- Anastasia Kristensen makes dynamic techno for dancing or self-reflecting—sometimes both at the same time.
- Anastasia Kristensen's style of techno hits that elusive intersection between spacious, psychedelic sound design and instantly gratifying club heat. It's the type of exploratory energy that lifts the eyes of floor-gazing clubbers towards the sky, offering a breath of air while keeping feet firmly in lockstep. This energy made the brittle drum machine workouts and warm pads of her first EP, Ascetic, a perfect fit for Warp's leftield club sub-label, Arcola. When she moved to Houndstooth for 2019's M A X I M A, she deepened her sonic palette, adding processed vocals alongside floating trance arpeggios and sharp, electro-influenced percussion.
Kristensen sounds even more confident on Volshebno, her latest for Houndstooth. She carefully weaves techno's hard pulse, trance's airy euphoria and jungle's chopped breaks into three cuts. The title track is the obvious hit, built around heaving kicks and icy synths. One of Kristensen's most infectious grooves to date, it's clearly been making the rounds: months before we could get our hands on it, Houndstooth started dropping remixes from quest?onmarq and Ctrls.
"Voice Within" is a more reserved standout. Built around nimble, dubby percussion and sweeping bass growls, it's more late-night fare than its predecessor, creeping along at a constant build that swaps head-on intensity for evolving layers of sound. Having been a major player on the techno circuit for the last few years, Kristensen knows how to make excellent connective tissue for gliding between sounds. These three cuts, primed to produce jolts of euphoria or much-needed moments of reflection—sometimes both at the same time—show that her prowess behind the decks extends to her productions, which are some of the most dynamic in techno.
Tracklist01. Volshebno
02. Voice Within
03. Volshebno (Stretched)