Shabason, Krgovich, Sage - Shabason, Krgovich, Sage (idée fixe records) [Ambient Pop]

Joseph Shabason, Matthew Sage, and Nicholas Krgovich form a pretty perfect triangle, musically and geographically. Based out of Toronto, Colorado, and Vancouver respectively, the three convened at Sage’s converted barn studio at the foot of the Rockies to diagram their kindred ability to extract grandeur from the most passable of life’s daily details.

On his own, saxophonist Joseph Shabason warps late 80s adult-contemporary and smooth jazz aesthetics into tidepools of fourth-worldly sound design that are infinitely more self-aware and emotionally honest than any of their distant reference points. M. Sage, in a parallel sense, blends his skills as an instrumentalist with synthesis and field recordings to create auditory reflections of the natural world that are as whimsical as they are profound. Sitting cozily between these two heartfelt experimentalists is singer Nicholas Krgovich, whose observational slice-of-life poetics paint a relatable face onto his collaborators’ calm expressionism, both guiding and highlighting its deep sense of affect.

The resulting album, prosaically titled Shabason, Krgovich, Sage warmly invites sound artist Matthew Sage into the world of wry and melancholy micro-miracles that Shabason and Krgovich established on 2020’s Philadelphia, and 2022’s At Scaramouche.

Dream teams don't always deliver, but TSMM faves Shabason, Krgovich & Sage have created something greater than the sum of their parts after convening at Sage's new Colorado barn studio. The talent & respect is palpable as Shabason & Sage playfully & succinctly weave new age noodles into oddball ethereal tapestries that elevate Krgovich's wry, twinkled eyed observations & reminiscences into an ambient pop masterpiece.

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Playlist Companion

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