NICOLAS BOUGAÏEFF today shares
“Designer Love,” the latest single to be taken from his forthcoming album,
Begin Within, due out
November 11 on Mute.
“Designer Love,” Bougaïeff explains, “
…is about the aftermath of messing up so bad you push somebody away, and only when you lose them do you realise just how deep your feelings were.” Watch the video
here.
Pre-order
Begin Within on vinyl, CD, and digital platforms
here.
MORE ABOUT BEGIN WITHINBegin Within is an album that embodies huge musical and personal evolution with Bougaïeff working on entirely new sonic terrain by using his voice as an instrument for the first time.
“It's the sound of me grappling with transformation,” he explains.
The role of the voice adds a new dimension and dynamic to the shape, tone, and groove of the record and is also symbolic of Bougaïeff quite literally finding his own. Bougaïeff’s voice features on every track. Sometimes it’s distorted and treated as it coalesces into fractured beats, at other times it’s more obvious and clear. This vocal element also allowed him to explore personal stories and narratives.
“Another major theme is ‘intimate Berlin stories,’” he says
. “It's about several breakups, some recent, some not so. I opened myself up emotionally and I learned to speak about my emotions. It may sound strange but this was just something that I didn't do before.” These intimate Berlin stories are manifested in field recordings from nights out – at locations such as the Berghain bathroom – recreating crepuscular adventures.
Despite this being an album rooted in emotion, personal transformation, and communicating new feelings, it’s still an incredibly smartly crafted piece of work. Bougaïeff is, after all, a hugely experienced composer who has studied electroacoustic composition and has a doctorate on minimal techno.
“On ‘Begin Within,” the beginning is in the middle, and the music radiates out from there, so if you listen to the title track in forward and reverse it's the exact same thing. ‘Inner Pattern’ is a polytemporal locked groove in the first half, which unfolds in the second half.”
Musically the album is an eclectic one, veering from glitchy IDM to immersive ambient, and from experimental pop to jagged electronica. Throughout, the sound of transformation – both musical and personal – is something that is inescapable.
No comments:
Post a Comment