The illusive DJ and producer ventures into the fantastical world of DJ Koze’s Pampa with three tracks of genre-bending electonica.
It’s little wonder that the Turkish/Bulgarian native finds himself coming into the orbit of the Hamburg-based label head. DJ Koze has been a long-time supporter of Impérieux’s music, his intrepid DJ sets often finding their most dramatic peaks or existential lows with one of the producer’s audacious dancefloor soundscapes.
Now Berlin-based, Impérieux’s music still draws deeply on the sounds of his heritage, taking inspirations from Bulgarian folklore, twisted and chopped Turkish dialect as well the gritty underground of his new surroundings. The opening title track casts a dark but familiar shadow from the off. Emerging from a distorted, pulsing kick drum comes a jagged choral gasp, finding rhythm as its voices layer in numbers. Coming to a terrifying crescendo, logic and chaos roll into one and as the beat falls away the urgency is replaced by a swell of agitated synths. Impérieux has a knack for juxtaposing chaos and serenity, and Fantasmagorii explores the full spectrum of that ability.
By contrast, the psychedelic electronica of Ferishtah brings us up for air and heads straight for the clouds. It’s made for a dark and sweaty dance floor of close-eyed dancers, but this time the trademark glitchy vocal bites form a meditative blanket that add a sense of yearning for a higher self.
Closing track Reze takes us into unexplored territory for Impérieux. Plunging back into darkness with an uncomfortable insight into the artist’s twisted creativity, a fragmented broken beat is weighted down with a resounding kick drum that brings form to the chaotic interplay of aggressive and almost atonal sawtooth waveforms and manipulated vocal soundbites. For nearly 7 minutes the beat lurches on whilst the accompanying sounds morph and mutate into a tense and dramatic opus that could soundtrack the scenes of a dystopian battlefield or gangster epic as much as a basement rave.
With Fantasmagorii, Impérieux explores his sonic boundaries with techniques inspired by the label-head himself. As a producer he is becoming known for his ability to build fantasy worlds through aural experimentation, creating productions soaked with fragility and emotion. His music brings a full-body listening experience of it’s own, laden with intensity and mystery, and full of opposites. He has the ability to pluck their listeners out of reality, to bend the rules of time and space and defy genres in a way that is reminiscent of Koze’s various bodies of work, and it’s no surprise that this selection of tracks feels right at home in the Pampa fantasy.
Digital Release Date: 23rd September 2022
Physical Release Date: 25th November 2022
Socials and more:
IMPÉRIEUX
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imperieux_/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1H44pbKMHDVSQcYW4joyLK
Soundcloud: www.soundcloud.com/imperieux
Resident Advisor: www.ra.co/dj/imperieux
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imperieuxdj
PAMPA RECORDS
Website: www.pamparecords.com
Soundcloud: www.soundcloud.com/pamparecords
Instagram: www.instagram.com/pamparecordsofficial/
Bandcamp: www.pamparecords.bandcamp.com/