Pedro Coquenão has been creating music, dance, radio, visual and plastic arts under the Batida alias. 

After a release in Portugal in 2009, he kept promoting his work with the support of indie blogs and connecting with like minded dj´s and, in 2012, he caught the attention of the referential Soundway Records that has chosen Batida to be the the first new artist to be released by the label.

He was the first Portuguese and Angolan artist to be part of a Boileroom session. He has done 5 by now. 

Pedro is also a regular participant of Damon Albarn´s project, Africa Express.  He remixed Damon´s “Heavy Seas Of Love”. 

In 2014 he opened  four Stromae’s Big Arena Tour shows. Including Bercy.

Batida at NOS Alive, in 2015, earned him the title the best show by Les InRockuptibles.

“A show completely out of format, classy and fascinating from beginning to end. Images, dance, music, staging and committed discourse here is more of the same, while mixes and invents a language in itself – that of Batida.” Maxime de Abreu 

Outside Portugal, his show was presented at NYC Summerstage, Glastonbury, Roskilde, Pitch, Lowlands, Eurockéennes, Les Suds à Arles, Transmusicales, Eurosonic, FMM Sines, Womad Festival, where it was described as “Fantastic” by The Guardian and at Womex as “one of the best” by NPR.

In February 2015, Batida welcomed the Grammy award winners, Konono Nº1 in his garage where they recorded  “Konono Nº1 meets Batida”, that was released by Crammed Discs in April 2016, and reached #1 on the CMJ, the US College Radio chart.

In 2016 had a participation on the Brazilian Carnival, in São Paulo and in Recife as part of the Rec Beat Festival. He also played in Paris, London, New York, Nairobi, Lisbon, Porto, and had his premiere in Colombia at the Festival Detonante. In December he returned to NYC to present his show, this time at the Lincoln Center Atrium.

2017 started with a another memorable performance at the Kennedy Center, followed by globalFEST, where he was chosen to close the Studio at Webster Hall. After returning from NYC, he flew to the Netherlands Eurosonic Festival, where he presented a very rough version of  The Almost Perfect DJ, a new performance he debuted at the first Iminente Festival, a festival in Oeiras, Lisbon, curated by the Portuguese visual artist and international reference, Vhils. In June this year, he did this performance again in the UK edition of the festival.

The Almost Perfect DJ performance was also presented at TEDxPorto, in the main Casa da Musica auditorium, at La Dynamo de Banlieues Bleues, Paris, WebSummit Lisboa, NYU Abu Dhabi Arts Center and Museu Serralves, Bozar and CCB.

In 2019 he created the soundscape for a dance piece called “Hip: A Pussy Point of View” by Piny, an intersectional feminist, choreographer and one the most talented dancers in Portugal.

 Gilles Peterson introduced him as follows in a dedicated special on BBC 6 Music:

“There’s certain types of music that come out of Portugal, Lisbon, over the years…! All of this is sort of linked together for me by this one producer who goes by the name of Batida. It’s just on another level in terms of how he presents his show, how he approaches his music making, whether he is Djing or performing live, or adding visuals, philosophically just how he goes about his business.”

This year will see him presenting a new project called IKOQWE, with Ikonoklasta,  a longtime collaborator, based on field recordings done in Angola by Hugh Tracey, with new music coming from March on.

This year he will be presenting himself as Batida Dj, IKOQWE and The Almost Perfect Dj.

Press:

« That’s Batida’s steez, sort of George Clinton in reverse: free your mind and your lower extremities will follow…()…He jabbed at the crowd with a torrent of cynical banter between numbers, with a plainspoken charisma akin to Iggy Pop or Rachid Taha.» – New York Music Daily

«  It may well be a game-changing 21st century electronic African dance album. » – Songlines

« His work can be held up to the light of many angles. » – The Wire

« Beyond music, what Pedro brought us to Iminente Festival was the revelation of a powerful voice of artistic resistance, proving to be, an indefatigable archaeologist of lost memories. » – Alexandre Farto aka Vhils