Anomaly Music has officially arrived. The new label from the Anomaly collective — curated by Nick Berry, Harry Hooper, and Panthera Krause — has launched with its debut release, The Waves EP from London-based artist Redfreya. It is a statement of intent: three tracks of deep, hypnotic, emotionally charged house music that sets a clear tone for what the label intends to build.
The launch carries extra weight given the context surrounding it. Anomaly Radio, the collective’s beloved radio show, wrapped up its six-year run just last month. Over those six years, Anomaly built a reputation for championing what they called the “beautiful obscurities” of electronic music, running a digital magazine, hosting global events, and bringing curated programming and takeover parties to world-class venues across Berlin, Melbourne, and Sydney. Collaborators along the way included Marcus Worgull, Whitesquare, Andhim, Super Flu, and Reznik, among others. The radio show’s end could have read as a full stop. Instead, the label launch makes clear it was a comma.
Nick Berry was direct about the pressure that came with choosing the right record to open on. “We needed to ensure that the first EP was reflective of the label’s values and the sound that we are looking to foster,” he said. “Redfreya’s music is deep, hypnotic and soulful. She is a classically trained musician, multi-instrumentalist and singer. That matters now more than ever in this hyperdigitalised age.”
Redfreya is classically trained in piano, flute, and voice, with a deep grounding in jazz that feeds directly into her productions. Based in London, she has spent years developing a sound that fuses psychedelic and jazz-inflected house with cinematic, emotive weight. Her music has already found favour with selectors including Dixon, Jimi Jules, Marcus Worgull, Frankey & Sandrino, John Digweed, and Hernan Cattaneo — a support network that speaks to how seriously she is regarded across the underground circuit.
For Redfreya, the partnership felt organic rather than calculated. “I’ve followed them for a long time and always felt inspired by what they stand for, their vision, sound and aesthetic,” she said. “My three-track EP contains some of the most personal, emotional music I’ve written so far.”
The EP opens with its title track, which Redfreya describes as being inspired by the bittersweet feeling that happiness is always fleeting. “Even as we arrive in the happy or euphoric moment, we are already leaving — you can’t stay in that place. But you can keep returning there, again and again.” Musically, The Waves opens with a quirky bassline before rolling ’80s-style synths gradually pull the listener in. Shiny, dusty, and characterful sonic textures sit alongside each other as the track builds through melodic pads and chorus vocals, arriving at an emotional hook that leaves what Redfreya herself describes as “an open question mark hanging in the air.”
The second track, Daylight Savings, shifts the focus to the relentless human habit of chasing an imagined future at the expense of the present. Redfreya frames it around the lyric: “We chase the daylight / We chase the days / We chase the daylight / I’m searching for something more.” Sonically, it rounds things out with sparkling synth work and an uplifting bounce. The third and final track, Running, deals with isolation, repeating cycles in interpersonal dynamics, and the fundamental desire to connect — to feel less alone. It drives forward with thumping percussion and a relentless sense of momentum.
Taken together, the three tracks move through wistfulness, restlessness, and longing without ever losing the dancefloor as their anchor point. That balance — between introspection and physical energy, between classical musicianship and club-rooted instinct — is precisely what makes Redfreya such a fitting choice to carry the weight of Anomaly 001. Fans of the collective who followed Anomaly Radio through its six-year run will find the values intact. The format has simply changed.
The Waves EP is out now on Anomaly Music.
Sources: Decoded Magazine, EDM Identity
