Listen to a floor-filling playlist from DJ and sound artist Lara Sarkissian

Welcome back to Selections, a series of artist-curated playlists from those in the know.

Lara Sarkissian just wants to connect. It’s something the LA-based DJ, electronic composer and sound artist has done via tracks and releases alongside other work shared as part of Oakland’s Club Chai collective. Co-founded by Sarkissian and 8ULENTINA back in 2016, the since disbanded collective and curatorial project – which centred local and marginalised artists as well as non-Western sounds – was renowned for its boundaryless label output and parties. It’s an ethos that continues to guide Sarkissian’s current creative endeavours: her regular NTS Radio show, for instance, as well as recent collaborative single shared alongside fellow LA producer Maral.

“My goal is to make every person on the dancefloor find a piece of sound that is close to their heart or that they can relate to,” says Sarkissian, who’s spent much of the year doing just that at events worldwide. She’ll do more of the same this autumn, too, with an upcoming appearance at Armenian festival Urvakan among the highlights.

Ahead of the event, Sarkissian drops by Crack Magazine HQ with an exclusive Buy Music Club playlist featuring tracks by K-Hand, DJ Manny, Darama, Liquid Asset and more. “I selected tracks that receive a lot of reaction from dancers during my sets no matter what city or country I’ve been playing them in. They always create special dancefloor moments,” says Sarkissian on the playlist.

“My priority is to make people feel comfortable [enough] to dance and get lost to sounds that are either new to them – [so that they] walk away that night hearing and loving something new – or familiar ones mixed in a style they haven’t heard before,” she adds. “Oftentimes presenting links between different geographies or region-specific genres through blends of shared or complementary styles of percussion.”