Nadia Struiwigh – Circle The Sun & Kairo
Acclaimed Berlin-based, Dutch DJ and producer Nadia Struiwigh announces her new double A-side single ‘Circle the Sun / Kairo’, out 5th February 2026 via her own imprint Distorted Waves. The release offers two contrasting emotional landscapes from her forthcoming album ‘IKIGAI’ (6th March 2026)—one a celebration of life’s perpetual motion, the other an intimate meditation on grief and remembrance.
Following debut single “Kokoro” (November 2025), which marked the first glimpse into Struiwigh’s most personal work to date, the double A-side showcases the album’s emotional range—from breakbeat-infused momentum to classical-tinged sorrow.
“Circle the Sun” embodies light, energy, and the life force that keeps turning. “Circle The Sun is the light I keep holding on to, because the sun has become my symbol of warmth, energy and feeling alive, and I always return to it when I want to feel that simple truth again,” Struiwigh explains. “It’s breakbeat-ish, moving, playful in the right way, but still deep, like one of those tracks that carries momentum and spirit at the same time, and for me it represents the part of life that keeps turning, creating, expanding… no matter what. It’s a reminder in sound form that light is not something you wait for, it’s something you turn towards.”
In stark contrast, “Kairo” explores the depths of loss and longing. “Kairo is the emotional one, it’s layered and almost classical in a sense, a song for loss and remembering, for being in hope and in grief at the same time, and I won’t lie… a lot of tears were shed while creating it, because it came straight from that place where missing someone is so big you can feel it in your whole body,” she reveals. “It’s the sound of love that doesn’t disappear, it just changes shape, and that’s why this track feels so intimate to me… it holds that tenderness and depth, like a memory you can’t explain with words, only with sound.”
Created entirely on hardware in her Berlin apartment near Hermannplatz in the months following her father’s passing, ‘IKIGAI’ represents a profound exploration of grief, memory, and the search for purpose. The album’s title—a Japanese concept meaning “reason for being”—emerged during a period of existential questioning.
“IKIGAI was born in the quiet space between grief and remembrance,” Struiwigh explains. “Made entirely on hardware, from my living room in Berlin near Hermannplatz (my dad’s name is Herman—the odds), in the months my father passed away. Every sound, every sequence, every texture carries his fingerprint. Not because he made music, but because he made me love gadgets. Circuits, signals, blinking lights. He was the man who opened me up to machines and taught me how, eventually, to listen to them and use them for my craft.”
Departing from the propulsive techno that has defined much of her career, ‘IKIGAI’ sees Struiwigh return to ambient and electronica territories, weaving in field recordings from daily life—including her sister’s laughter—alongside synthesized textures created on Japanese gear like Yamaha SEQTRAK, KORG, and Roland.
As part of the wave of pioneering female artists reshaping electronic music alongside Charlotte De Witte, Honey Dijon, Peggy Gou, Nina Kraviz, and The Blessed Madonna, Struiwigh has built a reputation for genre-defying artistry. Her work has been championed by Music Radar, Mixmag, DMY Magazine, Shesaidso, Datatransmission, and Orbmag, with previous releases on Dekmantel, Blueprint Records, and klaer.
A resident at Berlin’s legendary Tresor and sought-after live performer, Struiwigh’s sets range from beatless ambient immersions to kinetic peak-time techno. Her productions have graced prestigious platforms including Resident Advisor, Phantasy, Bleep, and Red Light Radio.
On 24th February 2026, Struiwigh will present the ‘IKIGAI’ album release party at Berlin’s Planetarium, where she’ll perform part of the album as a full-dome AV experience—an immersive audiovisual journey befitting the album’s cosmic, introspective nature.
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