First Glances – Najia Bagi
With 15 years of singing and songwriting under her belt, Manchester-based Najia Bagi naturally has previous. When she’s not performing alongside Tullis Rennie in anglo-spanish, dark sound-scape duo The Electronic Exchange , she’s making fractured folk with long-time collaborator Paul Balcombe , and/or featuring with him in their experimental, guitar-led band To Sophia .
Not content, she also plays solo too. Written over the last six months, Bagi is now sitting on a treasure trove of emotive piano pieces that are getting tentative airings, such as at her recent, select support slot alongside the in-demand, otherworldly Julianna Barwick .
A self-professed fan of soul, jazz and motown, Bagi’s work is rich, classically influenced and driven by the ever-popular topic of love and loss. With keys set to quiver and her tumble-down voice primed to captivate, Bagi half recalls a heartbroken Regina Spektor – if the latter were better versed in, say, Beethoven ‘s sonatas and less taken with flights of whimsy.
With a name like Najia Bagi one can’t but help commit these tracks and their performer to memory. Happily, we’d have done exactly the same if she were named Jane Smith too.
~The self-titled Electronic Exchange EP is out now on hand-sewn CD and download via netlabel Concrete Moniker . Najia Bagi’s solo work can currently be heard at her soundcloud page.~