Contact Sports

Contact Sports is the music project of visual artist, director, and model Illumitati (also known as Tati Bruening). At only 25 years old, Bruening has worked with artists and brands including FKA Twigs, xaviersobased, A24, YSL Beauty, Google, Grailed, among others, building a following of over 3M followers across socials through haunting digital art and liminal-space world-building. As Contact Sports, blasted and bulbous synth shards dot her music, mapping onto the doom and gloom of a generation morphed by a pandemic and an internet era that feels all-consuming. Raised in Newport Beach, CA, Bruening says she was bred to play sports," born to parents who met playing professional basketball in Germany. She played the sport at a varsity level in school, but found herself more drawn to music, fashion, and art. During high school, she discovered the sprightly EDM corner of YouTube shaped by channels like Majestic Casual and TheSoundYouNeed. Further inspired by reference points including Lapalux, Leon Vynehall, and Clams Casino, she released her first singles, "Enzyme" and "WWW" in 2024, followed by "Hydroxyzine" and the collaborative "Radioaktives Mädchen" with Miguel Angeles. She continued to evolve with her 2025 single "Malaysia Airlines." Now this year, with her full-length debut album on the horizon, a new era of Contact Sports has just begun. "In a time and generation where we are entirely hopeless for the future, I want to plant a seed in an AI data center and cultivate an entire forest," Bruening says. "This is the true expression that I would want to put out to the world without it being interrupted by algorithms or the influence of whatever audience I have on Illumitati.""