Alphabet Street is a house music label named after a great Prince song. It is also a joint effort by two of Lisbon’s most dedicated dancefloor servants from two different generations of DJs. The motivation to do it sprung naturally from Yen Sung and Photonz hitting the studio, together, to collaborate and explore a vast intersection of references with one endgame: to make good ol’ house and techno that people can dance to.
Yen Sung is a pioneer of portuguese dance music and has been a vital presence in Lisbon’s house scene since the early 90s. At a time when it was still uncommon for women to command the dancefloor behind the decks, Yen became a symbol of fierce determination and undeniable taste for a new generation of Lisbon clubbers and DJs. Since her start at the legendary Frágil club, and later on Luxfrágil, where she’s still one of the main residents, Yen Sung has toured internationally and locally, cementing her reputation with stone-cold house music sets but also her own Chocolate City parties, dedicated to everything hip hop, r&b, soul and funk. Her studio efforts landed her releases on Basement Jaxx’s Atlantic Jaxx and Compost Records, where she has remixed OST legend Ennio Morricone.
Active in the Lisbon scene since the early 2000s, Photonz is a local mainstay whose work spans community projects like Rádio Quântica and mina as well as a myriad solo releases and many hours behind the DJ booth, both locally and internationally.
His off-kilter yet dancefloor-ready music has resonated widely, with key releases on Unknown To The Unknown, Crème Organization, naive and a 2019 LP on San Francisco’s legendary Dark Entries.
In recent years Photonz has been touring far and wide, bringing his fresh take on relentless techno, inspired breaks and spooky electro to places like Berlin’s PanoramaBar, ShenZhen’s Oil Club, India’s Magnetic Fields festival, US’s Bossa Nova Civic Club and São Paulo’s Mamba Negra and even an australian tour in 2019.
2021 marks the start of a new collaborative effort for these two, with a few releases coming up on multiple labels (TBA) and their debut single “Still” as Alphabet Street’s first step forward.
credits
released April 26, 2021
Written & produced by Yen Sung and Photonz
Artwork by Yen Sung and Photonz
Mastering by Photonz
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