Holland Festival x Africadelic: From Kuduro to Afrotech

Prince Pasensi is a DJ/Producer based in Amsterdam Southeast of Surinamese descent, creating a sound that blends his heritage with electronic music, drawing from styles such as Baile Funk, Batida, Techno, Highlife, and House. Growing up in Amsterdam Southeast, the most culturally diverse part of the city, he was surrounded by music from Ghana, the Dominican Republic, Suriname, Curacao, India and the USA.

Post-pandemic, Prince Pasensi took it upon himself to create and spin electronic dance and club music infused with Kawina and Kaseko. Coining the new style "KRIXYO", he pays homage to those at the root of music preserved by enslaved Africans in Suriname and across the diaspora.

Nídia Sukulbembe (Vale da Amoreira, Setúbal, 1997) is a DJ and one of the few female Kuduro producers. Her music is inspired by the Lusophone heritage of her parents from Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau, and by the ghetto of Vale de Amoreira in Portugal, where she spent the larger part of her youth. Nidia creates innovative Kuduro and Afro House dance music. Her debut is characterised by the use of hyper-realistic synths, rough beats and samples of her own voice, reminiscent of Jersey Club and Baile Funk.

Pedro Coquenão, better known as Batida, is an artist who was born in Angola and grew up in Lisbon. He has created music, dance, radio and visual art since 2007 and is considered a pioneer in the Afro-electronic scene. His latest album, Neon Colonialismo (October 2022) combines samples from old Angolan songs from the 1970s with modern electronic dance music, extending his musical range into dance, graphic design, photography, radio and video. Batida’s work is an open invitation to party, but also contains social and political criticism.