Unsound has announced a new discussion series and programme of workshops that will take place ahead of the festival's 2020 digital edition.

First launched during Unsound's 2019 edition, Unsound LAB is described as "a series of closed workshops and discussions for young music industry professionals," and it will this year be divided into two parts: open-access discussions and online workshops with limited admission.

The first discussion in the open-access series is titled Black Techno Futures: Local And Global Perspectives. It will take place online on July 23, and has been programmed by Frankie Decaiza Hutchinson from Discwoman, who is also hosting the discussion. The panel will include perspectives from different cities around the world, and "explore the conditions of working as a black person in the industry, diving into challenges, and how things need to change for black people to survive and flourish." Panelists include Jasmine Infiniti (Brooklyn), Lakuti (Berlin/London), Axmed Maxamed (Amsterdam), Authentically Plastic (Kampala), and Onirica (Rio de Janeiro).

Further open discussions in the Unsound LAB programme will be moderated by music journalists Lisa Blanning and Philip Sherburne. Details of those discussions are forthcoming.

The second part of the Unsound LAB project involves an online five-day programme dedicated to working in the music industry, considering ways to try to exist and work in the pandemic and beyond. This will take place from September 19 to 20 and 26 to 28.

Classes in this part of the programme will be run by representatives of artist agencies, managers, promoters and curators, publishers, music journalists, lawyers, and representatives of cultural institutions. The call for applications lasts until August 21. Priority to participate in the workshops is from Poland and Central and Eastern Europe.

Finally, Unsound and European music organisation SHAPE are joining forces with Warsaw's Radio Kapitał to present Intermission Studio, a series of mixes created by SHAPE platform artists and transmitted by Radio Kapitał over the next three months. This series, which kicks off on July 22, will take in mixes and new music from VTSS, object blue, Aquarian, and more.

Unsound revealed in April that its 2020 edition, taking place under the theme of Intermission, would take place digitally as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Full details of the schedule for the festival's online edition will be revealed over the coming months.

For more details on today's announcement, head here.

Unsound will take place from October 4 to 11, 2020.