Alex smoke
Book nowWidely acclaimed producer and composer Agoria (aka Sebastien Devaud) has unveiled brand-new track ‘Embrace’. Laced with Phoebe Killdeer’s haunting vocals, the record showcases Agoria’s talent for creating deep, stripped-back, stirring melodies, and follows the success of 2017’s ‘Boomerang’ EP and ‘Scala’, which has amassed almost 5 million Spotify streams. An introduction to his new ‘drift’ style, a fast-emerging new genre expressing freedom in musical taste, Agoria explores the idea of listeners flowing between genres, creating a new musical trend and algorithm that allows artists to have creative space. “Drift is a mind-set, it’s about freedom in music, and musical taste. Drift as a genre of music is a bridge which unifies, links territories, creating new frontiers, inventing new codes’ Agoria explains. ‘Drift is sharing the couch between your guilty pleasure and your tasteful opinion.” A man of many talents, the production is a combination of Agoria’s interests within contemporary art, fashion, AI and poetry. "Well, the melody of 'Embrace' is inspired by the sounds of my fridge!” he adds.
“It was falling apart but making beautiful noises! I recorded it and found the harmonies in the bleeps! A few days later, Phoebe called me saying that she had recorded her vocals at home with a random microphone, and asked if we should re-record it properly in my studio. I thought that we would never get the same sensuality and elegance in a second round, so we decided to keep it natural, and embrace the magic that sometimes just happens!”
In addition to his work as a producer, Agoria has cemented a reputation as an eclectic curator, compiling four mix CDs that present his unique ability in pairing tracks of very different origins and layering them in creative, sometimes even awe-inspiring ways. Deservedly so, Resident Advisor named his contribution to the At The Controls series from 2007 as one of the best mix-CDs of the past decade. Experimenting with contemporary art, the release of ‘Embrace’ follows another busy summer for Agoria, where he dipped into the world of AI and space age technology. Enlisted to take part in Sonar x NASA’s campaign earlier this year, Agoria programmed music to be transmitted into space. Alongside this,Agoria debuted his new live show at the likes of Barcelona’s Sonar Festival, Forbidden Fruit in Dublin, Belgium’s Dour Festival, All Points East and Bestival in the UK, and We Love Green in Paris.