HAAi Drops ‘DIGITiSE’
London-based, Australian-born producer, songwriter and DJ, HAAi, releases DIGITiSE today, a dancefloor-focussed ode to her community that sees HAAi working with several collaborators, including Skybreak and Cantoalegre, who both appear on ‘Talking Walls’.
HAAi x Skybreak ‘Talking Walls’ (feat. Cantoalegre) is a sonic journey through some of the sounds and influences that have opened up to her from playing DJ sets. The track showcases both HAAi and Skybreak’s sonic worlds and the addition of a choir – Cantoalegre Colombian children’s choir – is reminiscent of the choirs that appear on the previous album, a thread that brings deep emotion to the track. “It’s one to hug your mates to at the festival.”
Talking about the choir, HAAi says, “I’ve had the fortune of playing in Colombia, and more specifically Medellín, many times. It’s a place I hold very dear to my heart. I was there in January to play a festival and felt the urge to reach out about working with a local kids’ choir. Within two hours of having this thought, I was speaking with the principal of Cantoalegre about what I wanted to do. I’ve worked with different choirs across my last two albums, so it was really exciting to be working with new voices in a city I love so much.
There was something about hearing the lyrics through the voices of the next generation that gave the words so much more hope and meaning. It’s an experience I will never forget, and I’m so proud of what we made.”
DIGITiSE extends the world of 2025’s critically acclaimed album HUMANiSE, but has become something so much bigger, an album of killer dance floor cuts that shows this indomitable artist going from strength to strength. Describing the album as its predecessor’s “bigger, ravey sibling”, HAAi goes on to explain that “DIGITiSE holds the hand of HUMANiSE and walks it to the club”.
“I’ve spent so many hours in clubs – on the dance floor and in the booth – and I really wanted to put that into this new album” explains HAAi and DIGITiSE takes us on a genre-defying dancefloor trip, the kind that HAAi has become revered for.
HAAi will be in action this month with a series of dates that includes an open to close 10-hour marathon set at Refuge in New York on October 18and an all-night open-to-close set at EartH in London on October 31, with production and set design by Playbody. These shows arrive off the back of a string of festival dates that included a 100% production set at Maiden Voyage, World Pride Amsterdam, and WeCanDance. HAAi returns to the US for Time Warp on Nov 27 in Los Angeles, Nov 28 at San Francisco’s The Great Northern and in Miami for Art Basel on Dec 3 b2b Salute, Raw Cuts, The Ground. In addition, she has just announced an Australian tour with The Avalanches for 2027 – full details below.
Talking about the collaboration with Playbody for EartH, she explains, “The first time I went to Playbody, I was spellbound by how immersive the production was. It was so considered, but not at all overdone or pretentious. Every element felt intentional and designed around the experience of the partygoer. It had such an impact on me that I couldn’t stop thinking or talking about it for weeks, so I reached out to Cass O’Grady, Playbody co-founder, and asked if we could collaborate on my Earth Hall all-night-long show. I then met with Joel Saldeck, Playbody co-founder and designer, and we began working on ideas for the production and set design for my show.
The main goal was to create an immersive experience that would make sense over the course of a marathon set, as well as to break down the wall between me, the DJ, and the crowd – to remove the hierarchy that’s so commonly felt in a club. I’m so excited to share the design for this show with everyone, and to be able to play within this structure for eight hours.”
The album expands HAAi’s community bringing in new collaborators Echonomist and Skybreak plus Cantoalegre, a children’s choir from Medellin, Colombia – as well as artists she’s worked with previously – Pat Alvarez, ILA, James Massiah and Kaiden Ford.
DIGITiSE continues to explore what it means to be human in an increasingly digital world. The pace of AI and technology, the division this is causing and the impact felt by many has only increased in relevance since the 2025 release. One antidote to this, for her, has always been to gather people in a room or on a dancefloor to feel community and unity, something she vehemently champions and nurtures throughout her work. DIGITiSE opens up to this spirit of community: from the collaborators on the album – who all represent unique and different voices in dance music, to the team who created the visuals led by Martin Falck (Fever Ray / The Knife / Icona Pop), a playful and camp counterbalance to the dystopia of HUMANiSE, and the live production team that brought new dimensions to the album on the stage, they have all helped usher us into HAAi’s vivid welcoming world.
HAAi, who was Beatport’s Artist of the Month over summer, has been weaving elements of the new album into her DJ sets. The album was designed to be played out and seeing audience reactions in real time allowed her to refine breakdowns, tighten grooves and feel the physical response on the dancefloor. A series of intimate headline shows at the Courtyard Theatre, followed by a performance at the Royal Albert Hall earlier this year also invited audiences in to the DIGITiSE world early. These rare live performances, which will continue into 2026, have been designed to create intimate and immersive spaces where the lighting – designed by lighting engineer Belinda Best – works with the environment to physically draw you into the performance.
DIGITiSE picks up where HUMANiSE left of – quite literally: the last track of HUMANiSE fades out with the choir, which picks up again on the opening track of DIGITiSE before we hit the dance floor. Talking about the album, she explains, “DIGITiSE was created with intention: I wanted to make music I could play when I DJ. I wanted it to sonically spread across multiple lanes in the way I would play an all night long set.”
HAAi credit Lamia Karic