quarion: shades

Thirteen years after Quarion released the instant classic Karasu on Drumpoet Community (2006), he returns to the label with yet another remarkable debut. His first album Shades takes you on an emotional journey to the deeper realms of house music encompassed by elements of Detroit techno, dub, and electronica. All of the nine tracks fully display Quarion's unmistakable musicality and state-of-the-art production skills and are, undoubtedly, the artist's most accomplished work to date. Ever since starting to produce as Quarion back in 2006, Yanneck Salvo has enjoyed an exciting career with stellar releases on Retreat, Innervisions, Tamed Musiq and certainly Drumpoet Community. 2016 proved to be a turning point artistically as well as personally, which eventually triggered an outburst of inspiration consolidating in the core of Shades. After two years spent on refining this music, Yanneck felt that the bond between the tracks was too strong to be split across various EPs and chose instead to elaborate his vision as a full-scale album. The nine pieces that make up Shades are quintessential Quarion, yet their scope is both broader and more precise than on previous releases by the Swiss producer. The beautiful melancholy of "Indigo (Aries)", the rich layers of "Periwinkle" or the panoramic journey of "Cobalt (Plains)" are testimonial to the new depth in the music of the Berlin-based artist. In addition, the album has highly benefitted from a more experimental writing process, showcased in the bass-heavy ambient piece "Teal" or the sliding pads of "Ultramarine". This passion for unrestrictive creativity is clearly at the heart of "Azure (Émotion)", a thrilling collaboration with Ripperton where both artists twist life out of a modular system. Finally there are tracks as intense as the Acid workout "Sapphire (Tessellate)" and the techno-influenced "Cerulean". Their electric tension easily creates a watershed moment on the dance floor that lingers long after the night is gone. An imperceptible thread lays within the album's tracks; it molds Shades into an outstanding album by an artist on top of his game, highlighting Quarion's ever-growing talent for producing music of the deeper kind.