Nora En Pure

Nora En Pure makes deep house that sounds as if it was written at a piano before it ever met a kick drum. Daniela Di Lillo’s project grew from a Swiss studio partnership into one of the most recognisable melodic sounds on the festival circuit, backed by a radio show that has passed 400 episodes.

Johannesburg to Switzerland

Di Lillo (formerly Niederer) was born on 20 July 1990 in Johannesburg, to a South African mother and a Swiss father, and moved to Switzerland as an infant. She learned instruments as a child and grew up on classical music, pop and rock before electronic music took over. That background still shows: her tracks lean on piano lines, strings and soundtrack-style melodies, set over tribal percussion.

Saltwater, Come With Me and Enormous Tunes

Her first step onto the international scene was “Saltwater”, which borrows from Spandau Ballet’s “True” and appeared on a Buddha-Bar compilation in 2012. The breakthrough came a year later with “Come With Me”, which stayed in Beatport’s Top 100 download chart for more than seven months.

Much of her work came out of a long studio and label partnership with Christian Hirt, owner of Enormous Tunes. Popular releases such as “Morning Dew”, “Lake Arrowhead” and “Tears in Your Eyes” followed, along with the Conquer Yosemite EP in 2017. She has also made remixes and EPs for Faithless, Wretch 32, Klingande, Oliver Heldens and Dirty Vegas.

Purified Radio

Her weekly show, Purified Radio, airs on SiriusXM Chill on Saturday nights and goes out as a podcast on Mondays. It was nominated for Best Radio/Podcast at the 2019 International Dance Music Awards, the same year she won Best House Artist (Female) there, and its 400th episode came out in April 2024. In July 2016 she was invited to record a two-hour Essential Mix for Pete Tong’s BBC show.

Festival stages

Nora En Pure has played Coachella’s Yuma stage and was on the 2023 Coachella line-up. She has appeared at Tomorrowland several times, including a three-hour Daybreak Session on the mainstage alongside Joris Voorn and Carl Cox. She entered the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs at No. 73 in 2020 and climbed to No. 53 in 2023.

Her tracks work best early or late: long, melodic, built around a hook you can hum. If that is your side of the floor, keep digging with Kölsch, another producer who builds club records around melody.