow the studio
Follow the studio
Day-to-day stills, sessions, and broadcasts from the Future Kwaai universe.
007 · Residencies & Workshops
International presence, continuous practice.
A selected map of institutions, festivals and publications the studio has collaborated with, exhibited at, or performed for.
Organisations I've worked with
Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria)Goethe Institute (Germany)Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (Germany)GALA (RSA)Fak'ugesi (RSA)OneBeat (USA)Pro Helvetia (Switzerland)Live Art Festival (RSA)Afropunk (RSA)Outburst Festival (Ireland)Boiler Room TV (UK)Explode (Brazil)Sound American Journal (USA)Norient (Switzerland)
International Presence
- Vitra Design Museum — Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design↗Touring · Europe
- Kunstgewerbemuseum — Berlin Museum of Decorative Arts↗Berlin · Germany
- Kunst Museum Villa Straeuli↗Winterthur · Switzerland
- Goethe-Institut — Archive of Forgetfulness↗South Africa + coffee table book
- Explode! Exhibition↗São Paulo · Brazil
- Norient Seismographic Sounds Film Festival + Book↗Switzerland
- Finsterbusch Collective — Clickbait↗Geneva · Switzerland
- Sound American Journal — Mapping Issue 28↗USA · Publication
- Infecting the City Arts Festival↗Cape Town · South Africa
- OneBeat Virtual 1–5 — Online Exhibition & Performance↗Virtual · USA · 2020–2024
Ancestral tech · the future is already speaking
008 · Manifesto
The future is not elsewhere. It is already speaking, in our languages, in our bodies, in our archives.
We build with AI, but the soul is older than the algorithm. We make music, but the rhythm is older than the machine. We tell stories, but the myth was here first.
Future Kwaai exists to centre African voices in the global imagination of what comes next — with consent, with craft, with care, and with the full unruly beauty of queer African life.
We are the ancestors of a future we are building tonight.
009 · Contact
Let's build something that hasn't existed yet.
Music videos, lyric videos, sound production, YouTube tutorials, AI campaigns or full worldbuilding — tell us what you're imagining and we'll meet you there.
futurekwaai@gmail.com