Artist of the Month: Anfisa Letyago

It all comes back to water for Anfisa Letyago. Her music, her home, and even her star sign of Pisces are connected to the natural element. Water informs her sound, and it’s also the backdrop to her home on the Bay of Naples, where she grew up and remains based today. 

The producer, DJ and founder of the label NSDA joins us on a call ahead of her upcoming EP release Bubbledance, which recently landed on the SONY-owned imprint Noted Records. Judging by the title of the EP and tracks like “Magic Whales” and “Partenope”, it’s clear that water is the primary theme across Anfisa’s latest output. In fact, she named the latter tune after the half-bird, half-woman in Greek mythology who, having unsuccessfully seduced the Greek hero Ulysses, threw herself into the sea and died; her body washed up on the shores of Naples. But why is water such a prevalent theme for Anfisa?

“The colours that you can see when you live on the beach, like the sunset and the sunrise,” she enthuses (we can’t see her due to a bogey setting on Zoom, but we can hear her smiling as she speaks). “The colours are always different, and all these visions and all these kinds of energies – I just started putting them all into my musical projects.”

Anfisa is dialling from the U.S, where she’s currently on tour. But when she’s not touring, she can be found making music or chilling with her friends, family, and her cat Leo at home in Naples. The “beautiful city with a huge personality” in southern Italy is where Anfisa began her journey in dance music, starting out as a clubber at the age of 17 before progressing to a DJ, and later, a producer. 

Looking back on those early days as a raver circa 2008, she’s grateful for the solid musical “references” she had at the time, like Underworld, The Prodigy, Aphex Twin, and Moby, as well as a thriving local scene. “The opportunity was everywhere,” she says of the parties on offer. “And in that era, the scene was more interesting, and it was more exciting. That’s why I started to do my musical selections in the club.”

With a keen ear for dance music and an extensive collection of vinyl records, CDs, and cassettes, Anfisa got a job as an event promoter for a club in the old town of Napoli. One day, Anfisa asked the owner if she could try mixing on the club’s Pioneer CDJ-100s. He agreed, and for Anfisa, these decks were the “perfect start” for her to experiment with mixing. When she saved up enough money, she bought a pair of her own. “But I wasn’t studying, actually, I was following my instinct,” she says of her first steps in the craft. “It wasn’t about the technique, it was about the selection and musical taste.” At the time, her selections included minimal, Chicago house and deep techno. 

In 2016, after a few years of DJing regularly in Naples, Anfisa decided to learn music production. She began by visiting local production studios and observing how other producers worked. In doing so, she learnt new tricks and how to use different hardware and DAWs. She compares the process to learning a new language. She recalls seeking out a “personal sound” in the studio, but she hadn’t quite figured out what that was yet. Instead, she focused on what she knew inside-out: the club and the dance floor. And we can hear that sound on her initial releases on labels like Natura Viva and Nervous Records, each built with housey piano hooks, stompy drums, and an over-arching peak-time energy.

In 2018, while Anfisa continued DJing and working on music production, she hopped on a flight to Sicily, where Carl Cox was due to play that night. Eager to share her music with him, she hung around outside his hotel beforehand so she could give him a USB stacked with her tunes. Later at the club, Carl gave Anfisa’s music a twirl. 

Thus came Carl’s offer to release two EPs – So Good EP and Hypnotic EP – on his label Intec, which Anfisa happily accepted. Then came the worldwide interest: releases on Rekids, Hotflush, Cercle Records, a slew of gigs outside Italy and invitations to join different booking agencies. It was around this time that Anfisa began to use social media as a promotional tool to share videos of Carl playing her music worldwide. “Everything changed,” she says. “It was a crucial point of my life…I will never stop thanking Carl Cox.”

Anfisa has since travelled the world as a DJ, and her sound has evolved too. Present-day Anfisa Letyago productions traverse groovy and trippy techno, flecked with spacious soundscapes, hypnotic motifs, and aquatic basslines. “I think I’m still working on my sound,” she says. “It's a never-ending story. And recently, I noticed that I’m very obsessed with the details. Because the more time you spend in the studio, and the more time you spend producing, the more your focus goes to the details.”

It’s for this reason that Anfisa spent two years producing the EP Bubbledance. The result is “something unconventional” but it’s certainly suitable for the dance floor, with pacey BPMs, playful melodies and bouncy atmospherics. But it’s Anfisa’s enchanting vocals that add a quirky touch to the EP. “It’s not going to be viral,” she says. “I didn’t make the EP for that kind of promotion, but this is what I really feel when I work and write in the studio. Maybe it’s very conceptual, or a little bit conceptual, but at the same time, it satisfied what I feel and what I really want as an artist at this moment.”

The single “In My Arms” is an extension of Anfisa’s unconventional world. It’s due for release on 11th July via her own imprint, NDSA, which she named after the smallest island on the Gulf of Naples called Nisida. The single hits that sweet spot where classic trance and club-cut techno collide, laced with emotional pads, a bouncy lead melody and more of Anfisa’s whispery vocals, adding an introspective flare.

Plus, the single comes with a video that examines the fluidity of perception and identity. Anfisa teamed with AI artist duo Supernova (AKA Jacopo Gennari), fashion specialist director with years of experience and collaborations with major brands, and Matteo Masali, a video artist and editor. Together, and with Anfisa’s creative direction, they crafted an Anfisa-shaped character in the video, inspired by action sci-fi movies like The Matrix and ​​The Fifth Element. “I don’t want to be an old school girl,” she laughs, referring to the age of both films, which were released in the '90s. “But it’s a very cool video. It’s a kind of a like dream where I move my character through an urban scene, a cosmic scene and an underwater scene. So it changes all the time. I really want to show you this video, but we’re still finalising it. We’ve been working on it for months.”

Working with AI and collaborating with digital artists excites Anfisa. Last year, she debuted her audiovisual show 'Partenope' and showcased it in Barcelona, Napoli, and London. Prior to this, Anfisa spent about a year and a half putting it together with the digital artist and creative technologist Giusy Amoroso, AKA Marigoldff, who built the character of Partenope (based on 3D scans of real-life Anfisa) and her sidekick (based on Anfisa’s cat Leo). “The resonance [with the crowd] was very big and people really loved it,” she says. “So it makes sense to continue to work on it. It’s not easy and it takes a lot of time to organise everything and to set up, but it’s worth it. It works.”

Next up, Anfisa will take 'Partenope' on the road again in November, but before that, she’s got a summer packed with gigs in Ibiza, the Netherlands, Croatia, the U.S., Cyprus, Mumbai and more. In the meantime, she’ll continue working on new music, working on the 'Partenope' A/V show and running her label NSDA. She uses the imprint to promote and collaborate with emerging artists like Keira Meier, Sole Dosi, Hoymans, and many more. She’s also planning NSDA workshops in Italy, France, and the UK. 

Taking stock of her journey so far, Anfisa says she’s still evolving as an artist, but she’s staying true to herself and loves taking risks. “And it’s very cool, because everything comes with experience… when I see myself 15 years ago and when I see myself nowadays, I was always improving. It’s very nice growing through music. I would say that music has improved me as a person and as a woman. I’ve become more mature. Now I’m really sure about what I’m doing. And it’s so cool that everything has happened through music.”

Listen to Anfisa Letyago's 'Artist of the Month' chart below or check it out on Beatport.