This morning we are thrilled to welcome Toulouse-based duo, Saåad, who weave an eclectic Sunday morning tape together with MailTape.
Descending from the Toulousian experimental scene, Romain Barbot and Gregory Buffier have produced more than a dozen 'ambient-drone' records under the name of [Saåad](http://www.saaadrone.com/). Through dynamics of elevation, suspension and tension, Saåad’s music reaches altered states. Consisting of thick patches of sound, it gathers powerful harmonies and buries them under samples of the world’s rustling sounds.
Saåad’s selection
Grails – The Burden of Hope
Romain Barbot: ” This track has been my alarm clock for years. It’s still one of my favourite tracks and it gives me chills everytime I listen to it. If the melody is important, the drums parts are pure magic. “
Kurt Vile – Best Love
Romain Barbot: ” I think it’s the perfect song to manage a Sunday hangover or a good excuse to stay in your bed. “
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Rattlesnake
Romain Barbot: ” I played this album on repeat for months. Surely one of the best records of 2017. This track has the same effect on me as a quadruple espresso. “
MailTape’s selection
Saåad – The Harvest
Sanjay: ” Recorded in the Church of Notre-Dame de la Dalbade in Toulouse, Saåad make exceptional use of massive Puget pipe organs originating from 1888. But Romain and Gregory don’t limit themselves to the organs. They’ve managed to use the entire church with its incredible Renaissance acoustics as a tool to craft a sense of overpowering ambience throughout ‘Verdaillon’, the album from which this track is taken. “
This Will Destroy You – The Puritan (Julianna Barwick remix)
Sanjay: ” Julianna Barwick flips this instrumental into a stripped-down dream. Though her voice is barely present here. It is only detectable as a very distant peal flitting around the edges of tumbling pianos, before she introduces a pulsing kick drum and lurching sub-bass. “
Pauline Oliveros – Suiren
Sanjay: ” This piece was recorded in a disused cistern 14 feet beneath the earth in Washington State by Pauline Oliveros, who sadly passed away on 24th November 2016. She developed the idea of listening as ritual, healing, and meditation that also led to her founding the Deep Listening Institute. She discovered the Deep Listening phenomenon in that cistern in Fort Worden in 1989, with its reverberation time of 45 seconds, alongside trombonist Stuart Dempster and sound artist Panaiotis, who are her co-collaborators on this album. “
Sophia Loizou — Silver Nemesis (Excerpt)
Sanjay: ” Evoking memories of pirate radio, Bristol-based musician Sophia Loizou creates a ghostly atmosphere with remnants of hardcore and early jungle percolating throughout. Fragments of radio transmissions seep in and out through tape-based processes and spectral processing, like a craggy landscape falling into disintegration. “
That’s all for today! Thanks for listening and much love to Romain Barbot and Gregory Buffier of Saåad for being our guests today, and to Camille Célestin for this episode’s beautiful illustration!
