Yagya
Rigning

In the beginning, there were Moritz von Oswald and Mark Ernestus: the Basic Channel universe was born, one of the most fascinating stories in all electronic music, a phenomenon deeply rooted in underground territories, a movement for the few. Some call it Dub Techno. Dub for compositional techniques and that never-too-hidden reverence for tape echo. Techno for straight kick drum, obsession, and analog gear; we minimize, but in reality, there is more, much more: it is music more for minds and souls than bodies, it is a means of transport to worlds never seen and sensations never felt before.

This and more will contribute to creating the aura of legend with which the two are still clad today. Maurizio, Quadrant, Cyrus, Basic Channel... the pseudonyms change, but the philosophy does not; it is work that is at least twenty years ahead (1993), whose quality, historical impact, and ultimately innovation are never in question. The fact that the releases, especially under the name Maurizio, have reached this cult status, with few equals in the techno world - unless you look at Detroit - testifies to it perfectly. The very act of associating this world with sacred Detroit does the same. The phenomenon expands, and so an open label for third artists is born, entranced by this magnificent art and eager to contribute to its development. From the eponymous Basic Channel comes Chain Reaction, two paradises where, in addition to all this (quality, experimentation, innovation), you can find some of the most rarefied and spectacular outputs history remembers, authentic electronic journeys.

Porter Ricks, Fluxion, Substance, Vainqueur, Monolake, Vladislav Delay, Gas, Pole, Rod Modell were the first to follow them, some fully embracing the cause, some only temporarily, some experimenting, some following the trail. From the latter, Modell, another universe is conceived, more continuous than parallel: Deepchord first, then echospace (the latter in collaboration with another dub ace, Steven 'Intrusion' Hitchell). Here too, the quality is never in question, and the only thing one might criticize is perhaps the persistence in continuing the Basic Channel story after eighteen years, where especially Moritz has continued looking elsewhere, without ever losing the roots (the project Rhythm & Sound, 100% dub, for example, is equally successful). The results are nevertheless stunning, the records not many but all of high quality. The different approach, more minimalistic and inclined towards ambient rather than techno, gives the echospace project its own defined personality, and thus the issue becomes irrelevant in the long run. Absolute respect and long life to Rod Modell. But the one who is bringing the so-called dub-techno, thus rewriting the aforementioned Basic Channel story, to uncharted territories has a specific name: Aðalsteinn Guðmundsson, better known as Yagya.

This boy from remote Iceland, with a couple of not-so-lucky 12"s behind him, releases two sensational albums that take him to the pinnacle of the genre, "Rhythm Of Snow" and "Will I Dream During The Process?", the first one, in particular, reaching extraordinary levels. The matrix is always Basic Channel, the filtered kicks, pulsing dub basses, spatial echoes, and the typical 'underwater' sound are the same, but Yagya progressively brings this matrix, record after record, into a new dimension. Less experimental and more ambient. Less hypnotic, more ethereal. Less icy and more warm. Less dark, more radiant. Listening to his albums is akin to floating in the sky, among clouds, flying in a somewhat undefined space, from which you would never, ever part. It is the quintessential rarefied sound.

This way of conceiving Dub Techno is fully realized in the third, magnificent album "Rigning", which comes out on a multicolored yet meager-label (Sending Orbs of Kettel & co.) that distinguishes itself precisely for its particular approach to electronics, the genuine melodic sweetness, and the beauty at the level of arrangements that the selective catalog offers (the SO 002 by Secede is an encyclopedic entry in this sense). This record could not have a better label. Absolutely. It is a work of indescribable beauty and tangible delicacy, which adds a melodic, emotional, ethereal, otherworldly part to the cerebral-hypnotic style of the Basic Channel. It is probably inappropriate to limit it to this genre; we are indeed talking about a break-through and innovative album, the most innovative since the times of the originators themselves, an album that unfolds through ten tracks, each one more beautiful than the last, tracks that seem distant, never clear, foggy, signals from a distant and unknown world, less uncertain than the alien one from which the two German aces communicated, more welcoming, simply paradisiacal. The peace of the senses.

The word that gives the work its title is the Icelandic translation for rain, and this is an omnipresent element in all the tracks; if indeed Moritz & Mark innovated, among other things, with the constant use of white noise at very low volumes in the background of the tracks, which contributed to making them even more disorienting, Yagya instead prefers the natural and crystalline sound of rain, sometimes soft and light, other times more consistent and threatening, following a sort of 'path' perfectly aligned with the color of the cinematic arrangements sewn around him, with a quiet-after-the-rain finale. It is, however, rain on a spring day, rain that comes after twenty years of big clouds, never completely 'exploded': the biggest and most vaporous clouds the genre history remembers. A genre often looked down upon due to a certain repetitiveness in stylistic approach, but that nonetheless can rarely be touched in terms of quality, care, or simply the grandeur it offers. The new Yagya is just the latest step in this now solid reality, less and less elite, increasingly a more than fundamental step in the great book of electronic music.

The rest is already history: sweet piano notes that are anything but defined appear from time to time, field recordings of rolling jars or birds or thunder, some imperceptible organic glitches reminiscent of the best Gas but with a tone that relates more to a certain musique concrète (Luc Ferrari above all). The kicks are literally buried in walls of pads and reverbs, practically imperceptible, following a more shoegaze aesthetic than dub-techno, while synthesized choruses with ethereal or sometimes neoclassical connotations are often preferred to pad carpets, as those that populated the previous album; the basses are more pronounced than ever, even in their 'hiding', the melodies, simply among the warmest, most inspired, and touching ever heard. It is pointless to dwell too much, this is an album to be experienced, and just the "Rigning Tíu", probably one of the greatest masterpieces of music in the last ten years, would be enough to make even the most skeptical skeptics reconsider.

There is no doubt, he is the heir of Basic Channel.