Published
Thu, Feb 15, 2024, 19:19
- The DJ and producer was a rising star in Berlin's underground community.
Radical Softness, real name Lea Rose Besson, has died at the age of 28.
Znzl, cofounder of Paris label Demian Records, announced the news via an Instagram post today, February 15th. Besson's passing was confirmed by their mother, who commented on the post. No cause of death is known as of yet.
A resident at Berlin party Rawmantique and Hamburg's TILT, Besson was a staunch advocate of self-expression, the establishment of safer spaces and increasing the visibility of marginalised genders in dance music. Cofounder of the FLINTA party CALYX, they first emerged on Berlin's circuit in 2019 and quickly gained recognition for their hard, fast and emotive sound that explored techno and trance-influenced melodies. Following mixes for Bassiani's podcast series and regular appearances on HÖR, Besson played a Resident Advisor party at Tresor late last year.
The young artist was in the midst of a steadily growing career until their death, having played Munich's Rote Sonne club and Rotterdam's Poing Club the previous two weekends. Last year, Besson travelled to Pakistan to play a Groove Into the Void party in Karachi. Next month, they were meant to play alongside Dax J in Paris.
Read some tributes to Besson in Znzl's post below.
Listen back to Besson's set at RA's Tresor party.
Correction, February 16th: A previous version of this piece spelled Lea Rose incorrectly and referred to CALYX as femme instead of FLINTA.