upsammy

Dutch DJ and producer Thessa Torsing, better known as upsammy, makes dreamy, abstract dance tracks that fluidly switch between styles such as electro, techno, and IDM. The Amsterdam-based artist emerged during the late 2010s and earned acclaim for her adventurous DJ sets, which span a wide range of BPMs, and her gliding, spacious productions inspired by nature and science fiction. Following several sought-after EPs, she released her full-length debut, Zoom, in 2020.
Torsing grew up listening to electronic music CDs from her father’s collection, and her first rave around the age of 15 proved to be a revelatory experience. She and her friends began throwing illegal parties, attracting crowds numbering in the hundreds. She started producing house music after moving to Utrecht to study at an arts university. Calling herself upsammy after the song “Sammy” by Dutch crooner Ramses Shaffy, her sound morphed into a hard-to-categorize blend of psychedelic-tinged ambient techno and electro. Two upsammy tracks were included on the 2017 vinyl compilation Paerels, released by Nous’klaer Audio, and her debut EP, Another Place, appeared on the same label in 2018. Words R Inert soon followed on German label Die Orakel, and Whities issued Blue 03, a split EP between upsammy and BFFT. Her sound shifted closer to vintage IDM on her 2019 mini-album Wild Chamber (Nous’klaer Audio) and EP Branches on Ice (Die Orakel). Upsammy’s debut full-length, Zoom, a set of kinetic pieces recorded using a drum machine, modular synths, and some field recordings, arrived on Dekmantel in 2020. ~ Paul Simpson