A door that had stayed closed for almost 30 years. Beneath Olaias station, a room never opened to the public: concrete pillars branching like trees, trains passing behind the glass. Live Under Lisbon, on 10 October 2026, was our most ambitious show yet: more than eight hours of music for 2,000 people, our immersive 360° live show, and light, sound and scent made for the room.

mxgpu live under lisbon setlist

The venue

In March 2025 we launched MXGPU with two shows in the Oval Gallery at MAAT, Lisbon. It was the right room for a 360° show, and Lisbon answered: both shows sold out. After Live Over Lisbon and Live Over Porto, our homecoming had to happen somewhere with the same weight. Somewhere big enough for our immersive 360° live show and a bigger production. So we started looking.

We knew Metro de Lisboa had dozens of spaces where we’d seen live music and events, but we wanted something new. Something no one had seen. After a meeting with Metro de Lisboa’s president, Cristina Vaz Tomé, and her team, we set our sights on a space beneath Olaias station, designed by Tomás Taveira and opened in 1998, just in time for Expo 98.

On our first visit in February, we found a brutalist warehouse that could hold nearly 2,000 people. Windows onto the passing trains, its own access, huge stairways, and never opened to the public. We had found our place.

From that first visit, the plan was:

• An MXGPU live show in our immersive 360° format

• A club night we curated, with more than eight hours of music

• A set design built around the space

So we got to work.

The concept

We met with Pavel Zmunchila, who designed the set and visual direction for Live Over Porto, our floating show at Primavera Sound Porto.

Immersive sound

For immersive sound we chose L-Acoustics and its L-ISA system. Rafael Pereira designed two virtual rooms, each with six point sources and subwoofers, a hybrid system that we could use for immersive sound during our live show and in a typical stereo setup for the other performers. This solution created two nearly identical virtual spaces, each with an L2 system at the front, Kiva on the sides and Kara at the back. Audiomatrix supplied these units.

Audio was sent to FOH via MADI. We upgraded from our RME UCX II to the UFX III to support it. The switch was smooth, with one catch: sessions can’t be migrated between the two, so we built a new snapshot from scratch.

Audio signal path:
Ableton → RME → MADI → DiGiCo desk → System Controller

System latency stayed within 20–30 ms, including the distance to the PA.

We split our Ableton outputs into 11 discrete stereo outputs:

• 01-02: VOX GUI

• 03-04: VOX LUIS

• 05-06: BASS

• 07-08: DRUM

• 09-10: LEAD

• 11-12: TELEPATHY

• 13-14: MINIFREAK

• 15-16: STEREO BUS

• 17-18: FX RETURN REV

• 19-20: FX RETURN DLY

• 21-22: INTRO LOOP

Each pair fed its own L-ISA source. We placed the sources in the soundscape and built a list of snapshots that set their position, effects and other parameters song by song.

In the weeks prior to the event, we recreated the system in our studio with nearfield monitors and a ring of small speakers for a virtual soundcheck, and the results translated to the venue almost one to one.

Rafael ran the L-ISA session from his laptop on our control network, and our main Ableton session recalled his snapshots with program changes.

Installations

Credits

Line-up: MXGPU (live, DJ set and hybrid set), Isadora (live), Sainte Vie (live), Madd Rod (DJ set), Adriana Ruas (DJ set), DJ Vibe (DJ set)
Creative directors: Moullinex & GPU Panic (Luís Clara Gomes, Guilherme Tomé Ribeiro)
Produced by: Ao Sul do Mundo and Underloop, with Metro de Lisboa
Promoter and general coordination: Luís Viegas
Production director: Nadine Saize
Project manager: João Cardielos
Production: Liobhan Lignel, Miguel Ferreira
Technical director: Pedro Cluny
Set design and visual direction: Pavel Zmunchila
Lighting design: João Quintela, Isaac Veloso
VJ and pixel mapping: Eugene Ryazantsev
Immersive sound design and FOH: Rafael Pereira (L-Acoustics)
Light installation: Bordalo II
Olfactory installation: Joana Nobre, with diffusers by i-sensis
Sound, lighting and structures: Audiomatrix. Rigging: Costel Maruneac. Sound: Gonçalo Lopes, Marco Mendez, Thiago Aragão, José Viegas. Lighting: António Barroco Topê, Gonçalo Leão, Daniel Neagu. Structures: João Gil, Bola, Paulo J. Silva, Ruben Biscaia, Edson Azzi
L-ISA controller: Midwich
Electrical project: José Dias Ferrão (J. M. Nunes Dias), with Paulo Semedo and Ana Isabel
Security plan: Claudino Semedo
Graphic design: Diana Oliveira
Content director: Ana Viotti
Film: Pew Pew. Cameras: Pedro Gomes, Gui Sousa, Gonçalo Vaz. AV and rigging: Gonçalo Reis, Rafael Cavalleri. Editing: Zé Matias, Ricardo Lourenço. Production: Diogo Miranda
Photography: Ana Viotti, Margarida Bettencourt
Drone: David Gu (Hypercine)
PR: Think Out Loud (Rita Barradas, Ricardo Reis, Maria Albuquerque)
Collection: Joana Silvano, Diana Oliveira
Legal: André Miranda
Venue assistant: Mafalda Teixeira
Production runners: Samy Zeghmati, João Pires
Door: Isa Pólvora, Kalina Nikolova
Bars, food, security and medical: Flamingo Boémio and ZPOS, Jângal, Especial 1, Cruz Vermelha
Thank you: Cristina Vaz Tomé and the Metro de Lisboa team, fritz-kola, Super Bock, Mega Hits

Why we stopped sending PDFs

Every show used to have its own roadbook: a document with the schedule, travel, hotel, contacts and guestlist, exported to PDF and sent around. Every change meant a new PDF, and nobody was sure which one was current.

In November 2025 we started replacing those documents with a web app. It runs at tour.mxgpu.net. The code still calls it Roadbook, after the PDFs it replaced.

One page per show

Each show is one page. The schedule is kept in the venue's timezone, with a toggle to see it in ours, and grouped by day with D-1 and Show Day labels. The running order highlights the performance. Flights are tickets, with delay statistics per flight number. Hotels and meals sit under Hospitality. From the same page we can build a day sheet, export a PDF or sync the schedule to a calendar.

Sharing

The part we use most is sharing. A show can have several share links, and for each section of the page we choose whether the person holding the link can see it, edit it or not see it at all. Contacts can be filtered per link. Someone outside the band can edit the sections we open to them without seeing the rest, and each link can have its own chat, with one switch to turn chat off everywhere.

Guestlists

Guestlists arrive as text, pasted from messages, in every possible format. The parser splits lines, then commas, and pulls out plus-ones, emails and phone numbers from each entry:

A line that cannot be read is not dropped silently. It comes back as an error with its line number.

The web app is Next.js with a Postgres database. An iOS app that talks to the same backend is in progress. If you build something similar and want to compare notes, write to hello@mxgpu.net.

Stack

tour.mxgpu.net: Next.js 16, React 19, TypeScript, PostgreSQL (Neon) through Prisma, NextAuth, Tailwind CSS, Mapbox GL, Resend, jsPDF. iOS app in progress with Expo and React Native.

Photos and screenshots: MXGPU.

Other tools we built to run MXGPU: MXGPU Monitor, RME Splitter, clk, studio.mxgpu.net and setlist.mxgpu.net.

The brief from Primavera Sound Porto fit in one line: do a floating show again, this time over a live audience. On Saturday 13 June 2026, right after Massive Attack, we closed the main stage from a cage hanging off a crane, hovering above the crowd. Live Over Porto is the full set, filmed in a single take.

MXGPU LIVE OVER PORTO SETLIST

The idea

Primavera had seen Live Over Lisbon, the video concert we filmed at sunrise on a crane over the Tejo, playing music from our debut album Sudden Light. Their question was simple: would we do it again, with an audience under us?

Our answer was simpler: yes, let’s find a crane.

We sat down with the festival’s architecture team to work out where a crane could stand and how it could reach the dancefloor. We settled on the closing slot of the Saturday, on the main stage, and got to work.

The cage

We asked Pavel Zmunchila, the Lisbon-based set, lighting and visual designer, for a floating stage. Two things mattered: making the most of being above the audience, and using the main-stage screens as our backdrop.

He came back with a cage. A box structure loaded with fixtures, a mirrored ceiling and a see-through floor. We could look down at the crowd, and the crowd could look straight up into the cage.

The visuals

Because we had the main-stage screens, video became part of the show. We built the visuals from scratch with Pavel, in a custom TouchDesigner system, with a different scene for every song, each with its own visual language.

Many scenes used live cameras: PTZ cameras mounted on the cage, cameras on the floor, and the feed from RTP, who were broadcasting the concert. Tapping into RTP’s feed meant we could run visuals and live video side by side on the main screen and the IMAG screens. João Quintela programmed and ran the lights, with Isaac Veloso assisting.

Rehearsing a crane in a studio

After a few technical visits to the site, we spent four weeks building the whole show in simulation in Capture.

We replicated the crane’s movements in the studio and put them on DMX. On the night the crane was operated by hand, but having it in the simulation let us rehearse the entrance, the arrival and the exit with the lighting and video team, cue by cue.

The day before the festival opened we did a full rehearsal on site. We went up in the afternoon and checked the wind. It was stable.

Signal flow

Everything in the cage had to reach the ground, and come back, through one crane arm.

Signals between the cage and the ground:

• Control network for the lighting desk: ipMIDI

• Control network for the visuals engine: ipMIDI

• Live video from the PTZ cameras to the visuals engine: NDI

• Audio, converted from analog to digital and sent down via fibre to FOH

• Talkback microphone to FOH

• Radio to the whole team

Audio signal path:
Ableton → RME → analog outs → AES50 → fibre → FOH desk → main PA

Sound

Usually Luis mixes front of house himself. Here we didn’t know if that would be an option, considering our height and movement. So we sent three stereo submixes, six channels in total to FOH:

• 01-02: VOX

• 03-04: SYNTHS

• 05-06: BASS

Hugo Valverde and João Moreira ran FOH and gave our mix a final mastering pass.

Our other worry was latency, and whether we’d hear a clean signal once the crane put us in front of the PA, since we started the show offstage. Gui stayed on his usual in-ear mix, straight from our RME interface. Luis had a small monitoring setup as a backup in case he couldn’t hear the PA. In the end he only used it for talkback with FOH.

Normally you walk towards the stage until you’re inside the range of the PA. Here we were carried into it. The crane lowered us in front of the main hang and suddenly we were surrounded by sound.

Crane, rigging and safety

A crane over a festival crowd is as much a safety plan as a stage. Four teams made it work:

• WePlan: engineering project for the festival grounds, including safety and evacuation plans

• Primavera Sound Crew: the changeover after Massive Attack, bringing the crane into the main area and positioning the safety barriers

• Rentagru: the crane, operated by Mr. Janeiro

• Evil Angels: rigging project and safety, and the assembly of the cage. One of their riggers rode with us, hidden inside it

We were lifted from the back of the stage, climbed over it to about 30 metres, then came down to our final position: about 7 metres above the audience and 10 metres in front of the stage.

The show

Well, you had to be there. The second best thing is watching the film:

MXGPU (Moullinex & GPU Panic) - Live Over Porto at Primavera Sound 2026

Ana Viotti led our content and video team. RTP directed the live broadcast for national television with fixed and mobile cameras, a cable cam and a drone, and shared their feed with us for the IMAG screens. Rui Clara Gomes edited and graded the film from all of that footage. Watch the full Live Over Porto video concert.

Credits

MXGPU Live Over Porto
Produced by: Underloop and Ao Sul do Mundo
Stage, lighting and visual design: Pavel Zmunchila
Creative operations manager: João Cardielos
Head of production: Nadine Saize
Head of photo and video: Ana Viotti
Technical consulting, camera and BTS: Diogo Miranda
Camera operators (RTP): Agostinho Gonçalves, Artur Pinho, Bruno Carvalho, Guilherme Alves, Luís Moya, Marcos Nunes, Paulo Matos, Pedro Couto, Pierre Passos
Canal 180: João Martins, Bautista Godoy, Francisco Osório, Joana Ferreira, Jorge Sousa
Broadcast recorder: Gonçalo Reis
Editing and colour grading: Rui Clara Gomes
Mobile content: Daniel Azevedo
Mixing and mastering for Video: Alexander Lazarevic
Audio FOH: Hugo Valverde, João Moreira
Audio and backline assistant: Luís Lucena
Lighting programming and operation: João Quintela
Lighting assistant: Isaac Veloso
Rigging project: Evil Angels
AV: Audioglobo
Engineering project: WePlan
Crane: Rentagru. Operator: Janeiro
Camera equipment: Pewpew, Sony Portugal, Maus da Fita
Media liaison: Liobhan Lignel
Management and booking: Luís Viegas, Ao Sul do Mundo and Roda Artists

On 25 July 2026, Yard invited us to play the sunset slot at White Sand Mountains. Right after Live Over Porto, this would be our first festival show without a lighting structure above us. That changed how we prepared.

MXGPU YARD 2026 SETLIST

The venue

Yard is built on detail, from the sound system (designed by Rafael Pereira of L-Acoustics) to the bars, the art installations and the artist catering. Its crowd is loyal and diverse, and it showed up early for sunset.

Lighting

Yard’s lighting relies heavily on warm white, a match for its white sand walls. It flatters the crowd and looks cinematic next to the saturated colour of modern LED fixtures.

The light design for this specific event was created by Niklas Gerstner, who surrounded our B-stage with conventional PAR cans.

The renders below are from his lighting previz for the night.

The show

We went on at 20:00, with the sun still up over the sand walls. Dancers joined us on the platforms, and we premiered a new song, ‘the hush’. Then ‘take me home’ came in right at sunset. We could not have timed it better if we had tried.

Credits

Road manager: João Cardielos

Production: Nadine Saize

Photo and video: Ana Viotti, Diogo Branco

Suits: Luis Carvalho

Styling: Walter Neto

Sound system design: Rafael Pereira (L-Acoustics)

Lighting design and previz: Niklas Gerstner

Amber, red, cyan. Three looks from Live Under Lisbon, 10 October 2026. On our sheet, every song is assigned a colour.

A better setlist workflow

Everyone around a show works from the setlist: promoters, technicians, media, production. It tells them where we are in the set, the lighting and laser colour, and the BPM for tempo-synced effects. Most are a spreadsheet printout. We wanted one sheet that reads at a glance in the dark.

So we built one. It runs in a browser and travels as a link.

One song per row. Number, name, colour, BPM, length, and the running time at the end of that song. Under the list, an energy curve. Each song is a flat step at its tempo, and each step is as wide as the song is long. You read the shape of the set at a glance: where it sits, where it climbs, where it breathes.

The footer holds the date and the venue.

The colour column is a stage-lighting cue. Some shows don’t need it, so each setlist can hide it, along with any other column. The name column grows into the gap and the numbers stay on the right.

Two faces

The root URL shows whichever setlist is marked current. Anyone with the link can read it on a phone or download the PDF. No login.

Editing sits behind a password. Once in, we drag songs into order, pick colours, set BPM and durations, and keep several named setlists side by side. Switching between them publishes nothing. A separate “Make current” button decides what the root URL serves.

Each setlist also gets its own address, derived from its name. “20260704 Sonora Festival” becomes /20260704-sonora-festival. The slug is never typed by hand, so the editor and the server always agree on it.

Songs can be hidden instead of deleted. A hidden song stays in the editor, dimmed, but drops out of the numbering, the running clock, the curve and the printed sheet. A shorter set never costs us the full one.

Paper is the hard part

Printing from a browser looked simple. It wasn’t. iOS Safari spilled the sheet onto a blank second page. Print dialogs stamped URLs, dates and page numbers into the margins. So the PDF moved to the server.

The /api/pdf route builds the sheet as a self-contained HTML document, opens it in headless Chromium, scales it to fit one A4 page and prints exactly that page. The file is named after the setlist: 20260704_sonora.pdf.

How it is built

• Next.js (App Router) and React, in TypeScript, hosted on Vercel.

• Neon Postgres holds everything as one JSONB document: every setlist, plus a pointer to the current one.

• The password lives only in a server environment variable. The server checks it with a constant-time compare and sets a signed, httpOnly cookie. Saving requires that cookie. The password never reaches the browser.

• PDF export runs puppeteer-core with a serverless Chromium build.

• JetBrains Mono everywhere, on screen and on paper. The MXGPU wordmark is an SVG.

• Dark mode is screen-only. The sheet always prints black on white.

The curve is a few lines. Each song’s plateau gets its width from its duration and its height from its BPM:

// Step curve: a flat plateau per song (constant bpm), each song's WIDTH proportional
// to its duration, joined by short rounded transitions.
export function buildCurve(songs: Song[]): string {
  if (!songs.length) return '';
  const W = 1000, H = 120, pad = 14;
  const secs = songs.map((s) => toSec(s.duration) || 1);
  const total = secs.reduce((a, b) => a + b, 0) || 1;
  const bpms = songs.map((s) => parseInt(s.bpm, 10) || 0);
  const lo = Math.min(...bpms), hi = Math.max(...bpms);
  const span = hi - lo || 1;
  const y = (b: number) => H - pad - ((b - lo) / span) * (H - 2 * pad);
  // … then one flat step per song, joined by short rounded curves
  // (the full function is in lib/setlist.ts)
}

Make your own

The engine is open source under the MIT License, at github.com/ekkolabs/setlist. Download it, install it, change it, run your own.

Your logo, typefaces and name all live in one file, site.config.ts. So do the columns: numbers, colours, BPM, durations, running time, the curve and the footer can each be switched off for the whole site, or shown and hidden per setlist from the editor. The PDF follows the same choices.

To run it locally: clone the repo, npm install, copy .env.example to .env.local with your own password and a Neon Postgres URL, then npm run dev. To put it online, deploy to Vercel with the same three variables.

The idea was simple: skip the stage and hang the whole show from a crane over the river. Was it easy? Not really. Was it possible? We had to find out. Live Over Lisbon is a 45-minute video concert, filmed at dawn in a single take on a platform suspended above the Tejo, with music from our debut album Sudden Light.

MXGPU LIVE OVER LISBON SETLIST

The idea

In March 2025 we launched MXGPU with two sold-out shows in the Oval Gallery at MAAT. After a year of touring and festivals, we wanted to bring our immersive 360° live show home in a form nobody had seen. No venue and no stage. Just the city, the river and the sunrise.

The brief fit in one line: come out of the darkness, and the sun rises.

Two days to go

Two days before the shoot we met in the studio to lock the last details: audio, video, lights, logistics. For the first time, everything was running smoothly.

Then came the forecast. A heavy tropical storm that had formed off Cape Verde two weeks earlier had crossed to the United States and was now heading for Portugal, due on the day of the show.

That wasn’t going to stop us.

First light

We met at first light for camera tests. The window was tight: set up between 6:00 and 6:10, then run the entire show. The light was exactly the orange we wanted.

Poderosa

We see these cranes from our studio every day. Poderosa is a 1970s floating crane built in Lisbon, alongside its twin, Vigorosa. For years they stood next to Lux Frágil, the club that shaped the city’s electronic music scene and our own musical identity. For anyone who lived through that era, they are part of Lisbon’s mythology.

Using Poderosa as our stage closed a circle.

Test day

The team arrived early to secure the platform, wire the lights and prepare the suspended stage. Pedro Moreira designed the structure and rigging, and Ricardo Tomás and Cristiano Cabral (Evil Angels) ran the rig.

The riggers told us we’d be wearing heavy harnesses. We hesitated: they would change the silhouette we had designed the shot around. And falling into the water wasn’t the worst case. If the power went in with you, you’d be electrocuted.

The night it almost didn’t happen

We were preparing the opening shot: a floating car driving across the water to the crane. Then the weather changed. Out on the river the platform was shaking hard, nothing like the afternoon. The crew on the water said it was dancing around.

Playing from the deck below or moving the shoot to the next day were both on the table. We decided to shoot the car scene first and make the call after.

A tracking shot along the water, then a slow tilt up to the crane. David Tomás piloted the Cupra Terramar float; SeaEO Tours ran the camera boat.

The take

Then, all of a sudden, the wind stopped. The whole crew rushed on board and we started filming as fast as we could.

45 minutes, no cuts. André Tentúgal directed, shot and edited the film, with Tiago Ferreira and Afonso Abreu on camera. Two drones covered the aerials: Jorge Sousa, Tiago Faria and Bruno Nacarato on one, David Gu on the other.

The sun had to rise during ‘luz’. It did.

We were emotional from the start. At several points it could have gone wrong. It didn’t.

Technical

Multitrack audio was recorded locally on our Tascam Model 12. Gui’s vocal came through clean despite the wind, and in places you can hear planes passing overhead. Alexander Lazarevic (Alex BPM) mixed it afterwards, but we kept the original performance from the single take untouched.

Our ChamSys lighting desk was controlled via MIDI cues coming from the Ableton set on the platform with us. So we could rehearse the final look with André beforehand.

An XLR cable broke on the way up, so the dancers below couldn’t hear what we were playing. André played them our tracks on his boombox.

The late start left the final scenes overexposed. André graded the film anyway, on the road with Jacob Collier.

What if

MXGPU (Moullinex & GPU Panic) - Live Over Lisbon

MXGPU: how we made Live Over Lisbon

Credits

Live Over Lisbon: a film by André Tentúgal
Creative direction: Moullinex & GPU Panic (Luís Clara Gomes, Guilherme Tomé Ribeiro)
Music written, performed and produced by: Luís Clara Gomes, Guilherme Tomé Ribeiro
Produced by: AV82, Underloop, Ao Sul do Mundo
Executive producer: Bruno Nacarato
Producers: Marta Assunção, Nadine Saize
Assistant creative director: João Cardielos
Cast: Carolina Pais, Máximo Francisco, Oksana Grybinnyk, Walter Neto
Director of photography and editing: André Tentúgal
Camera operators: Tiago Ferreira, Afonso Abreu, André Tentúgal
Drone 1: Jorge Sousa (pilot), Tiago Faria (camera), Bruno Nacarato (focus puller)
Drone 2: David Gu
Recording engineer: Luís Clara Gomes
Mixing and mastering: Alexander Lazarevic
Lighting design: Sebastião Pinto. Assistant: Isaac Veloso
B unit: Ana Viotti (director), Diogo Miranda (camera)
Poderosa team: David Cavaco Braz, Tomás Martins
Structure and rigging project: Pedro Moreira
Riggers (Evil Angels): Ricardo Tomás, Cristiano Cabral
Styling: Walter Neto
Cupra Terramar float: David Tomás
Motorboat (SeaEO Tours): Sidónio Paes, Bartolomeu Paes
Title design: Diana Oliveira
Management: Luís Viegas, Chris Schiraldi, Kris Topuzovski
PR: Infamous PR, Think Out Loud

How We Made: Live Over Lisbon: a film by Ana Viotti
Produced by: Underloop
Editor: Rui Clara Gomes
Camera: Ana Viotti, Diogo Miranda, David Gu
Audio: Luís Clara Gomes, Guilherme Tomé Ribeiro, João Cardielos
Narration and subtitles: Ana Viotti
Revision: Miguel Ferrador
Title design: Diana Oliveira

Special thanks: Cristina Rola, Paula Silva, David Albós, Carlota Vasconcelos, António Martins, Fernanda Silva, Joana Nobre, Rita Mesquita, Dona Fernanda, Senhor Henrique, Luís Montenegro, Hugo Valverde, Bruno Cardoso, Dani Zinni, João Castro, Rita Barradas, Ricardo Reis, Liobhan Lignel, Miguel Ferreira, Ermelinda Gonçalves, Luis Carvalho, David Costa, Gui Sousa
Thank you: Ao Sul do Mundo, Roda Artists, Discotexas, Audiomatrix, Grupo ETE, VAVA Eyewear, Sanjo, Vertigo Indoor Climbing, The Royal Studio, Sony Portugal
Powered by: Cupra
Co-financed by: the Lisboa 2030 Programme, Portugal 2030 and the European Union – European Social Fund+
Supported by: Infraestruturas de Portugal

Text by Danny Turner. Photos by Ana Viotti.

Ableton ran a feature on MXGPU in its Input/Output series. It covers how we write, how we play, and what runs underneath. This is our short note on it. The full piece lives on Ableton.com.

Why ABLETON

Ableton Live sits in the middle of everything we do. We sketch in it, we finish records in it, and on stage it runs the whole rig. As we told Ableton: “Ableton is at the centre of everything.”

It is the clearest record yet of how the show runs, written by the people who make the software, with Sudden Light out and the 360° show on the road.

Rundown

• Inspiration. Contrast. Harsh against soft, precise against chaotic. Everyday sounds sampled and resampled until they stop sounding real, then held inside a song of about three minutes.

• Workflow. Ideas start in Session View, without worrying about structure. Vocals begin as loose melodies. Lyrics and arrangement come later, in Arrangement View.

• Live set-up. One multitrack session: stems, MIDI and live instruments processed in real time. Every mixer channel maps one to one to an input and an output, so Live works as a digital insert. MIDI out keeps the lighting desk and the lasers in sync. The article counts more than 100 shows on this system.

• Software. Drum Sampler, Roar for saturation, Echo on almost every channel, Max for Live devices, and custom racks built to add randomness.

• A free download. Peripheral Systems, a Live project made from field recordings around Lisbon and turned into playable instruments, with an exclusive track and notes. It needs Live Suite.

If you open Peripheral Systems and make something from it, we would like to hear it: hello@mxgpu.net.

Originally published on Ableton.com: Input/Output: MXGPU

Text by Danny Turner. Posted on 4 November 2025.

The LOGO & ICON

They didn’t start from how music is usually branded. They started from our stage. We play in the round, at the centre of the crowd, and a laser above us draws a triangle around the two of us. That triangle became the MXGPU symbol.

“On the digital elements this shape is enforced by the usage of angular shapes and vertical tension that is spawned by the centre of both the composition or the central element of the logo,” Castro explains. “It is the unity and focal point for MXGPU as the origin.”

Type for strobes

The typeface is ES Klarheit by Extraset, chosen because it holds up everywhere we appear: a record sleeve, the visuals behind us on stage, a thumbnail on a streaming app. Our shows are lit by strobes, lasers and light leaks, and the type has to survive them. The system works at a very large scale “while maintaining precise, sharp and electric text that communicates with minimal hesitation.”

Poetry in glitch

Electronic music has a default look, and Castro steered away from it on purpose. “We deliberately avoided being abstract, liquid, technological, glitchy or post-real,” he says. Instead, the studio worked with what he calls poetry: generating non-linear meanings from conventional structures, without committing to fixed forms. The identity reveals us slowly, “a presence that begins with mystery and gradually flows into reveal.”

Sudden Light on vinyl

The clearest place to see it all is the Sudden Light vinyl, made with Grama Pressing. The record combines matte and transparent vinyl in a single pressing. The symbol sits on the label and spreads across the red inner sleeve, and the insert carries the lyrics in the same sharp type.

“The world unfolds as a consequence,” Castro reflects, “and there is nothing more rewarding than making a crowd dance, both in the venue and in their homes.”

The Brand Identity covered the project in November 2025. Read the full piece.

The Sudden Light vinyl is in the Collection.

Credits

Visual identity and art direction: The Royal Studio (João Castro)

Typeface: ES Klarheit by Extraset

Vinyl pressing: Grama Pressing

Photography: Ana Viotti and João Castro

We wanted to make a T-shirt, and we wanted it to feel like us, down to every stitch. We spend months shaping a sound, so we went looking for people who shape fabric with the same care. We found them at Pedrosa & Rodrigues, a family factory in Portugal. On the day we filmed there, we set up our gear between the sewing machines and played for the people who make our clothes.

The brief

We started with the fabric: 100% cotton jersey, 240gsm, heavy enough to hold its shape. The cut is oversized. The MXGPU icon is printed large on the back, and a small loop label carries it on the front. The Royal Studio designed it. Everything is sourced and made in Portugal, and it ships in paper packaging with no plastic.

The factory

Portugal has been making textiles for six centuries, and you feel it the moment you walk in Pedrosa & Rodrigues. Ana, head of product, grew up on the factory floor; the business started in her grandparents’ garage. Amélia has run the cutting room for 42 years. Joana, the product manager, had been there a year. Tita supervised our T-shirts from the first sample to the last fold.

We filmed all four. Before each interview we handed over a pair of headphones and played an MXGPU track. Nobody had heard it before, and their reactions are the best part of the footage. Ana’s verdict, in Portuguese, was short: “É ganda banger.”

The concert

Just before lunch, the machines went quiet. We played a short set on the factory floor, between the cutting tables, with everyone who works there gathered round.

“I never imagined we’d have a concert on the factory floor,” Ana told us afterwards. “Not even in a fever dream.” Tita thought the good mood would stay in the building after we left.

For Joana, the link between the two crafts was simple: “The way we dress deeply affects how we feel in our day to day.”

The film

We cut the day into a one-minute film set to ‘ease’ (ft. Malou): the road trip, the machines, the people and the set. It ends where it began, because the story runs in a loop.

This factory was already making music long before we arrived. We just turned up the volume.

The T-shirt

The MXGPU T-shirt is in the Collection, including the glow-in-the-dark edition.

Credits

Production: Pedrosa & Rodrigues, S.A.

Ana: head of product

Amélia: head of cutting

Joana: product manager

Tita: key account manager, MXGPU T-shirts

Design: The Royal Studio

Film and photography: Márcio Enes

Road and packaging footage: João Cardielos

Music: ‘ease’ (ft. Malou)