Artist: Bast
Label: Aksioma
Release: 2007
BAST is without a doubt one of the most unusual and shape-shifting bands in Slovenia. On their previous record The Secret Life of the Next Door Neighbour they went heavily electronic, even though plenty of avant-garde jazzers swore by them too, and it also won over everyone who looks to music for a free form of expression with meaning and purpose. Back in my previous job, when I even worked with them at the label, I realized I was dealing with a band that knows exactly what it’s doing – for them, music was never just a way to make a quick buck, but the language they used to talk to the world. After years of waiting, nonstop lineup changes and some fascinating Burn Out nights, their third record has finally seen the light of day – Retinal Circus.
It’s also their last – the BAST project has wrapped up its work. Why is that? The list of contributors says a lot (BAST was surely a great playground for many to show off and live out their most hidden musical urges), and some strange information about a dispute between the BAST project and Zavod Aksioma leaked out, unintentionally… In short, the story is (sadly) over! But we can console ourselves with the fact that it stopped at its peak!
The ideological engine of BAST was for a good while made up of Aldo Ivančić, mainly on the instrumental side of the creative work, and Davide Grassi as the visual artist. And at BAST, music and video go hand in hand like in very few other places. Matjaž Manček, Gal Gjurin, Boštjan Gombač, Tomaž Grom, Andraž Mazi, Dejan Lapanja, Igor Leonardi, Marjan Stanič, Irena Tomažin and many other musical geniuses have certainly contributed to the music itself and especially to the live expression.
Retinal Circus is a cross-section of the Burn Out nights that took place between November 2005 and June 2006 at Metelkova. Most of it was recorded live and is wildly improvised. The quality of the musicians involved is beyond question! Countless fascinating influences and musical themes weave through each track, the solo bits are way more than unpredictable and unexpected, and the rhythm breaks and morphs in a heartbeat…
How do you pin BAST down genre-wise? You can’t! But picture Laibach, Od Franclna Možgani, The Mars Volta, Lira Vega, Bjork, The Stroj, Gal in Galeristi and… well, all of that to the power of ten! And you’ve got BAST! And when the tracks are called How Loud are Your Shoes?, Back to Reality is Always Painful, Windows is Watching You, Think for Yourself – Question Authority, Eye in the Ear, it should be pretty clear that BAST has to be understood within the widest limits of your musical and life imagination… understood as Music with a capital M and as a universal Language.
Tribal music, urban style? Absolutely! In nine years BAST put out (only) three records, but played a string of unforgettable gigs and etched themselves into the collective memory of their loyal and accidental listeners alike as a timeless band.
Production
Bast & Aksioma
