An On Bast: “I used to swim in these beautiful sounds a lot” The Polish live techno artist talks us through ten of her favourite electronic dance tracks that inspire her own music as she releases her new album Tender Perceptions on Awesome Soundwave

LIVE performer and producer An On Bast – like our special guest Saytek who launched The Night Bazaar Music Show live streams on Mixcloud earlier this month – has emerged as one of the most exciting live electronic dance music artists in the world.

Real name Anna Suda, the Pole has a fascination with music and a deep desire to push herself to new heights with a vast and constantly evolving release schedule.

She landed on Carl Cox and Christopher Coe’s Awesome Soundwave in 2021 with her album I Create As I speak and returned to the label with her follow up, Tender Perceptions at the end of the year.

Anna has also found a home for her established sound on other prolific labels such as Modularfield, Detroit Underground, Pets Recordings, Kiosk ID and more. Alongside this Anna’s own Ghost Kitchen label has become a safe haven for her own productions, a liberating space giving her total freedom of what she can release, no strings involved meaning everything you hear is pure from the core. She has now released 11 albums and too many EPs to count.

 

Performing live with her hardware is a feeling of excitement and curiosity that will never grow old for Anna, combining machines and gear, each of them with their own mysterious voice and tones, treating a live performance as an ongoing conversation between a group of people that fully understand each other. This exact ethos is what has allowed her to travel the globe showcasing her sound in the likes of Berlin, Melbourne, Shanghai, Barcelona, London, Ibiza, Amsterdam and many other corners of the world at various festivals and clubs; to mention a few, DC10, Wembley Arena, Watergate, Kater Blau, Fabrik, Fusion, ADE Awakenings, Mysteryland, Piknic Electronic, Garbicz.

We caught up with Anna and asked her to talk us through an inspirational playlist of her favourite dance music which you can listen to below and read what she had to say about each of the tracks she selected for us.

Nathan Fake – Basic Mountain

One of the first tracks ever that showed me, by Nathan’s exceptional musical imagination, that within electronic music anything is possible, that there is freedom in creating timbres and grooves.

 

Underworld – Two Months Off

Perfect tune in every detail, timbres, sounds, arrangement, story – it all speaks to me on the highest level of the existence. It is so blissful to synchronise with the energy that this track is constructed to give! I love Underworld and this is their best track for me. This tune taught me greatly to give on stage while playing and in studio producing the best, the purest emotions you can. To simply always bring light in.

 

Timo Mass – Subtellite

I used to listen to this track five times in a row. Highly energetic tune on a stable mesmerising groove with so many things happening in between. Touching, deep, minimalistic but so full at the same time. This tune is like colourful flower & vegetables garden on the fertile soil with a rainbow above.

 

Ben Klock – OK

Mesmerizing track. It showed me how small changes can build the energy.

 

Marc Romboy vs Stephan Bodzin – Triton 

I’ve always been drawn to melodies. This is a great example of an amazing song by two geniuses of electronic music. Beautiful, full of character track you want to listen all over made by duo of two electronic music legends.

 

Energy 52 – Cafe Del Mar (Human Traffic version) 

This is pure! I don’t know what to say more. You cannot run, cannot hide. Best timeless dance energy experience.

 

Gus Gus – Anthem

I used to swim in these beautiful sounds a lot. I listened to Gus Gus very often. This song is filled with love of synthesizers and I totally get that; love these instruments, analog and digital, all of them.

Autechre – Piezo

The duo Autechre are the direct motivator that made me feel that I could  express with creating electronic music. At this time, before starting making music, I had listened a lot to experimental/ ambient/ intelligent Dance Music, but this track sort of opened some secret portal in me. The whole album actually was totally mind-blowing for me, with so many details discovered each time and it is probably my the most listened album ever.

 

An On Bast – Chasing Sparkles (Live at Mysteryland)

What triggers my musical imagination is the instruments themselves. I am always inspired by possibilities of creating music by just playing keyboards, patching modular synthesizer and programming machines.

 

Kollektiv Turmstrasse – Schwindelig

One of the most beautiful tunes in electronic music ever made. Heart opener. Simply love it!