Techno might have a reputation as a moody genre, but DJ/producer Anfisa Letyago brings a different kind of energy to the underground music scene, radiating positivity in her sets while journeying through groovy techno beats and contemporary trance melodies
Anfisa lives in Napoli – the cultural centre of Southern Italy, where the club scene is sincere and passionate, and where she first gained a strong attraction to electronic music. It was there that she had the opportunity to listen to many international DJs. In the beginning, she first started to approach DJing as a disc selector in small clubs, and these experiences developed her interest in record collecting and discovering new music.

The first of Anfisa’s productions were influenced by groovy techno and house music which were very popular in Napoli. After a serendipitous meeting with Carl Cox, she found an upsurge in support from the dance scene – he appreciated her music and immediately started supporting her, a “casual meeting that changed something in my life” – and he played out the contents of a USB she handed him in his sets. After this, he came to release her music on his label Intec Digital (her ‘So Good’ and ‘Hypnotic’ EPs landed on his Intec). He declared her “the revelation of the last year; a live performer talented and full of energy”.

Soon enough, labels were approaching her for releases, and she’s since graced Nervous, Kompakt, Deutsche Grammophon, Rekids and Hotflush, among others. But, realising that she wanted an outlet for her music that she thought wouldn’t fit on other labels, she began her own NSDA record label, which has released remixes work by Calibre, DJ Rush, DJ Seinfield, DJ Tennis, DJ Daddy Trance and many others.

Nisida is a volcanic islet near Naples, a place that’s small, beautiful and inaccessible to man. The island has a colourful history, including Greek mythology and possibly where  Ulisse passed through. It’s after this that Letyago named her label, a space for her to explore her own creativity and give other artists a space for their unconventional sounds: “Nisida is like me, it's pretty strange.”

Cox wasn’t the only electronic titan to reach out to Letyago – Moby approached her about remixing his iconic ‘Go’. It was “crazy” to her – “I was listening to the original vinyl from 1991,” she says. The pair stayed in touch and after 2 years a real collaboration was born between them called ‘You & Me’, where Anfisa not only collaborates as a producer but decides to sing the song, a driving, wistful dance track with dreamy layers. that saw remixes from Deetron and Moby himself. 

Increasingly, Letyago’s solo productions have found her bringing in her voice. “The most important instrument that we have is our voice, through it you can express the deepest concepts and create the most hypnotic sounds ever. It's you – it creates something magical about you,” she says. 2022 track ‘Rosso Profondo’ found her layering her spoken voice like a chant, with hypnotic whispers introducing the listener before a powerful acid drop. 

‘Feelin’, the first taste of a forthcoming album she’s working on, finds Letyago deploying earworm melodies and commandeering a new electronic pop/trancey sound. She’s keen to collaborate with other vocalists, including Spanish vocals to go with her Italian and English. Her new music radiates a renewed sense of freedom and confidence – in her productions, as well as in herself as a person. 

Letyago grew up surrounded by water – apt for a pisces, and now lives facing the seafront on the Italian coast. That love of nature and the aquatic world features in her sound and love of dreamy, shimmering melodies. On Instagram, where she has 1.4 million followers, she regularly posts videos of her listening to records on her balcony facing the sea.

That love of art and the sea was integral to a new live audiovisual show that’s set to be huge. Titled Partenope, it’s based on an ancient Greek myth that describes how a mermaid was found on the coast of Naples. Letyago worked with famed digital artist Guisy Amoroso aka Marigoldff to create an ethereal world for the performance; a fully underwater, magical parallel dimension. In it, Letyago is transformed into a mermaid via a 3D scan of her body (“not a monster, but it's similar – like a very beautiful monster”), with uniquely personal touches including her beloved cat Leo, who is portrayed as a creature that follows her around.

With an album on the horizon, Letyago is continuing to build her own artistic and mythical world in anticipation of this expansion of her sound. As she has written on her Instagram page: “I live in my fantasy world.”