Perera Elsewhere, the mercurial Berlin-based, UK-raised electronic artist, producer, DJ, lyricist, composer, sound artist and trumpeter releases atmospheric double single ‘NGL’/ ‘Visions’ featuring Neven today on LA label Friends Of Friends.
There is a mesmerising, kaleidoscopic visualiser created by Hugo Holger Schneider, ‘NGL’ sees Perera perform the track with her trumpet, a visual feast of grey and silver, as geometric shapes around her fragment and fracture.
Perera Elsewhere, aka Sasha Perera, with her maverick approach to beats, experimental pop, spoken word and tech-electro, releases the new double single to follow up ‘F*ck Le System’/’Time Will Tell’, both tracks feature rising Ivorian female rapper Andy S, which has received support from Gilles Peterson and Jamz Supernova on BBC Radio 6 Music. The new release comes ahead of fourth album ‘Just Wanna Live Some’, containing 12 tracks that evolve her sound and experimental creativity, to be released on 24th October 2025.
Acclaimed for pioneering her ‘Doom Folk’ sound, with the new double single, Perera takes her distinctive sonics to new levels. ‘NGL’ and ‘Visions’ featuring features regular collaborator Neven, the creator of one of Native Instruments most innovative software Playbox, used by Brian Eno, Arca and more. The double single sees Perera return to her brooding, philosophical and atmospheric best, taking lead vocals to deliver part spoken word and song, with an echoing, lo-fi electronic soundscape of synths, beats, effects and pops of trumpet. ‘NGL’, with its melancholic lyrics “Not gonna cry just for you. Grown up wise to all of you. Got my balance. In my stride. Not Gonna Lie U can’t kill my vibe”, shares Perera’s strength and resilience, pensive and defiant, bringing her vibes to rise above negativity. On ‘Visions’, Neven co-wrote and produced the track with Perera. The result is dark, seductive and slick alt pop, with liquid synths, hypnotic beats, soulful, yet distorted vocals and sparse, intricate arrangements.
Multi award-winning studio mastermind Perera Elsewhere has received numerous awards and media acclaim from Dazed, Pitchfork, Crack, Dazed, KCRW, Vogue, Clash and FADER for her use of technology to experiment with her voice, lyrics, beats, deep bass frequencies and sound design to explore the human experience. It was Perera Elsewhere’s music that first coined the term ‘Doom Folk’, seeing her release music from day one with LA label Friends of Friends, sharing three widely-acclaimed albums, debut ‘Everlast’ (2013), ‘All Of This’ (2017) and ‘Home’ (2022), achieving 4 million+ streams across her catalogue.
Over a decade after her debut, Perera Elsewhere, expresses herself emphatically, with fiery missives, thoughtful deviations and philosophical abstractions. With ‘Just Wanna Live Some’ the album title is a statement of intent, packed with Perera’s influences and obsessions, with a DJ’s brain, from her time mastering the trumpet as a teenager, circling the club scene in London, fronting bass-pop band Jahcoozi and working as one of the first promoters to bring grime and dubstep to Berlin.
‘F*ck Le System’ is an urgent feast of electro-rap meets tech-dancehall, propelled by syncopated typewriter clicks and arpeggiated trumpet stabs played by Perera. Its message is of potent feminine strength, it is keyed-up activism with timely lyrics delivered by Andy S’s defiant bars ‘Long story short bro fuck le système’. ‘Time Will Tell’ is underscored by dark bass, glitchy beats and ethereal vocals over which Andy S lays down a sick flow, trash talking any pretenders in true hip hop tradition. “If life is a map where’s the X and that?” Perera asks on ‘Dream Like That’ over a dubwise backdrop with pointed, poetic contemplations reflecting on addiction and the torment of capitalism. Her long-time obsession with grime emerges on ‘Angelic One’, with kaleidoscopic vocals across square wave bass prangs, jittery kicks that judder around fanfare-like horns. The achingly beautiful ‘Fountain’ features the vocals of Congolese-Angolan musician Batila and Senegalese singer Yaadikone, with Perera’s trumpet alongside Oren Gerlitz’s guitar. ‘Post Everything’ is haunting, searing white noise spiriting through Perera’s evocative brass meditations, while the title track ‘Just Wanna Live Some’ sounds like a variant Chicago footwork jam.
Perera Elsewhere said “The song ‘NGL’ is dedicated to all the humans / institutions / ideas that have disappointed me, it is dedicated to all those things. Chin up basically is what I’m saying. For me this is one of the most naturally beautiful and organically written songs. Just a vibe. I wrote it in Margate where I was invited to stay and work as a resident artist at the Prah Foundation studio. They had some dope gear, like the Hohner Pianet T, a very special piano from the 70s, which I laid down chords on, then added vocals and just felt the warms of this track. That Hohner and the Margate sea air transported me somewhere, and being back in the UK makes me melancholic.
I loved creating ‘Visions’ from scratch with my old friend, the fantastic producer Neven. This is the song that probably took the longest to make, purely because it took time to send so many parts and vocal recordings to each other, like a ping pong game. This was a very different creative process because both Nadine and I are producers. It has turned out RLLY POP in my eyes! There is a different vibe production wise with another producer involved adding a lot of ideas and pop sensibilities. The unexpected results is the great thing about collaborations. You learn a lot.
This new music is influenced by the grimey off-kilter club music I’ve been dancing to or playing for years. Recording with my trumpet has been special for me. On the album there’s tracks which sound like they are a soundtrack for some epic blockbuster sci fi movie, and songs which make you wanna cry and then get up for a dance and fight a war on all injustice out there. Like for anyone on any day, there are moods and mood-swings!”
Perera’s autodidactic technique is highlighted by a long list of collaborations, most recently Aho Ssan, Maral, 3Phaz, KMRU and German icon Nina Hagen. Elsewhere, but always rooted. No matter where Perera has found herself musically – she is a true multi-hyphenate.
