– “Another fine release by Dutch musician Ajay Saggar. His basic thrust is modern psychedelia, minted from radio snippets, dubby reverb flapping, elegant guitar washing, electronic drones interwoven with flashes of mock jaw harp or sploshy drums, and a generally stoned atmosphere. And the concept is spectrally sound!” (Byron Coley / the Wire magazine…January 2023)

– “a superbly crafted album” (Andrew Neal / Silent Radio)

– “I just got your cassette and loved it! Who else could make music with such a cool range of instruments and styles and make it sound so…. Cool!” (Bilinda / my bloody valentine)

I have wanted, for many years, to release an album again on cassette. I love the format and I love the aesthetic quality of it. In my youth I would borrow LPs from friends and tape them for my collection. I would record the John Peel show sessions directly onto cassette. I would go to gigs and record shows on my walkman cassette player. I would make mixtapes for my friends. With my first band Dandelion Adventure, we made demo tapes to send to labels, venues and radio stations. My first official release with Donkey was a cassette album….exactly 30 years ago! So it seemed fitting to bring this album out on a limited edition run of 100 cassettes.

When the label honchos at Cardinal Fuzz (UK) and Feeding Tube Records (USA) heard the cassette, they loved it so much that they requested to release it on vinyl. I duly agreed, and as well as vinyl, there also a limited edition run of CDs in a gatefold sleeve, designed by Sam Giles.

This album is part of a triptych. I spent between January 2021 and June 2022 recording, shaping, crafting and moulding a whole set of songs which ebbed and flowed and took different directions over time. Unlike the first album, I collaborated with friends on some of these new songs, which brought them to life in a beautiful manner, that I definitely couldn’t have achieved if I had done them alone. The concept of collaboration is a beautiful thing where you get to share your art with others and the process brings you closer to the players and also to the song.

The songs on this album are varied stylistically, but there is a common thread running through it all, namely that of love. Combining psych, drones, minimalism, free jazz, electronic music and dub in this work, this is another album’s worth of musical joy and wonder for all to enjoy.

credits

all songs conceived, written, played, sung and recorded by Ajay Saggar at Soundation Studio between January 2021 and June 2022.
Holly Habstritt Gaal : vocals on “Won’t You Wait?”
Ab Baars : shakuhachi on “I Love You So”

Mastered by Chris Hardman
Sleeve design by Oli Heffernan
Inside photo by Rob Verweij