Techno doesn’t need more rules, it needs more nerve. On Lost and Sound, I’m joined by Copenhagen-based DJ and producer Anastasia Kristensen, an artist whose work sits right on the edge between club functionality and something far more exploratory.
After approaching a decade in the spotlight, her debut album Bestiarium Sombre (out 8 May on Intercept Records) is the perfect entry point into that mindset. Every track is tied to an animal, some real and some imagined. Anastasia uses this as a tool for storytelling, sound design, and rhythm choices that feel tactile, dark, and playful. Anastasia breaks down how field recordings and found sounds become musical material, how a hydraulic mechanism can turn into a “whale”, and why not overthinking is sometimes the most disciplined creative choice.
We also get into the lived reality around the work: touring and crowd connection, how she prepares music without over-preparing a set, why atmosphere and darkness change what people hear, and what it meant to clarify her Ukrainian background after 2022 while staying focused on meaningful local action. We finish with thoughts on AI in music, not as an artistic replacement but as a wider economic and climate question, plus where she wants to take her sound next.
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Anastasia Kristensen on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/anastasia.kristensen/
Anastasia Kristensen on Bandcamp:
https://anastasiakristensen.bandcamp.com/music
Huge thanks to Audio-Technica – makers of beautifully engineered audio gear and sponsors of Lost and Sound. Check them out here: Audio-Technica
My book Coming To Berlin is a journey through the city’s creative underground, and is available via Velocity Press.
You can also follow me on Instagram at @paulhanford for behind-the-scenes bits, guest updates, and whatever else is bubbling up.