Elkka explores connectedness on her new single ‘Your Skin’

Cardiff-born producer and DJ Elkka today shares her new single ‘Your Skin’ – the latest taste of her technicolour debut album Prism Of Pleasure, due for release on June 7, 2024 via Ninja Tune.

On today’s single ‘Your Skin,’ Elkka delves into the sphere of intimate connection with a raw and palpable intensity, expressing a deep longing to explore every sensation and texture of closeness. Speaking on today’s release, Elkka shares; “This song is about obsession and lust, when it’s so good it takes over your mind, body and soul.” The track serves as a mesmerising preview of Elkka’s forthcoming debut album, Prism of Pleasure, due June 7, 2024, via Ninja Tune.

Composed over 18 months, Prism of Pleasure encapsulates Elkka’s essence as a bold, queer woman who pushes freedom and sensuality to the forefront of her work. It hasn’t always been like this: born and raised in South Wales, with next to no queer community in her immediate vicinity, Elkka had to piece together her identity slowly and curiously, gradually finding herself along the way. After coming out and moving to London in her 20s, the musician started DJing, writing and producing, which eventually led to her launching her own record label, femme culture, and running her own queer club nights off the back of that. “I think sometimes things unlock, and start to make sense and then you just follow it,” Elkka says now. “I started to go out more and become part of a community. I was more confident in myself, so I was more confident in writing and producing – it all came together at the same time.”

Written around the notion of queer intimacy, Prism of Pleasure is like a peep into a steam-filled room of wonders, via the female gaze (a concept beautifully represented in the pink-tinged album artwork, photographed by Elkka’s wife and longtime creative collaborator Alex Lambert). From the smooth, silken vocals of ‘Crushhh’ to the slow-winding, breathy beats of ‘Your Skin’ (“I’m breathing you in, I want to taste every inch of your skin”) and the steady, undulating synth patterns of ‘surrender2me’, Prism of Pleasure unfurls like a patchwork of sweat-slick nights, emotional connectedness and hidden pleasures.

Elkka’s deep intuition is the unifying thread throughout her illustrious career: vibrant releases for Local Action and Ninja Tune have marked her as an unstoppable force within the London underground. This recognition metabolised when she was awarded BBC’s prestigious Essential Mix of the Year in 2021, spotlighting her radiant blend of classic house, breakbeat and experimental electronica to the world over. She has been widely supported by her peers including Four Tet, Floating Points, TSHA, Caribou, Sofia Kourtesis, Jon Hopkins, Ben UFO, SHERELLE, and recently won an AIM Award for Best Remix for her rework of Ela Minus’ ‘Megapunk’. Last year, Elkka released a 4-track EP of energetic club tools called DJ Friendly and she also contributed to the trailblazing DJ-Kicks series with a spellbinding mix that championed her love of women and the LGBTQ+ dance community of which Elkka is fiercely part of, regularly performing in intimate spaces and queer parties at the likes of Panorama Bar and FEEL IT. Stay tuned for more from Elkka’s Prism Of Pleasure.

To celebrate the album release in May, Elkka will be throwing four ‘Elkka Presents: Prism of Pleasure’ parties, kicking off at Badaboum in Paris on May 4 before rolling through London, Brussels and Manchester. General tickets are now on available here: https://ra.co/dj/elkka/tour-dates