Idee Fixe Vinilo y CD

Review: Joseph Shabason, Matthew Sage, and Nicholas Krgovich form a harmonious triangle, both musically and geographically. Hailing from Toronto, Colorado, and Vancouver respectively, they converged at Sage's barn studio nestled at the foot of the Rockies to explore their shared talent for finding beauty in life's mundane moments. Shabason, known for blending late 80s adult-contemporary and smooth jazz aesthetics into ethereal soundscapes, joins forces with Sage, who combines instrumental prowess with synthesis and field recordings to evoke the natural world's whimsy and profundity. Completing the trio is Krgovich, whose observational poetics add a relatable touch to their calm expressionism. Their collaborative album, warmly Shabason, Krgovich, Sage extends the wry and melancholic micro-miracles established in their previous works.

Review: It's no wonder Idee Fixe references Synth Britannia in the notes for this debut album from Sauna. Nodding to a BBC documentary that charts the genesis, and subsequent chart rise of synth pop across the UK, while in many ways what's here feels far removed from the retro-futurism of The Human League and peers, there's a DIY atmosphere that more than bridges the gap. Natural talent making raw ideas sound machine tight.

'Carousel' is the perfect example. Opiate lyrical delivery and loose, low-slung rhythm bely the taught framework holding everything together. 'Over' matches for sharpness, taking the tempo down a notch and upping the glittering effects that make this entire record a kind of rhythm & blues-electronic hybrid, only getting deeper and more engrossing on 'Levitate' and 'Folded Hands', like a much more accessible, poppier offspring of Silver Apples.