Anastasia Kristensen mesmerises audiences with her eclectic sets blending diverse electronic influences. Through residencies and international performances, including at renowned venues and festivals, she fosters community and pushes musical boundaries. Her latest release, “Moments of Inertia” via Turbo Recordings, promises to further captivate listeners on the dance floor, solidifying her growing influence in the electronic music scene.
KALTBLUT: I feel the trends have changed quite a bit since we last spoke in the pandemic. The sound now seems to be very 2000-inspired and dubbed “Meme-Techno”. Would you ever go into that direction, as well? Would you follow trends?
Anastasia: No. Of course, I like some of the aesthetics that are happening right now, but it’d be really difficult for me to do that kind of music. There are so many things you can express with music – in my opinion – not just jokes. What’s happening now is probably also reflecting all the time we spent online during the pandemic. Everything is digital now.
KALTBLUT: Do you find the crowd has changed?
Anastasia: It’s a younger crowd, and it sometimes feels they don’t know how to act on the dance floor. I’m finding my niche again and changed my whole team, started my own label and feel like I’ve got enough assets to not have to worry about trends. I started the label because there’s nothing that can be compared to that freedom.
KALTBLUT: Doesn’t running a label besides being a touring producer make your life a lot more stressful?
Anastasia: Yes, and it’s also not cheap. I can bring my people to my label and I can fully realise theirs and my vision. Currently, we’re working on a Remix-album, with some producers from the Netherlands, Ukraine, etc. My upcoming release is with Turbo Recordings, they really allowed me to do whatever I would’ve allowed myself on my label. That was an important part for me. Sometimes, bigger labels will request exactly what they want in a track and sometimes shorten it too, so it works better on streaming platforms. I feel I don’t need to do that. My music is on digital platforms, yes, but it’s still up to me.
KALTBLUT: I’m sure there’s a lot more pressure on you, though?
Anastasia: Pressure starts within yourself. If you can control that, then nothing else can penetrate you with their pressure.
KALTBLUT: What was the motivation behind finding your label “absorb emit”? It’s a very male-dominated industry still. How do you navigate that?
Anastasia: I’ve not experienced any patronising attitude from a label that I’m aware of. I certainly do want to represent. I’m 32, I’ve been doing this for some time and this was the right time for me to take that step. Regarding particularly establishing the label and the “male resistance”. You don’t feel it like that. You feel it the way by who’s inviting who, who’s asking who for advice, for example.
Sometimes it seems that promotion-wise, your male-counterparts are getting favoured over you. But that’s where a good management comes in. In general, I think it’s become better, certainly, but there are still massive problems. Sometimes it feels people have also become better at hiding those issues, it’s tricky.
KALTBLUT: What are you doing differently, and what has your career so far taught you now you’re running a label?
Anastasia: I think I truly rely on authenticity with what and how I do things now – and try to connect with like-minded weirdos who also appreciate unconventional music direction, exploring sounds whilst paying respect and attention to legacy and various roots of music culture. Rather than chasing the next big deal, next big festival and just becoming another capitalist mogul placed in “techno” category, so everyone can book it and have disposable and transactional.
KALTBLUT Tell me about your upcoming release.
Anastasia: The focus of this release lies heavily on technical aspects. I thoroughly enjoyed experimenting with textures that were previously unexplored in my music, incorporating noisy, industrial-like sounds that defy easy classification. I’d categorise it as left-field dance music, and believe we need more visibility for this type of music. It’s time to move past current trends of 2000s TikTok music. Producing conventional techno is easy; it can only take minutes. But with this project, I delved deeper into my creative process, revising for weeks to reach a satisfying conclusion. This record represents personal growth for me.
KALTBLUT: Could you elaborate on the process of capturing a unique sound that evokes its own essence in the EP?
Anastasia: When I first started sending demos to Turbo, I realised my music bank was full of textured, almost industrial mechanical sounding material. Couldn’t help but continue with this direction, so out of all “clang sounds” I made melody, rhythm and let those scratchy sounds tell a story on its own. For instance “Moments Of Inertia” is pretty stripped back, and if you deconstruct each channel – it really consists of frictions, metallic “clashes” and shifting tonalities – none of that was classically composed as such, but together they create this flickering tension that would fit any dance floor, creating sustain and release of energies. I would hope, at least. As someone largely coming from a dance-floor environment – I am keeping the club friendly arrangement tight for these tracks.
KALTBLUT: Did you learn how to produce yourself? What advice would you give someone who also wants to learn and start producing music?
Anastasia: Try not to follow the conventional methods because they are widely available. My advice would be to try to tweak different instruments you have in your library and to add a lot of effects and see how to manipulate them. But again, it’s all very subjective, right? What I think is experimental, somebody will think it’s not.
KALTBLUT: What kind of reaction are you getting from crowds since you went into a new musical direction?
Anastasia: This kind of new direction I have was also insisting on playing more experimental music. I think they may be surprised in the beginning, but actually, I did not see people leave yet. When I play music, I still try to balance the energy. We want people to still dance, but they also need time to go to the bar and have drinks and cigarettes and come back again with a fresh energy. Last time I played in the Netherlands, somebody wrote to me, they were so inspired by my set. They were jazz students, and they now want to produce a techno-electronica track. If I can do that with people, I feel I’m doing the right thing.
Follow @anastasia.kristensen to keep up with upcoming releases. Stream her latest EP here.
You can revisit all Cultural Connection interviews at #TheCulturalConnection here.
Photographer @_andrehansen
Photo assistant: @halfdan.hpk
MUA: @julieproedel
Stylist: @idalangkjaer
