Sator Arepo, by Judgitzu

Sator Arepo

by Judgitzu

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Dumb mmmn if you're hanging around with someone who shuffles their feet too much or yawns and stretches all the time.. you'll find that eventually you'll see yourself in that 'American Gothic' painting and you'll want to grab that pitchfork from that old fucker and stick him good

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
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Three classic Tanzanian Singeli Albums exploring the breadth of Africa's most explosive dance genre + Judgitzu's inventive re-imagining of the genre.

Sounds of Pamoja - Double LP
DJ Travella - Mr Mixondo LP
Duke - Early Instrumentals LP
Judgitzu - Sator Arepo LP

Includes unlimited streaming of Sator Arepo via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.

ships out within 10 days

Purchasable with gift card

€68 EUR or more

1.	L'or Des Fous 05:44	buy track
2.	Mandragore 05:09	buy track
3.	Vitalimetre 04:45	buy track
4.	Dagyde 03:40	buy track
5.	Miracle 04:44	buy track
6.	Sylphe 03:31	buy track
7.	Sator Arepo 05:17	buy track

about

The Sator Arepo, or Sator Square, is an ancient word puzzle comprising five palindromes that's etched on various historical sites throughout the Western world. Its origins are unknown, but the square has long been thought to hold magical properties, used as a charm against illness and evil, to cure insanity or to determine whether someone was guilty of witchcraft. Self-styled "punk ethnomusicologist", acoustician and musician Julien Hairon uses this mystical symbol as the starting point for his debut Judgitzu album in an attempt to reconnect with his Celtic heritage, exploring how its hallowed messages might harmonize with contemporary Tanzanian dance music.

Hairon has been traveling across the world for over a decade, collecting field recordings from countries such as Indonesia, Australia, Cambodia, China and Bangladesh, and presenting them on his Les Cartes Postales Sonores label, re-issuing any curious cassettes and CDs he came across on the PetPets' TAPES imprint. It was during this time that he became fascinated by rituals that involved spirits, prompting him to examine his own ancestry when he returned to Brittany. "Many artifacts in the landscape remain," Hairon explains, "and the power of spirits is still palpable." He represents this Celtic mysticism on 'Sator Arepo' with murky drones and magickal synth tones, using xenharmonic scales (tuning outside of standard 12-tone equal temperament) that reach back to the ancient world. These sounds are augmented with fast-paced, sci-fi rhythms informed by his time in Tanzania; "Singeli has contaminated me," admits the producer.

The most astonishing example of this is 'Miracle', a thrusting soundsystem experiment that layers serpentine, bagpipe-esque electronic wails over extravagant clusters of blocky percussion. Driven by the frenetic 175BPM pulse that echoes through the streets of Dar Es Salaam - popularized globally by forward-thinking producers like Sisso, Duke and Jay Mitta - Hairon opens up a rare conversation, seeking to draw parallels between today's most urgent dance forms and the archaic rituals of antiquity. On 'Vitalimetre', Hairon drives his sonic palette into the red, harmonizing with Dutch hardstyle and gabber, and splaying distorted drones over maddeningly blown-out kicks and ratcheting percussion. 'L'or Des Fous' takes a more meditative route, prioritizing Hairon's eccentric tonality with expressive sheets of pitch-warped sound that ghost walk across energized, rattling beats.

If you heard Hairon's last Judgitzu release 'Umeme / Kelele', described by Boomkat as "one of 2019's deadliest dancefloor sessions," then you'll know how mindboggling this material can be. And with 'Sator Arepo', the French producer deepens his reach, grasping a world that we've almost forgotten and juxtaposing it with a landscape most of us barely comprehend.

Video for Sator Arepo: youtu.be/hKbKnqoKQ9M

credits

released October 20, 2023

Artwork by Mimi Kawoin
Mastered by Declared Sound

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Nyege Nyege Tapes Kampala, Uganda

Nyege Nyege Tapes is a Kampala based label exploring, producing and releasing outsider music from around the region and beyond.

We fulfill orders twice weekly, so most items will be shipped out within 3-5 days of your order being placed, with tracking provided automatically. We ship all records in whiplash mailers with extra cardboard protection.

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