Genre: Live-electronic; smooth-electronica; electro-soul; experimental, ambient.
Laryssa Kim is a rare type—an artist who has seized the precious ability to synthesize divergent sounds and practices into a wondrous and coherent whole. Her rousing articulation of music’s most sensuous modes straddles both the academic and the 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. She began her musical journey in Rome, performing with reggae musicians and DJs, refining her instinct for live performance. In 2008, she moved to Amsterdam, where contemporary dance and physical theatre expanded her creative toolkit, fostering an experimental approach to composition. Since settling in Brussels in 2013, she has deepened her understanding of electroacoustics, earning a master’s degree in acousmatic music composition from the Royal Conservatory of Mons.
Amid these studies, she took the natural step of developing her own artistic project—an intimate and deeply personal exploration of music’s different mechanisms and models. She merges an acousmatic research approach with soulful warmth, crafting a sound that is both intriguing and comforting. The landscape of Laryssa Kim’s music is impassioned and mesmerizing. Harnessing her voice through loops and effects, she conjures hypnotic waves of elegant lyrical forms interwoven with finely braided electronics and instrumental motifs, gathering into tender song structures. Her performances transport audiences into a ritualistic, dreamlike trance, activating all the senses. Through immersive soundscapes, haunting rhythms, and evocative visuals, she crafts a fully enveloping experience.
Described by Pitchfork as “her most accomplished work yet, a mesmerizing odyssey guided by sharp intention,” her debut album Contezza, released in February 2024 via the Belgian label City Tracks, received outstanding attention from both the public and the press (Le Soir, Focus Le Vif, L’Echo, Rockerilla, Electronic Sound, Libération, Dazed, DJ Mag Italia, Friction Magazine, Bruzz Select, Larsen, RFI, The Fader, Gorilla vs. Bear, Bandcamp Essential, BBC, and more).
Her debut EP Lov’em All (2019) was warmly received, leading to performances across Belgium, while her appearance on C12’s Social Distancing series in 2020 marked her presence in club culture. She followed up with the instrumental EP Submarine Thoughts, also released via City Tracks.
Laryssa Kim’s work exudes an undeniable dreamlike strength, a sonic surrealism that blurs the boundaries between dream and reality. Her music, both organic and immaterial, frequently accompanies collaborative works with socio-political and historical resonance, such as Mobutu’s Game, a documentary mini-series aired on VRT (January 2025). Her compositions have also been featured alongside James Baldwin’s texts in the play Fire Will Become Ashes (KVS) and have blended with performances like Spirit Capital – The Seat of Memory by Roland Gunst (Moussem, Viernulvier, Kaaithater, DeSingel, detheatermaker), Malinconico, The Bastard by Rashif El Kaoui, and Pelvic Bath by Helena Dietrich. Additionally, her musical interludes have punctuated the philosophical salons of In Naam van de Waarheid (Theatre Malpertuis and Victoria Deluxe).
Laryssa Kim’s sonic world extends beyond her own compositions. Through her DJ sets, she explores the same interplay between tradition and experimentation that defines her music, offering two distinct sonic journeys:
⇀ 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.