BIOGRAPHY

Animistic Beliefs are one of the most distinctive projects to emerge from Rotterdam’s electronic underground. Formed by Mara Lalihatu and Linh Luu, the queer Southeast Asian duo move through DJing, punk-charged hardware live sets, introspective records and theatrical work with a sound shaped by club music, diasporic memory and a taste for the unexpected. Few acts move as comfortably between clubs, museums and theatre stages as this radical Rotterdam pair.

Animistic Beliefs began as a hardware-driven live project, building a fully improvised performance language around synthesizers, drum machines, modular electronics and hands-on electronic improvisation while drawing from IDM and a wider lineage of electronic music. Their debut album Mindset:Reset, released through Solar One Music, explored a more intimate and melancholic side of that language without falling into retro worship. With MERDEKA, released on Mexican label NAAFI, Animistic Beliefs expanded their sound beyond the frameworks of their earlier work, weaving questions of identity, memory and belonging into club music coloured by Southeast Asian tonalities and contemporary bass culture. The album marked a turning point for the duo, opening the project toward a more personal artistic language.

Their DJ sets carry that open-ended musical identity into the club. As selectors, Animistic Beliefs move through global club sounds, breakbeats, UK bass, jersey club, footwork and bass-heavy electronics with curiosity and instinct. Their sets are playful, queer, sensual, high-energy and strange, guided less by genre purity than by a desire to move through the full range of human experience.

This versatility has taken Animistic Beliefs far beyond Rotterdam. Their live and DJ sets have connected with audiences physically and emotionally across Europe, East Asia and the Americas, with appearances at Rewire, Berlin Atonal, CTM, Dekmantel, Nyege Nyege, MUTEK and Nuits Sonores. Their work has been covered by Resident Advisor, DJ Mag, Mixmag, Glamcult and VICE, with RA naming them a must-watch live act in its Breaking Through series; in the Netherlands, MERDEKA won the 3voor12 Award for Best Dutch Album.

Alongside their DJ and live work, Animistic Beliefs have pushed their practice into more ambitious audiovisual and theatrical forms. CACHE/SPIRIT and Thức Tỉnh expanded the project into performance worlds where music, movement, voice, mask-making, scenography, text, installation and visual storytelling meet. Drawing from their Dutch-Moluccan and Vietnamese-Chinese diasporic backgrounds, these works turn the questions behind their music into something physical and shared, opening up new ways of imagining identity, memory, connection and belonging.

Whether in a club, theatre or gallery, Animistic Beliefs know how to make people move and feel. Their work holds desire, memory, style, vulnerability and the pleasure of the party all at once, carrying many selves inside one body.