Augustine – "Proserpine"
The Multi-Instrumentalist Has A New Album
Augustine, aka Sara Baggini, already released her new album in April. Although it's been some days since then, I didn't want to miss writing a review on "Proserpine". Her second long-player has a lot going for it and is definitely worth to be mentioned on this blog.
What generally goes under the labels "dream pop" and "singer-songwriter" comes in many shapes – This applies to the quality and style of the music we use to put into these boxes.
Augustine's music is quite unique – she herself is an exceptional talent and so much more than a classic singer-songwriter. The passionate musician and singer released her second album after her acclaimed debut "Grief and Desire" from 2018 via I Dischi del Minollo.
Augustine has an incredible sense for the right moment.
She wrote all the songs herself and produced them together with Fabio Ripanucci and Daniele Rotella. The recording, mixing and mastering took place in Perugia, Italy.
Sara Baggini has an incredible feeling for when to use which instrument to create the desired mood. She did this successfully again on "Proserpine" with the guitar, the bass, the Rhodes piano, the keyboards and synthesizer, the percussion, the stompbox and the drum machine.
Fabio Ripanucci (additional guitars, Rhodes piano, keyboards, Moog, percussion and drum machine), Massimo "Marga" Margaritelli (bass for "Fanny, They Killed Me" and "Moments of Pleasure Joy"), Daniele Rotella (bass for "Tower Stones" and percussion in "Pomegranate"), Francesco Federici (toms for "Pomegranate") and Niccolò Franchi (snare for "Pagan", drums in "Moments of Pleasure and Joy", "How To Cut Your..." and "Adonis") contributed a few more little details to the record.
A perfectly orchestrated jam session.
Augustine has always enjoyed working with guest musicians. But she always keeps the wand in her hand. The new piece sounds like a perfectly orchestrated jam session with some dear friends. Overall, the album is one to listen to again and again. It vibrates with life and is pleasantly mystical and dark.
The musician found the inspiration for the LP in the artwork "Proserpine" by Dante Gabriel Rosetti. Her story revolves around the goddess of the afterlife. All the songs play with this figure from Greek mythology. The idea for this exceptional concept came to Augustine while she was experiencing the relentlessness of a secluded life in self-exile. She calls it
"A life lived, observing the world through a window".
Her introspective journey is a symbolic plunge into the underworld. The rebirth of the self is the omnipresent goal.
Greek mythology and heroines
The mysticism of her story reflects in every song line. Being kidnapped by Pluto, sentenced to spend six months in Hades for tasting a pomegranate seed, loved by Adonis and then reborn in spring.
Augustine expresses the highs and lows of the heroine's journey with the help of light and sunny parts and dark, eerie sequences. The interplay between beauty and restlessness, tranquillity and disruption are perfectly balanced. The changes between both worlds always happen at the right moment.
With her latest record, the sound artist from Italy captures the pulse of today's world and at the same time draws a dark as well as a bright future.
Gloom and lightness
With density and gloom, she moves away from Dream Pop towards Dark Folk. Her harmonic vocals hover pleasantly dreamy over everything and catch the songs one by one when they are about to drift away into space.
Sara Baggini has been composing since her childhood. At age 19, she went to the Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia, where she mainly studied visual arts and graduated in painting.
The artist adopted her pseudonym Agustine after her recordings with One Thin Line (2010) and various collaborations with electronic projects. It comes from Georges Didi-Huberman's essay "Invention of Hysteria".
Critically acclaimed
For her video for the song "Augustine", she was awarded the second prize for the best self-produced music video at the 2019 VIC (Videoclip Italia Contest). Her first official album "Grief and Desire" is conceived as an autobiographical musical novel. She likes to draw her ideas from literature (e.g. Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf) and painting.
She sees her influences primarily in the British post-punk, dream pop and darkwave of the 1980s. You can hear her admiration for giants like Cocteau Twins, Siouxsie And The Banshees, Sinead O'Connor, PJ Harvey, Agnes Obel, Dead Can Dance, and Björk in her style. Please listen to her current album " Proserpine " if you can relate to these bands and musicians. I highly recommend it to you.