MARIA Die RUHE turns real life into electronic music.

Producer, singer and live artist MARIA Die RUHE moves between electronic sound, voice and human experience. Encounters, emotions, bodies and voices find their way into her music and come back transformed.

The name MARIA Die RUHE started as a joke. People around her used to say that, for all her boldness and bursting energy, there was one thing she did not have: Ruhe. Inner stillness. So she decided to put exactly that into her name.

What began as a joke stuck.

At the centre of her music is her voice. Chameleon-like and constantly shifting, it can be intimate, fierce, playful, dark or raw. Her sound travels through house, acid, dark disco, indie dance and different shades of techno, with touches of jazz and pop.

Genre is a palette, not a rulebook.

On stage, MARIA moves between a full live set and DJ sets with live vocals. Her live sets bring driving beats, lush synths, piano, electronics and vocals into a physical, high-energy performance. Voice, beat, movement and atmosphere become one shared current as the line between concert and dancefloor starts to blur.

Her DJ sets with live vocals are built on curiosity and risk. MARIA mixes her own productions with tracks she loves, playing with vocal loops and FX and following unexpected turns along the way. She reacts to the room, talks to the crowd and lets the energy lead. Variety over predictability. The colourful, the strange and the wild over the safe route.

For MARIA, this direct exchange is part of what keeps club culture alive. Music is not something that simply happens on stage or behind the booth. It happens between people.

For a moment, we are one.

MARIA’s journey has taken her from Berlin clubs to festivals and stages across Europe, South Africa, Brazil, Australia and the US. Previous appearances include Fusion Festival, Kater Blau, Sisyphos, 3000 Grad, MOYN, Amazon Club (BRA), Stray L.A (U.S.), Timeless Festival (SA) - just to name a few.

With nearly 20 years on stage, more than 60 original releases and over 25 million streams to date, MARIA has built a body of work on her own terms. Her debut album ENARCHY was released in 2023 on her own label RTTR (Reduced to the Root).

Her catalogue stretches across independent labels and includes remixes by Matthew Herbert, Moonbootica, Gudrun Gut, Andreas Henneberg and Beth Lydi.

After surviving cancer in 2026, desire, intimacy, the body and what it means to truly feel alive took on a new urgency in her work. These questions shape her second album, currently developed under the working title “Lessons in Lust”.

At its heart is a search for joy, desire and human connection in times of confusion, crisis and disconnection. For “Lessons in Lust”, MARIA leaves the studio and goes out into the world.

It starts with something real. A person. A place. A moment.

From skydiving and contemporary ballet rehearsals at the Halle Opera to kitchens, gardens and studios, she collects conversations, voices, field recordings and sounds from everyday life. Drums, cello, trombone and flute meet synths and electronics. Field recordings become rhythms. Voices become textures. Everyday sounds are cut apart, manipulated and rebuilt.

The encounters become the music.

An ongoing video series follows the journey from first meeting to finished track. At the same time, material from these encounters forms the foundation of her new live set, where drums, cello, trombone and flute meet voice and electronics.

The new live set performance premiered at the opening of Fusion Festival 2026 - somewhere between concert and club, intimate, physical and unpredictable.

Born in Thuringia and based in Leipzig, MARIA’s path has taken her through Berlin and San Francisco and into studies in jazz voice. She holds an Artistic and Pedagogical Diploma in Jazz Voice and has worked with various band formations. That background runs through her songwriting and production, but especially through the way she uses her voice as an instrument.

MARIA also runs two labels, RTTR (Reduced to the Root) and EXOFRAME, creating space for music outside fixed categories and on her own terms. Ownership, release strategy and creative freedom are part of her everyday reality as an independent artist.

That experience also feeds into her work with other artists.

Since 2010, MARIA has worked as a coach, mentor, ally and creative companion, with a particular focus on female producers and independent artists. Music, voice, songwriting, production and performance are part of that work, but so are the realities of building an independent creative life.

There is no blueprint. The starting point is always the artist. What is your voice? What do you want to build around it?

MARIA supports artists in finding their own artistic language while developing the skills, structures and confidence to turn ideas into sustainable projects. Ownership, sustainable touring and creative independence are part of that conversation too.

Making music. Running labels. Working with artists. Going out into the world, listening and creating something new.

For MARIA, electronic music is not an escape from real life. It is a way of getting closer to it.

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SOME GLIMPSES ALONG THE WAY. A few stops from the journey so far.

Open Air & Festivals:

FUSION FESTIVAL + MOYN Festival + circle of life + MEERESRAUSCH FESTIVAL + 3000GRAD Festival + BURNING MAN - IDEATE & EMPATHY + KLANGTHERAPIE Festival, Bayreuth + WIR SCHWESTERN, Odonien, Köln + JIM CAMP FESTIVAL, Munich + DEEP WITH YOU FESTIVAL, JENA + HEXENWERK FESTIVAL + HOME BURN, Frankfurt + FTE Burn + KOMMUNE 13 OPEN AIR, Bayreuth + RKNKT FESTIVAL + ABOUT YOU PANGEA FESTIVAL + KATZENSPRUNG FESTIVAL + ZYTANIEN FESTIVAL + TARMAC FESTIVAL + + SNNTG Festival, Hannover + GEHT RAUS + DECOMP BURN, Frankfurt + KOLLEKTI SÜD Open Air, Berlin + TRAVELLING HEDGEHOG, Tallinn + ART BÄR, Auerstedt + ROCKEN AM BROCKEN + OPEN FLAIR + KANNAPPEE, FÄNCY, Leipzig + ZYTANIEN FESTIVAL, HANNOVER + UCKERALM FESTIVAL + YOU & ME FESTIVAL

Clubs:

+ KATER BLAU berlin + RITTER BUTZKE berlin + distillery leipzig + SÜDPOL Hamburg + ODONIEN, Cologne DISTILLERY + HARRY KLEIN, München + OBJEKT KLEIN A, Dresden + KIT KAT HEDONÉ, Berlin + BUCHT, Berlin + MJUT, Leipzig + DOCKS, Hamburg + MUNA + SCHUMACHER CLUB, Bochum + KATAHAIFISCH KUFA, HILDESHEIM + FREUDENTAUMEL, Berlin + HALLO WERNER, Augsburg + CHARLES BRONSON, Halle + CRACK BELLMER, Berlin + WAAGENBAU, Hamburg + ELIPAMANOKE, Leipzig + FREUD CLUB, Frankfurt + INSEL DER JUGEND, Magdeburg + BUNGALOW, Augsburg + SEKTOR EVOLUTION, Dresden + YOKO CLUB, Hamburg + FAVELA, Münster + SO&SO, LEIPZIG + MENSCH MEIER, BERLIN + ZUR GRUAM, München + KOSMONAUT, Berlin + CLUB CENTRAL, Erfurt + BURG VERNISSAGE, Halle + MUSIC MATCH, Dresden + SALT & PEPPER + KÜHLHAUS, Flensburg + OSTXXX, LEIPZIG

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International:

PERSONA, Ankara + PARTYMAG, Turkey + PLOINK FESTIVAL, Norway DE MARKTKANTINE, Amsterdam + ELEFANT, OSLO LA REVE FESTIVAL, AMSTERDAM + KIFF, AARAU, SWITZERLAND + SCHRON, POSEN, POLAN

South Africa:
TIMELESS FESTIVAL, Capetown, South Africa
SKYLAND FESTIVAL, George South Africa

Brazil Tour:
WARUNG, Pato Branco-PR
PONDER, Maringá-PR
AMAZON CLUB, Chapeco - SC
UNIVERSO PARALLELO, Londrina - PR
THE SECRET MOVEMENT, Cascavel - PR

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Radio:

RADIO EINS, Berlin + SUNSHINE LIVE, Radio + SPUTNIK CLUBPERLEN + UNITED WE RISE, Podcast

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Press:
CLASH Magazin + METAL Magazine + Glamglare NYC + RCDLBL + DNGD