See Blue Audio: ambient / electronic / beatless / cinematic / downtempo / eclectic / introspective… Shade rather than light...

'Final' – Bagaski (SBA #017)

Following the recent compilation, ‘Shade Rather Than Light: Anthology | One’, representing two years of releases and first cycle of See Blue Audio, the label returns with a new addition to its roster and a leftfield turn in musical direction. The artist is Bagaski and the seventeenth release on See Blue Audio is his new album ‘Final’.

‘Final’ certainly fits within the parameters of the label’s ethos of ambient, electronic and cinematic music, and is most definitely shade rather than light, but other descriptions could equally apply: lo-fi, exotica, vaporwave, synth noise, cold wave electronics and experimental soundscapes. As this suggests, there are traces of myriad influences – This Mortal Coil and 4AD, ‘90s Warp Records, Detroit techno, ‘80s US hardcore punk and DIY noise bands, psychedelia, ‘60s soundtracks and library music, and early electronic and avant-garde pioneers – to be heard in the music of Bagaski, but the end result is truly his own in a world where chaos reigns.

To add a little biographical colour, the artist was born and grew up on the Greek island of Crete before spending time in London, Rotterdam, Greece again and now Berlin, where he has been living since 2017. The city’s reputation for creative freedom clearly suits his sonic explorations, which often begin life as audio recorded on his mobile phone or sound recorder, or samples taken from videos and other sources. Synthesizer improvisation combined with both modular and software production techniques completes their evolution.

Bagaski releases have come on a variety of labels, including Æscape Sounds, Lovecrypt, Illuminated Paths and, most recently, Collapsed Structures as well as self-released material on Bandcamp. The next phase in his music evolution is with See Blue Audio and the ten tracks that comprise ‘Final’. Tracks doesn’t quite work as a description, however; they feel more like audio stories or diary notes capturing moments in time, which are then reconstructed into musical form. His work as a graphic designer also plays an important role here with scrupulous attention to detail and a strong sense of aesthetics. This aesthetic finds expression through the synthesizer, which is at the heart of the album.

The opening tracks have a churchlike, almost gothic, atmosphere, where cascading synths are sometimes combined with brittle beats, such as on ‘Daze’, or when the track remains beatless as with ‘C#’. The clue lies in the title to the short homage of ‘AD 4’ with its reverberating guitar sounds. On the fifth track, ‘A Precis III’, we move into darker territory, and this midway point serves as a prelude to the more ambient second half of the album. ‘Bellcat Melt’ has a hint of synth pop about it, while ‘Lydian Sequence & Filtered Noise’ is a melancholy muse. Bagaski’s cinematic sensibilities come to the fore on ‘Came Otherway’ and ‘At Georgetown’ before the electrical jolt of ‘Heartful VI’, and this dystopian soundtrack completes the album.

While ‘Final’ is most certainly about atmosphere and conjuring up mysterious aural landscapes, the music is not cold or detached; in fact, it is suffused with emotion, and connects with time past, present and future. This is the sonic imagination of Bagaski.

Photography: R.Cleveland Aaron.