“I didn’t want the album to be all bangers — life isn’t always about bangers:” Carlita on producing her debut album, ‘Sentimental’For buzzy Turkish-Italian DJ and producer Carlita, her debut album was a chance to show another side of herself, to allow her fans to hear a moodier, more instrumentally driven and less-dancefloor-centric side of her sound. The aptly named Sentimental dropped on November 14 on Ninja Tune and features 13 sonically rich and dreamy tracks that seamlessly dance between joy, longing, melancholy and transcendence.
“I feel amazing about it,” the artist born Carla Frayman says of the project being out. “I was a bit scared about people’s reactions because it’s so different than what I do normally. I’m very happy that people responded open-mindedly. I produced a lot of music for myself and I never released them; some of the [Sentimental] demos came from that.”
Photography by Sam Keeler
While the album doesn’t feel out of place with the groovy deep house-leaning singles in her catalogue, it offers a deeper look into her melody-driven musical taste. It also showcases her musicality and skills as an instrumentalist and composer. Although Kerri Chandler’s house classic You’re In My System got her into dance music and Four Tet made her want to produce it herself, making music has always been core to who she is.
“[On the album,] I played the guitar, I played the bass. I played some pianos and some cello,” she tells us. “I grew up playing cello and piano…that’s what I’m used to; that’s why I really like it.”
Sentimental by Carlita
During her youth in Istanbul, Carlita played cello at Istanbul University State Conservatory and studied classical musical theory. As a student attending Boston College in Massachusetts, she played bass in rock bands and fell in love with dance music, sneaking into clubs to get her fix. She befriended a fellow Turk, who owned a club called BIJOU, who gave her DJ lessons and, soon after, her first residency.
Photography by Sam Keeler
After beginning her DJ career in Boston and New York, Carlita’s first music release came in 2017; a hypnotic organic house EP called Narayana on Chile’s Lump Records. By mid-2021, as life and parties in the US and Europe began to open back up after COVID lockdowns, Carlita became one to watch far outside of NYC. In that truncated party year, she played on bills with her mentor DJ Tennis in Los Angeles, Berlin and Miami, the latter at his beloved Art Basel extravaganza, Rakastella.
2022 saw her drop two EPs on DJ Tennis’ Life and Death Records, deliver buzzy remixes for Chloé Caillet and BLOND:ISH x Francis Mercier, debut the transcendent Cinecittà at Cercle, and begin work on Sentimental.
These core experiences in collaborating and creating were crucial during the making of Sentimental. Although much of modern electronic music is made with laptops and computers, Carlita’s musician roots led her to more tactile and organic studio techniques.
“I’m a very big fan of recording. Some of the tracks [in Sentimental], especially Trouble Symphony, Falling, and even Planet Blue, came out of recording instruments and me playing a lot of them, including the piano. This album is produced by me, [DJ] Tennis and Joseph Ashworth, and some artist collaborations, of course. In the studio, I always use a Sequential Prophet and Moog Sub 37 — I use the Sub 37 a lot for bass sounds. For drums, I used some Roland products and some TR-909 sounds in Ableton Live,” Carlita says.
Photography by Sam Keeler
“We used a Fender Rhodes for some of the keys, which is my favourite piano ever. Most of the synths were [samples], but we also recorded some synths and pads. For instance, the last track Little Things, has so many synths [we recorded] on it.”
The synth in question is the iconic Sequential Prophet-6, which was at the W1 studio in London where much of the album was recorded. As for plug-ins, she used some of Arturia’s software and a lot of Xfer Records‘ Serum. While live instrumentation was such an important part of the sonic landscape and creative process of Sentimental, it all began, as every track she’s made does, on Carlita’s laptop.
“I start everything on my computer and go to the studio and sometimes after I record some things,” she explains. She usually begins a track with a sample she finds or records herself, or a melodic idea. “Groove is everything, but I’m more musical than rhythmic,” she notes, sharing that she never starts with drums, as it’s not enough for her to get into the feeling of a track.
Photography by Sam Keeler
“I didn’t want the album to be all bangers because life is not always about bangers,” she says with a laugh.“I love producing a bit more melancholic or chill stuff too. So, I didn’t put so many bangers on the album, only two and the rest of them are more [for] listening, and when you’re [feeling] down and just more emotional.”
The bangers in question are the upbeat piano house bop Planet Blue featuring London-based singer/songwriter Cleo Simone’s soulful vocals and the deliciously euphoric and buoyant Forever Baby with Janet Planet of playful Aussie dance-pop duo Confidence Man. Both tracks have become staples in her sets, as they work well for pumping the energy up.
Forever Baby was originally supposed to feature another singer, but she kept rescheduling until time was out. Carlita was having drinks with Confidence Man in Hackney and mentioned it to them, who revealed that, ironically, that same singer was supposed to feature on DJ Seinfeld’s Now You Do—although it’s hard to imagine that not being a Confidence Man track. (Carlita got linked up with them after delivering a bubbling remix of the tune.) They saved the day by inviting Carlita to their studio, which happened to be a 10-minute walk from the pub. The instrumental was already done and, in minutes, the trio wrote the playful lyrics [“Take me on tonight / Bodies on the line / Keep me on forever, baby / I can blow your mind”] and Janet Planet sang them.
Sentimental‘s ultra-dreamy lead single Time has become one of Carlita’s favourite closing tracks, even though, like most of the other tunes on the album, she didn’t envision playing it in her sets. The emotive “Time” is in the same spiritual sonic canon of the transcendent 2012 Pachanga Boys classic it shares a title with. She debuted it during her and DJ Tennis’ 2023 Coachella Astra Club set at the fest’s clubby Yuma tent, where she realized its power as a closer. Its meaning has only grown as she’s continued witnessing crowds around the world vibe with it. “It’s very emotional because I hear a lot of people singing it when I’m playing. It’s like, wow, people know the track. It’s a very beautiful feeling,” she reflects.
Photography by Sam Keeler
She began constructing Sentimental two years ago and wrapped it up this past May, although the seeds for it were planted back when she first started producing music. A lot of the tracks were born from the demos she made over the years that she hadn’t found a home for, since they weren’t dancefloor-oriented. There was a lot to work with, and many tunes were cut from the album to make it flow. The track that became The Moment with SG Lewis actually came from the first demo she ever made eight years ago, which evolved into something completely different over the production process. The newest song she made was Wait For You with deep house crooner Elderbrook; Forever Baby was another one of the most recent demos.
All of the collaborations came together organically and in the moment, and there were people she wanted to work with where the timing just didn’t work out. “I’m very open to ideas. If I’m using someone else’s studio and there’s someone [there], I’m like, ‘Hey, do you want to try [working on something]?’ ‘Time’ came out like that, I had no idea who the person [British singer/songwriter Tom Havelock] was in the studio with another session.” Carlita says.”I just let life guide me on that…I’ve been collaborating for a long time because I love collaborations and I love working with people.”
The album fittingly opens with Trouble Symphony, the collab with her mentor DJ Tennis. While they’ve been linked up for four years and regularly DJ together as Astra Club, this is their first original track together as a duo. Their friend and fellow Italian Orofino also worked with them on the tune, which came together through a studio jam session. Both Carlita and Tennis cite vibey Norwegian folk duo Kings of Convenience as inspiration for the tune, and Orofino has toured with Erlend Øye of the group.
Photography by Sam Keeler
The connection between Carlita and DJ Tennis was instantaneous. The duo first met for lunch in 2020 after she reached out to him to work together. She invited him to her birthday party and told him to bring USBs, and they ended up B2Bing for 10 hours. “I was always into house, but I got so influenced by the really ravey music he’s been playing. And I think he also got influenced by my style that’s more melodic. We were exchanging songs for a very long time. We’re always very synced to each other.” He started out as her manager and creative director and remains a close friend, important collaborator, oft B2B-er, and advisor.
“Everything,” she answers when asked what DJ Tennis’ support means to her. “He made everything faster. He made my process faster, and I learned so much from him over the years. Now, finally, I can say that I am there as a producer, that I feel comfortable producing anything I want to produce. It took me time and he really helped me with this process.”
The biggest thing she’s learned from him in their four years of friendship and creative collaboration is not a production technique or a career hack, it’s a simple yet vital life lesson: being patient. “He’s very, very patient. I’m still not patient. But I think I learned to be a bit better,” Carlita says. “In this career, you have to be really patient.”
Photography by Sam Keeler
DJ Tennis, meanwhile, says what he admires most about Carlita’s approach to production and DJing is simple: “Curiosity. Period. That’s one of the secrets of growth and success. Curiosity, not taking anything for granted, being happy to discover new things,” he tells us over the phone.
“Carlita is such a hard worker and such an inspiring person because she’s always ready to do things, never lazy,” he adds. “I need to feed myself with things to do and Carlita definitely helps me with that.”
Photography by Sam Keeler
Naturally, Carlita’s openness, curiosity and musicality also come through when she’s behind the decks. As a DJ, she loves playing a wide range of rave tunes. She’s a regular at Ibiza’s famed left-field Circoloco parties (and their offshoots around the globe) and debuted on their label earlier this year with the Italo-sampling percussive house tune Cash For Love. The track is her biggest original tune on Beatport, underscoring its potency as a dance floor heater.
Still, her extensive experience behind the decks hasn’t left her numb to nerves — a realisation she felt when ticking off a bucket list item of performing a Cercle set, which was live-streamed to the world from a vintage film studio in Rome.
“When I did Cercle, I almost fainted. I got so nervous,” she says with a chuckle. She cites that, as well as opening for Dua Lipa during five international dates of her Radical Optimism tour this summer, as her biggest pinch-me moments. During those gigs, she got exactly 45 minutes with the New Rules singer’s arena-sized crowd. She prepared for these sets, making shorter versions of tunes to fit in the time constraints, but kept the sound authentic to what she’d play at a club or festival set. And they were into it.

Working with an orchestra tops her current DJ bucket list, and her 2025 goals are simple yet centred on continued growth: she wants it to be better than this year. How does Carlita plan on topping her banner year? By producing more tracks, of course.
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