Laryssa Kim

Laryssa Kim is a rare type. An artist who has seized the precious ability to synthesise divergent sounds and practices into a wondrous and coherent whole, her rousing articulation of music’s most sensuous modes straddles both the academic and worldly as deftly as she scales ethereal heights.

Now based in Brussels, Laryssa Kim is an Italo-Congolese singer and composer with an arresting set of influences. Her first forays into music took place in Rome, writing and performing with reggae musicians and DJs. Here she honed her instinctual strengths in a predominantly live setting. She relocated to Amsterdam in 2008 and immersed herself in contemporary dance and physical theatre, broadening her toolset in an environment that supported and encouraged playful experimentation around composition. Basing herself in Brussels since 2013, Laryssa went on to formally pursue her interest in electroacoustics by completing a master’s program at the Royal Conservatory of Mons in acousmatic music composition.

Amid these studies she took the natural step of establishing her own artistic project to develop an intimate, personalised route through her rich experience of music’s different mechanisms and models. The landscape of Laryssa Kim’s music is impassioned and mesmerizing. Employing her voice as her central instrument, hypnotic swells of elegant lyrical forms are scattered around finely braided electronics and instrumental motifs that gather into tender song structures. Her suite of effects and looping tools propel her voice through delicately balanced compositions that place her between varying experimental practices. Presented in a live performance setting, these shifting, oneiric qualities only intensify.

Laryssa Kim’s debut EP Lov’em All was warmly and widely received, leading to performances across Belgium since its release in 2019. While an appearance on C12’s Social Distancing series in 2020 established her in club culture climes.

Her second instrumental Ep “Submarine Thoughts” was released by City Tracks.

Described by Pitchfork as an "exploration of the limits of the unconscious," her debut album 'Contezza’, released in February 2024 through the Belgian imprint City Tracks received outstanding attention from both the public and the press.

Her live show integrates lighting and video projections that create an intriguing blend of live music and performance art.

In parallel with her solo project, she is active as a composer for dance, theatre and video, with up- coming commissions for productions with KVS, Viernulvier (ex Vooruit), Kaaitheater, deSingel, De theatermaker, vrt, rtbf, etc

In her dj sets, Laryssa Kim offers two different selections:
⇀ Ambient, experimental, and electro.
⇀ A selection ranging from Afrobeats, classic Congolese Rumba, and Soukous to contemporary styles such as Afro pop, Kompa, Afro house, Shatta, Bouyon, Gqom, Acholi, Singeli, and more.

Music

ALBUM – Contezza

JAM SESSION – LARYSA KIM au Reflektor

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