Katerina

“Katerina pulls from natural textures and ambient as much as G-Funk in her music, making for a truly idiosyncratic style when such a thing is hard to come by. Her shows and mixes with Cómeme, L.I.E.S and more recently Noods are great because they land on a balance between eclecticism and a well-thought-out thread.” -Crack Magazine “Bulgarian-born Katerina is far from a newcomer. In her hometown of Helsinki, she’s long been praised as an intrinsic part of the electronic music scene that’s developed there. Through over a decade in promotion, she’s helped raise local clubs like Kaiku and the now globally renowned Flow Festival into what they are today. These days, it’s her wide-ranging DJ sets that have gained her rightful recognition, while her productions have found a befitting home on the renowned Cómeme label. She’s just launched her own label, Émotsiya! — which shares a name with her longstanding Cómeme Radio show — the first release being a six-track compilation of emerging artists and close friends. Her own productions resonate a deep and knowledgeable understanding of electronic music, and her next project will be an EP on Joakim’s Tigersushi, followed by an eagerly awaited album at the end of the year.” -DJ Mag “To open a mix with Steve Reich's “Come Out,” in 2018, is not exactly a novel proposition, but what Finland's Katerina goes and does with that proto-techno chestnut is worthy of note. A minute in, she begins blending it with ghostly, quasi-new age synths that, for a moment, sound almost like Plastikman's plaintive 303, and she does it all in key. She teases that blend for a good long while, playing with the levels on Reich's tape and letting its quickening repetitions add dynamism to slowly pulsing drones before drawing it back down to silence. Ten minutes in, she's still working the mix; by now, Reich's vocal loop is spinning in dizzy circles, and she uses it as the springboard into a hard-charging 808 jam. It's smart and unexpected—the kind of long-game strategizing that few DJs bring to the decks—and she keeps the curveballs coming, from well-placed ambient interludes to a Casiotone waltz to a creepy voiceover encouraging, “Do drugs.” The highlight of the whole thing is her own “Be a Child,” a psychedelic and enveloping rave track from Just When You Thought It Was Over, her excellent debut EP for Cómeme. The record is classic techno with a twist—as fresh, in its own way, as this mix.” -Pitchfork