STM 311 - Arigto

German duo Arigto creates deeply intimate and referential music that resonates with the listener in an almost transformative way. Although they grew up together and greatly influenced each other's tastes, Arigto has been releasing music for only two years. There's already an unusual certainty in Arigto's work ever since their first release, a flexible sense of direction typical for developed artists. Their 'autodidactic experimental electronic journey' has indeed started from a young age and with a classical education, traces of which are evident in their gracefully unfolding sonic narrative. Combining classical music, unruly distorted elements, and a DIY touch, their sound is mainly influenced by photography, paintings, and movies. It's a synesthetic exploration of duality, infused with uncharacteristic gentleness as if every concept is breakable. The same elegance defines the abstract obscurity of their covers and videos. They released three EPs so far and an incredible full-length unseen untold forgotten that came out on Noisia's Division label and introduced me to their music. While the album can be loosely described as an ambient piece full of rough textures, its most striking feature is the prevailing sense of fragile, melancholic euphoria counterbalanced by the intuitive use of voice as a strange instrument inviting the listener to feel its meaning. With the last two EPs – Prancing On The Edge Of The Abyss and especially Persona – Arigto has organically turned to cleaner acoustic sounds of cello and percussion. The devastating echoes of Israelian vocalist and long-time collaborator Yifeat Ziv continue to haunt their cinematic landscapes, its incredible range uncovering new conceptual layers. Persona that came out on March 19 2021has served as a base and inspiration for this unique and personal mix Arigto has created for our journal.

STM 311 revisits the key elements of Arigto's work through the lens of Persona, rebuilding its very foundation in dialogue with their previous releases and those of other artists. Starting with two of their unreleased tracks that feature a doleful and ominous sound of the cello, the mix establishes a fragile dynamic between clean and abrasive motifs that keep turning on their head with each influx of new sound. It is divided into three segments with no clear sense of borders: the first part focusing on numerous faces of distortion, the second on serene, almost sacral undertones, while the conclusion represents unstable reintegration. It all seems to emerge from a crystalline void that produces esoteric sensory experience. Tracks from artists such as Vessel, Constantine Skourlis, or the ambient techno master FRKTL provide an insight into Arigto’s influences, placing them in lineage with experimental artists whose introspective focus emanates raw and nuanced vulnerability that surges through every fiber of their work. With STM 311, Arigto show a new level of progress within their practice that will surely keep evolving in stunning and unpredictable directions.

With this mix, which we build around our recently released EP 'Persona', we tried to add what we intentionally stayed away from in our music for the first time. We aimed for a sound appearing to be mostly acoustic, interrupting reality only in small parts and abandoning the abnormal and heavy electronic elements, which we usually set into contrast with our music's acoustic elements. The first half of this mix focuses on one end of the duality’s spectrum, with tracks mostly edited to make them appear more, or purely distorted and the second half of it tries to save the disrupted balance. The ending finally melts the concept together, with one of the most peaceful edits in this mix, set in contrast with the distorted bass, which we continuously used to deface acoustic tracks in the mix.