Listen to a new FADER Mix by Alif Hilal (fka Lyra Pramuk)

Alif Hilal is a "child of Berlin and Berghain."

The Pennsylvania-born, Berlin-based vocalist, producer, composer, and nascent DJ — who changed her name from Lyra Pramuk following her conversion to Islam — has become globally renown for her dense and spirited vocal-based compositions. On 2020's Fountain, she stacked her multi-purpose voice on compositions like "Tendril" and "Witness" which move with momentum and mystery. On 2025's Hymnal, Hilal merged her expansive and expressive voice with thick throngs of strings. She's since tapped some of dance music's most essential producers — such as Laurel Halo and DjRUM, among others —to re-work those compositions on Hymnal (Resung).

Hilal, who says she's a "raver at heart," has merged her love for nightlife and the liberatory potentials of dance music with her own music practice, foraying into playing more "club sets." Now, "[DJing has] becoming a kind of central object or instrument in terms of how I think about production, composition, and musical storytelling," Hilal tells The FADER.

For her FADER Mix, Hilal crafted a set she dubs as "'ungenred' pluralism that revolves around a modular continuum of techno (and house)." On the high-bpm set, she leans into a mix of experimental techno and smile-inducing classics from the likes of Princess Superstar and Peaches. Notably, this set is "an excerpt of a live DJ set [she] played in June 2026 with Opificio and Cosmogram in Venice, Italy."

"I played for almost three hours, this is the middle portion of the set, recorded live in an extremely hot room with no air conditioning. DIY, steamy, sexy, intimate." Get ready to move.

Listen to Alif Hilal's FADER Mix on Soundcloud, Mixcloud, and Youtube — and check out its tracklist and read an interview with Hilal below.

goat (JP) & Ricardo Villalobos - "Orin (Ricardo Villalobos Variation)"
Basement Jaxx - "Get Me Off"
Tzusing - "Balkanize"
Loraine James - "Glitch Bitch"
Cio D'Or & Donato Dozzy - "Limone"
James Bangura - "Allthegirls (feat. Farsight)"
Mason & Princess Superstar - "Perfect (Exceeder) (Vocal Club Mix)"
Sepehr - "Bow Before The Sun"
Al Wootton - "Body Healthy"
K-HAND - "Gotta Make You Move"
M.I.A. - "XR2"
Mattias El Mansouri - "Reticulum"
Gesloten Cirkel - "Submit-X"
Surkin - "Ghetto Obsession 2006"
Lechuga Zafiro - "Tero Sex (Danza para piedra volcánica y tero)"
Dinamarca & L-Vis 1990 - "Mario's Interference"
Peaches - "Rub (Paula Temple Remix)"
Donato Dozzy - "Hypno Trance 9"
Dave Clarke - "Way Of Life (feat. DJ Rush)"
Djrum - "Out of Dust"
Hate - "Human Resources"
Agent Orange - "Give A Little More"
DJ Znobia - "Beat Cursor"
alys(alys)alys - "effervescence"
DJ BABATR - "Lets Do It (te-te)"
DJ Figo - "El-ahly"
DJ BABATR - "Now Shout"

The FADER: How would you describe DJing or mixing as part of your artistic practice?
Alif Hilal: I'm very technical and very detail oriented with mixing in the studio. With DJing I was doing more deep listening/"ambient" sets for some years already, but this year I bought XDJs [for my] home and have started to play club sets more. I am a raver at heart, and so I think it's just natural that I am turning back to try my hand at it now. I'm happy it's all starting to feel natural now and I'm finding my own flow with it, that's really rewarding.

What’s the first set you ever played?
I did some more casual DJ sets 10 years ago at bars like Ficken3000 and Möbel Olfe, and a set a few years ago at Sanatorium of Sound in Poland, and I consider my first official club set to be the one I played in Berlin for Ohm's La Casita party this past May.

What DJs or artists inspire you?
So many! Too many to count, but I love DJs who are technical but also super lively, creative and experimental in their approach, a list in no particular order: CCL, DJ Marcelle, Crystallmess, Objekt, Gyrofield, DJ Nobu, Bobby Beethoven, Barker, Chuquimamani-Condori, Mica Levi, Ogázon, Ricardo Villalobos, Verraco, Lechuga Zafiro, to name a few.

Do you identify with a specific scene? If so, how has your local scene shaped your artistry
I'm a child of Berlin and Berghain in particular, that's my history and my roots and has shaped me tremendously, but I feel very connected to the experimental festival circuit in Europe: Unsound, CTM, Atonal, Rewire, Draaimolen, Lost, and many more...

Artistically and politically, it's important for me to try to represent the history of dance music as a form of radical resistance, and to try to tell a story in my sets of the musical diversity that exists all over the world and across many different times. It's a kind of research into contemporary folk music I guess, considering a broad spectrum of what we might consider folk today.

What’s the most memorable set or show you’ve ever played?
Performing a private outdoor opera staging of my music with dozens of horses, a choir and dancers in the marshlands of the south of France with Hermès.

What excites you about the future of nightlife?
The possibility for nightlife to continually renew and generate culture and our sense of reality.

What creative or artistic trend needs to die?
1.5 minute songs? Not totally against it, but generally I'd like some more bandwidth, depth and space.

How would you describe your FADER mix?
This is a new club style I've been playing with in the last months. It's a global style of DJing in the sense that I'm really trying to play music from all over the world. As I am a vocalist and work a lot with vocals, there's a sense that the voice is an important aspect of how the set develops and the journey being somehow vocally-driven at times.

Beyond music, what's an interest you have that may surprise people?
I'm very interested in the application of quantum physics onto human biology and human health. It's a fascinating emerging field that is changing much of what we think we know about the human body and how our health functions.