Anastasia Kristensen announces debut album Bestiarium Sombre

Roughly translated from Latin as ‘gathering of dark beasts’, the album is built around what Kristensen is calling Anthropomorphic Music — each track a portrait of an animal, real or imagined. It’s a concept that traces back to something she said in a 2023 interview about wanting records “with a face”, tracks that carry genuine personality and a life of their own. Applied across a full LP, the results are exactly as strange and singular as you’d hope.

Across 40-odd minutes, Bestiarium Sombre draws on the free spirit of bleep and jungle, filtered through a dubbed-out IDM sensibility that feels closer in spirit to Roald Dahl than Philip K. Dick. The Secretary Bird stomps snakes; the Hydraulic Whale expels air in swathes of stretched acid; a Black-Footed Ferret skulks through spiky cyberdance. It’s meticulously crafted stuff, built for floors but resistant to anything generic — a world unto itself.

Lead single ‘Magpie Song’ is out now, its cinematic percussion and big synth waves doing exactly the job of prologue, setting the scene for something well worth the journey in.

Kristensen also has a run of dates coming up, including a live set at Copenhagen’s RUST on May 1st ahead of the album’s release.

Bestiarium Sombre is out May 8th on vinyl, download and stream. Pre order here

Tasters below…

Tour dates:
06/03 — Copenhagen, Den Anden Side
27/03 — Canberra, One22
28/03 — Melbourne, Sub Club
04/04 — Sydney, Chinese Laundry Club
01/05 — Copenhagen, RUST (live)