Washington, DC · alt-R&B · club

Kelela

2 upcoming festivals

Avant-R&B's velvet futurist — club pressure and whispered intimacy in one voice, every reappearance treated as an event.

Kelela Mizanekristos, who records simply as Kelela, grew up in the Washington, DC area, the daughter of Ethiopian immigrants. She emerged in the early 2010s through Los Angeles club and experimental electronic circles, working with producers drawn from grime, UK bass and other dance underground scenes and pairing their tracks with a soft, closely mic'd R&B vocal.

Her music sits between traditional soul songwriting and the harder edges of club production, using sparse arrangements, heavy low end and layered harmonies to carry songs about desire, distance and repair. Remix and reworked versions of her material have been a consistent part of her output, keeping her catalogue tied to the dancefloor as well as to headphones.

alt-R&Bclub