New York artist and producer Deer Park and German experimental electronic artist Valeria Litvakov have turned a pair of chance encounters into two new collaborations, “Better Than Mine” and “The Neverhood.” What began with a meeting backstage at Webster Hall in New York has since stretched across continents and into two very different recording environments, resulting in a pair of singles that capture the spontaneous chemistry between the two artists.
The first track, “Better Than Mine,” came together after Deer Park and Valeria Litvakov both opened for James K at Webster Hall earlier this year. Following the show, Litvakov visited the SoHo studio where Deer Park works, and the two quickly turned their conversation into a recording session. The result was created in what feels like a musical quick draw—a “one take” moment of lucidity that explores ideas surrounding success, fulfillment, and the uncomfortable feeling of being ordinary.
Their collaboration didn’t end in New York. Later in the year, the two reunited at Creepy Teepee Festival in Prague, where the festival became the starting point for their second track. After the event, several of the artists who had performed relocated to an Airbnb in the Czech countryside, creating an unconventional temporary studio environment where Deer Park and Valeria Litvakov recorded “The Neverhood.”
The releases arrive just ahead of the start of Deer Park’s 2026 EU/UK Tour. The seven-stop run will take the artist through six countries, including an appearance at Pitchfork Paris, bringing his genre-blurring approach to audiences across Europe.
Deer Park is the solo alias of Andy Santella, a New York-based multi-instrumentalist and producer whose work moves comfortably between seemingly distant musical environments. Rather than treating genre as a fixed destination, Santella uses it as something to move through and reshape. His music pulls together disparate influences according to what resonates, creating a body of work defined less by a single recognizable sound than by an ongoing curiosity about where different ideas can lead.
That approach was already evident on Terra Infirma, his 2024 debut album released through New York experimental label Deleted. With “Better Than Mine” and “The Neverhood,” that instinct has produced two snapshots of a developing creative relationship—one shaped by a late-night studio session in SoHo, the other by the temporary community that formed around Creepy Teepee Festival.