Sailor & I's AKA Alexander Sjodin makes music of a similar persuasion – beautiful, compulsive and at the same time devastating. The 30-year-old producer, instrumentalist and singer from Stockholm has created a glacial track about adult relationships that recalls both Rhye and Fleet Foxes with its delicate string-led production, soaring vocal harmonies and its bright, frank imagery. Sailor & I chose to avoid everything digital in creating ‘Tough Love’, preferring to use instruments that he had previously neglected in favour of his usual electronic / laptop production; “I guess I fell in love with the analogue world.” His atmospheric track is beautiful in it's own right, but got the remix touch by Aril Brikha who adds his own take on the original.
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[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzSHTEpHg2s&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Back 1998, Aril Brikha reestablished himself with the world with deep techno soul, as his record “Groove La Chord” traversed all generic boundaries. The question was: “Is it techno? Is it house? Is it deep house?” We found out it was everything and nothing. The track was instantly timeless and saw immediate success, but it wasn’t until 2 years later that he saw the limelight again when Derrick May dropped it during his set in Chicago.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-ch6KYHtmI[/youtube]
Known as a renegade and cultural refugee in Sweden, Aril Brikha has never been one to coincide. The producer was born in Iran and relocated to Scandina when he was three. At a young age, Brikha established his technical skills with the support of his parents. When the young Aril turned seven, he was given his first keyboard and was taught the ins and outs of the instrument by his father, a pianist. During his teenage years, he developed an affinity for electronic dance music acts like Depeche Mode, Front 242 and Jean Michel Jarre.
His first piece of equipment was an Atari and sequencer, which led him to start composing at 16. His friends and family told him that he was making "Detroit techno." The young Brikha didn’t know the first thing about Detroit techno, and in his hometown, it was Swedish techno that was popping off, but this didn’t stop Aril from continue making the music he wanted. His music was cerebral, emotional, and spiritual electronic music and this wasn’t what the people wanted. So Aril looked to other outlets to share his music. At this time he was living in Stockholm, where he got in touch with Derrick May’s Transmat Records, which led to their sister label Fragile putting out his Art Of Vengeance EP with “Groove La Chord” on it.
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Shoot to one year later and Aril releases his first album Deeparture In Time, a compilation of suggestive grooves, that he assembled over a six-year period and laid down with a single keyboard, drum machine and an Atari. The album was highly successful and led to the celebration of Brikha’s stardom as a deep techno aficionado.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR7znk1jzas[/youtube]
Brikha took a break from releases soon after, but quickly reemerged with a few select releases on Belgium’s historic Music Man label. His sound also progressed over time into a heavier groove, but still with underlying Detroit elements.
He also linked up with Germany’s innovative minimal Kompakt to put out his Winter EP. Once again taking another turn into club-ready productions.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaW5y14ODo0[/youtube]
It wasn’t until he joined forces with German imprint Poker Flat that he finally gained the success of a wider audience, with his upfront, plastic percussion and heavy synths – maximal sounds and minimal production, as they like to call it. Shoot to 2007, and his long-awaited releases on Peacefrog were finally ready to drop. A full-length album soon followed, showcasing Aril’s classic sound of Detroit techno and house with elements of his latest productions. “With haunting strings, filtered chords and synth pads adorning the hypnotic beats, Ex Machina transcends dance music’s ever multiplying genre’s and brings back the old feeling of making us just want to dance.”
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvQnmhGV07U[/youtube]
Now that you are caught up with Aril, we have his latest edit of Sailor & Jerry’s “Tough Love.” In a partnership with the esteemed Black Butter Records, Aril transforms the original’s orchestral and intimate piece, turning it into a dance worthy edit. Check it out below.
