Melodic Techno Found Its Visual Era, and Anyma Is the Proof

Melodic techno graduated from Afterlife side-stages to the Las Vegas Sphere. Anyma's new ÆDEN show is the clearest sign the genre has entered its visual era.

Written By Techno Airlines

Published June 15, 2026

Reading Time 2 Minutes

Credit: ObAnyma / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

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A decade ago melodic techno was a side-stage sound, a slower, more cinematic cousin to the main room. In 2026 it headlines the Las Vegas Sphere and fills Brussels parks. Anyma’s new ÆDEN show is the clearest sign yet that the genre has entered its visual era, where the production is as much the point as the music.

If one artist maps that shift, it is Anyma. The Italian producer, one half of Tale of Us and the figurehead of the Afterlife sound, has spent three years turning melodic techno from a DJ set into a full audiovisual spectacle.

From an Afterlife side-stage to the Sphere

The climb has been steep and quick. Afterlife built its name on dark, emotional sets and striking stage design at festivals. From there the sound moved to main stages, then to arenas. In 2025 Anyma became the first electronic act to hold a residency at the Las Vegas Sphere, and played a headline set at the Giza pyramids. The trajectory is hard to miss.

ÆDEN and the visual turn

ÆDEN, which debuted at Coachella before launching as a world tour, is the clearest statement of intent. The concept fuses science fiction with ancient mythology, wrapping the music in a narrative world rather than a light show. Anyma brought it to the Parc du Cinquantenaire in Brussels on 6 June, and it anchors his Tuesday residency at the new [UNVRS] club in Ibiza all summer.

That Ibiza booking is telling. As we covered in our Ibiza 2026 residency guide, the island’s newest room handed Anyma a weekly slot built entirely around the ÆDEN production. The visual show is no longer the support act for the music. It is the headline.

The Techno Airlines take

There is a fair question under all of this. When a genre becomes a spectacle, does the music still lead, or does the screen. Melodic techno has always leaned emotional and cinematic, so the visual turn feels less like a betrayal and more like a natural endpoint. The risk is that the production becomes the only language a new act can speak. For now, with Anyma, the music and the spectacle still pull in the same direction.