Electronic

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Midgar Chronology (all tracks)

A2. Wata Igarashi - Flare

B2. Wata Igarashi - Hitodama

B1. Wata Igarashi - The Summon

A1. Wata Igarashi - Junctions

Buy/stream: https://kompakt.fm/releases/agartha_lp_dl

‘Where is Agartha? What is the specific region in which it lies? Along what road, through what civilizations, must one walk in order to reach it?.’ Saint-Yves d’Alveydre in 1886

Agartha, the debut full-length album by Japanese producer Wata Igarashi, is a mysterious, divine thing. Named for the mythical secret kingdom, understood as a complex maze of underground tunnels, perhaps designed by Martians who colonised the Earth tens of thousands of years ago, it’s a similarly mystical, perhaps even cosmic trip – but this time, exploring an inner, deeply personal cosmos. Beautifully detailed and bustling with rich incident, it takes Igarashi’s music to new places, which still retaining his unique sonic imprimatur; in this respect, it’s perfectly at home with Kompakt, a label that’s always encouraged artists to make the visionary music they need to create, to take risks and make sideways steps into uncharted territory.

An eloquent producer and DJ, Igarashi has been releasing techno for eleven years now, appearing on such imprints as The Bunker NY, Delsin, Midgar, and Time To Express; he has also self-released his productions via his WIP net label. Throughout, Igarashi has consistently explored his unique approach to techno and electronic music, one that’s eloquent and poised, even when it shifts into more psychedelic terrain; he’s a master at balancing the sensual and the functional, and he has an unerring ear for the right texture, the right tone, at the right time. He brings all of this into Agartha, his most thorough-going expression of self to date.

For Agartha, Igarashi had a strong concept he wanted to explore. Visualising specific scenes from an imaginary film based on the titular secret kingdom, he created soundtracks for those scenes, spending time during the pandemic in his studio, working away carefully at the ten tracks here. Given his background in creating music for television and advertisements, Igarashi is well-placed to explore the marriage of the sonic and the visual in such intimate ways, but freed from commercial concerns, he let his imagination run riot. He also drew on a rich palette of musical influences – techno is in there, of course, but you can also hear the smoky, improvised jazz of the likes of Miles Davis (to whom the album’s title is an indirect nod), and the minimalism and systems music of Steve Reich.

The latter is particularly pronounced on the gorgeous, beatless drift of “Floating Against Time”, where an arpeggiated sequence lingers, lovingly, around your ears for nine blissful minutes, coasting across swooning drones and waves of ambient noise. “Ceremony Of The Dead”, originally composed as part of a Sony 360 Reality Audio spatial sound concert, is a deep pass into systems composition, with various patterns overlaid and interlocking, before a wordless vocal rises from the depths, a gorgeous counterpoint to the swarming textures that gather across the track. On the other hand, tracks like “Burning” and “Subterranean Life” nudge toward Fourth World territory, painting deluxe dreamscapes of uncertain provenance; the title cut is an abstract drift-world, Igarashi painting an alien tableau dotted by shape-shifting creatures.

Agartha’s conceptual framework means that everything on the album sits perfectly together; listening to it in one sitting is a dizzying, lush experience. Its imaginings of inner landscapes recall, in some respects, the nautical, aqueous mythologies of the Drexciyan universe, though from different perspectives. But the result is Igarashi’s own creation, a deluxe, enchanting trip through the visionary Agartha of this unique producer’s cinematic mind’s-eye.

Agartha

Wata Igarashi - Floating Against Time

Wata Igarashi - Ceremony of the Dead

Wata Igarashi - Subterranean Life

Wata Igarashi - Searching

Wata Igarashi - Abyss

Buy 12"

Ruhig - A1. Lost In The Instability

Ruhig - B2. Pulse Width (Wata Igarashi Remix)

El próximo 14 de enero en Playa del Carmen, el DJ y productor fundador del sello Einmusika, formará parte del lineup de Every Saturday at Sacbe, una de las celebraciones que cada sábado de enero realizará el festival Coincidance en Sacbe, la casa de árbol convertida en club a mitad de la jungla en la Riviera Maya, presentando también a Dave Seaman, Matthias Meyer, Nico Stojan y Aurora Solovey. Encuentra más información en: https://thump.vice.com/es_mx/track/premiere-before-the-flood-de-einmusik-es-una-emotiva-marea-de-emociones

Everybody EP | Einmusika090

Mas información

[Premiere THUMP] Budakid & Einmusik - Before The Flood

DNCLIM 057 - Dark Brain - (Snippet)

At The Turn Of Equilibrium

Everlasting Love

Amazing selection of sounds by these two. The J mix was made in support of the earthquake/ tsunami victims in Japan - please donate to the cause if you like the mix.

Cio DOr and Donato Dozzy--J

Founded by https://soundcloud.com/severja in 2014, Midgar Records aims to bring innovative features into modern techno, and to deliver a new and meaningful sound loaded with positive energy. Leaving the trends behind, Midgar has a wide range of interests spanning from Techno to Ambient, IDM and Drum 'n' Bass. A sound that tells stories as people dance.

Midgar Label Nights

23.08.25 - Midgar x Acid Reflux . Berlin
14.08.25 - Midgar x Wigwam . Berlin
05.07.25 - Midgar x useless seconds . Berlin
15.03.25 Midgar & Friends . Berlin
18.01.25 Midgar x Mostra . Berlin
08.01.25 Midgar x Nali . Changsha
07.12.24 Midgar at Mothership . Sydney
06.12.24 Midgar at Miscellania . Melbourne
29.11.24 Midgar x Wigwam . Shanghai
23.11.24 Midgar x yisekai 易世界 . Hong Kong
02.11.24 Midgar x Amenthia at Fitzroy . Berlin
25.10.24 Midgar x Useless Seconds . Paris
06.07.24 Midgar x Patterns of Perception . Berlin
15.06.24 Midgar x High Above . Trekanten . Oslo
08.06.24 Midgar x Mantis . Amsterdam
23.03.24 Midgar x Domus . Bari
16.03.24 - Midgar x Amenthia at Fitzroy . Berlin
14.10.23 - Midgar x Nigma . San Sebastian
09.09.23 - Midgar x Under The Rug . Berlin
01.07.23 - Midgar x Monument . Berlin
08.04.23 - Polygonia, Leena, Lara Palmer . Oslo
12.11.22 - Severja, Wata Igarashi at Acquario . Milano
08.10.22 - Severja, Konduku at Gare . Porto
24.07.22 Midgar x Harmony Rec . Berlin
05.03.22 - Severja, Forest Drive West . Porto
02.10.21 - Midgar x Harmony Rec . Pereira
01.10.21 - Midgar x Harmony Rec . Medellin
09.11.19 - Forest Drive West, Nuel, Retina.it at . Berlin
31.05.19 - Nuel, Jacopo at Utop14 . Madrid
15.02.19 - Von Grall, Jacopo at Moog . Barcelona
18.01.19 - Nuel, Jacopo at Moog . Barcelona
14.12.18 - Ruhig, Jacopo at Moog . Barcelona
08.12.18 - Wata Igarashi, r2π, Ground Tactics . Berlin
17.11.18 - r2π, Ground Tactics at Fuse . Brussels
27.01.18 - Nuel, Ruhig, r2π at Gare . Porto
02.12.17 - Wata Igarashi at Acquario . Milano
20.10.17 - Shaded Explorer . Krakow
15.04.17 - Wata Igarashi at G . Okinawa
12.04.17 - Wata Igarashi at Dommune . Tokyo
08.04.17 - Wata Igarashi at Vurt . Seoul