Berlin-based Dutch producer Nadia Struiwigh opens a vulnerable new chapter with 'Kokoro,' the first single from her forthcoming album 'IKIGAI,' arriving in 2026. Out today via her own label Distorted Waves, the track marks a striking shift for the Tresor resident, tracing grief and renewal through a deeply intimate sonic language.
'Kokoro' - Japanese for “heart” or “spirit” - was born in Struiwigh’s Berlin apartment in the months following her father’s passing. Made entirely on hardware, the track unfolds with a quiet emotional weight, its evolving textures shaped by the machines her father once encouraged her to explore. “Every sound carries his fingerprint,” she says. “Not because he made music, but because he made me love gadgets.”
'IKIGAI' sees Struiwigh move away from her signature propulsive techno and back into the ambient and electronica worlds she first emerged from, blending soft synth sequences with everyday field recordings, including her sister’s laughter. "I built in silence and let the machines cry for me and let them tell the story I couldn't find the words for," she says.
The album’s title, referencing the Japanese concept of “reason for being,” surfaced during a period of profound questioning. “These pieces came slowly,” she reflects, “like threads weaving a tapestry I didn’t know I was making.”
'Kokoro' offers a quiet, luminous meditation on loss; a spacious, emotionally charged prelude to Struiwigh's most revealing work yet.
