Riding the wave of tangled melodies, Arjun Vagale’s slinky music loops and funk-laden techno sounds have twisted every conventional composition with great finesse. Aside from experimenting with atypical rhythmic structures, the artiste has captured all elements of heightened sensory awareness with his futuristic spin on techno/tech house. While offbeat textural arrangements and gnarled harmonies predominantly dominate his musical identity, his ability to transform any angular sound into a piece of melody is impressive to say the least. “My sound is continuously evolving. I don’t prefer to tame it in a box. It is deep, techno and sometimes dark but it is always meant for the dance floor,” said Arjun Vagale who performed in the city recently.
Shrouded in eccentricity, Vagale’s tunes have often been characterised by their resplendent sonic palettes and grandiose atmospheres. Luring every mortal soul into a musical landscape of delicate harmonies, the artiste has managed to traverse the depths of orchestral textures and earthy tones. While gritty chords and angst-ridden timbres delve into hitherto unexplored territories, the hypnotic arrangements of synthetic rhythms in his sets breathe life into swirls of delicate musical layers.
“I would like to take people on little musical adventures with my sets. For me, music is an extremely personal and intimate affair. I do what excites me and what feels natural to me. With respect to music, evolving is the name of the game; doing just one thing for too long will make you stagnant. These days everything is connected. It’s all about being free to create what you like and let that creativity flow. Undoubtedly, it is exciting to pick up things from different spaces and create something that everyone is able to feel and experience,” said Vagale.
Though it has been ten years since Vagale alongside Ash Roy and Ashvin Sharma formed Jalebee Cartel, a genre-bending electronica act, he soon decided to embark on an alternative musical journey that eventually turned into a lifelong love affair. Hovering beneath clouds of groove variations, his sets often allow timeless melodies to flow in elegiac rivulets. Serving up a delicious ‘beat bounty’ that is rich in fleeting organic and synthetic riffs, his sounds are submerged in a pool of futuristic and spaced-out percussions.
Leaning towards an experimental identity that is drenched in dark undertones, Re: Focus, his live solo project explores the artistic side of electronic dance music with intelligent audio-visual elements.
Cloaked in a deliberate air of mystery, the act is a revolutionary take on exploring consonant chords and complex time signatures with brevity and soul. “The reason I did Re:Focus was to get away from this whole EDM craze, and prove to people that you can still have honest, underground and meaningful dance music on stage,” said the artiste who is currently spending his summer playing on the coasts of USA and Europe.
So, what does the future have in store for Arjun Vagale? “I have a few EPs on Christian Smith’s Tronic Music, Octopus Recordings and one on Kaiserdisco’s KD Music. And, I am particularly excited about a special collaboration with my Spanish brother Ramiro Lopez,” he said with a beaming smile.