BLAK SAGAAN
territory ︎︎︎ EU / UK | agent: federico@hangarbooking.com
In an age that demands hyper acceleration, kinetic flashes and byte voracity, Blak Saagan sticks out like a sore thumb with a sprawling body of work that requires attention and unlocks profound symbols
and meaning with every passage. After a 5 year gap, the Venetian composer returns with his most personal and openly political statement yet,
‘Un Sequestro Lungo 10.000 Anni’, a staggering 108 minute triple album soundtracking a dystopian city through flashes of futuristic fourth world visions, warehouse 80s rave-ups, meditative trance and dark rumblings.
Following his acclaimed ‘Se Ci Fosse La Luce Sarebbe Bellissimo’ was never going to be an easy feat but Samuele Gottardello (Blak Saagan) approached the fresh canvas with a renewed sense of
commitment sparking a dense parallel world inhabited by paranoia, control and repression. A world that is relieved by the figure of a woman with the body of a bird emerging from the asphalt and freeing
humanity from the “sequestro” (kidnapping) to which it has long been subjected. Dystopia pushed to the limits and sadly close to our current affairs.
Stemming from a collaboration with Iranian illustrator Majid Bita, ‘Un Sequestro Lungo 10.000 Anni’ narrates a city populated with imaginary creatures bustling to the rhythms of Iranian punk, rebels with mullets sweating through Middle Eastern hallucinatory disco beats, propaganda VHS tapes and Saagan’s usual atmospheric celestiality built on library music, kosmische architectures and industrial serenity.
Referencing the ecosystem that Marija Gimbutas and Philip K. Dick handed down to us, Blak Saagan’s music threads the needle hypnotically moving from Carpenter synth worship, the anxiogenic
cyber-pulsating ‘The Blak Fire’ or the persian EDM of ‘Idoli Rotti fatti di Paura ed Oro’, to metaphysical experimentations that recall the work of legendary Italian sound architects Egisto
Macchi and Nora Orlandi, the bouncing astral esoteric ‘La Dama con il Corpo di Uccello’ and the spiritual cadence of ‘Mila nel bosco’. The authoritarian climax of the album is fully delivered on tracks
like ‘Il Giorno di Zaha'kol’ and ‘Daēvā - Falso Dio’ where pounding severity reaches the textural punishment of heavy-hitters like Godflesh and Ramleh, industrial malaise for the masses.
‘Un Sequestro Lungo 10.000 Anni’ is also the first Blak Saagan album to feature vocal contributions, heightening the cinematic experience and carrying it spiritually. Ambient-folk goddess
Julinko brings an elysian quality to ‘Il Giorno di Zaha'kol’, the submerged vocals of techno produce Annalisa Iembo (Jerome) are printed on the drugged out coldwave hit ‘Benzocrazia’, Italian illustrator Liz Van Der Nüll posse-raps on the synth-punk siren blaring ‘FRREPa’ while cosmic loner James Jonathan Clancy ethereally closes ‘Idoli Rotti fatti di Paura ed Oro’.
‘Un Sequestro Lungo 10.000 Anni’ plays like a puzzle where every piece eerily discloses a historical
metaphor, a captivating voyage where Blak Saagan’s time machine crosses 10,000 years of patriarchy, monotheism, colonialism and capitalism, denouncing a cruel present, while remembering a
gloomy past. Some might call it conscious escapism or spiritual socialism, some might see it a evoking a new realm, a path trailblazed by outsiders like David Sylvian, Muslimgauze and Chrome... painting a black horizon from which, perhaps, hope can still emerge.
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FB / IG / SPOTIFY
ANSWER CODE REQUEST
territory ︎︎︎ ITALY | agent: jacopo@hangarbooking.com
Both as a DJ and a producer, Patrick Gräser aka Answer Code Request has honed a hybrid musical approach that stands out in a world of uniform 4/4 techno. Melding pad- driven harmonies, intricate breaks and an industrial sonic palette, Gräser has occupied a unique space within the Ostgut Ton cosmos since debuting on the label in 2012 and becoming a Berghain resident shortly thereafter. His various releases and remixes for Ostgut Ton, MDR, Dolly Deluxe and Monkeytown Records continue to be highly sought after. As a DJ, he has taken his bass- and breaks-heavy techno to clubs and festivals around the globe, while remaining an integral part of the Berlin scene.
Born and raised in the East German town of Fürstenwalde, Gräser was 9 years old when the Berlin Wall fell – an event that marked the end of his musical education via the East German youth radio DT64 and the beginning of his fascination with hip-hop, acid and early UK hardcore. As a teenager, he shared the same passion for electronic music as fellow Fürstenwalde natives Marcel Dettmann and Marcel Fengler, eventually venturing out into Berlin’s post- reunification club landscape, which at the time was dominated by an anarchic, DIY-party approach and dance music which had yet to solidify into rigid categories.
In the 90s he spent his days training to become a carpenter in a forest workshop near his
hometown; weeknights were spent listening and mixing the cross-genre selection of records
bought at Hardwax and Delirium on the weekend. Unsurprisingly, it’s this broad musical spectrum – from jungle, drum ‘n’ bass, Detroit and IDM to UK bass – that led Gräser to develop his characteristic sound on his very first releases via Music Man and his own synonymous ACR imprint.
Born and raised in the East German town of Fürstenwalde, Gräser was 9 years old when the Berlin Wall fell – an event that marked the end of his musical education via the East German youth radio DT64 and the beginning of his fascination with hip-hop, acid and early UK hardcore. As a teenager, he shared the same passion for electronic music as fellow Fürstenwalde natives Marcel Dettmann and Marcel Fengler, eventually venturing out into Berlin’s post- reunification club landscape, which at the time was dominated by an anarchic, DIY-party approach and dance music which had yet to solidify into rigid categories.
In the 90s he spent his days training to become a carpenter in a forest workshop near his
hometown; weeknights were spent listening and mixing the cross-genre selection of records
bought at Hardwax and Delirium on the weekend. Unsurprisingly, it’s this broad musical spectrum – from jungle, drum ‘n’ bass, Detroit and IDM to UK bass – that led Gräser to develop his characteristic sound on his very first releases via Music Man and his own synonymous ACR imprint.
IG / BANDCAMP / SOUNDCLOUD