Joachim Spieth | Warmth: Fragments

On the back of his excellent 2024 release, Retrace, German producer, Joachim Spieth, has wasted little time in following it up, joining forces with Spanish producer, Agustin Mena, for their debut collaboration long-player, Fragments.

Both artists share an affinity beyond creation: Spieth, a producer attuned to the more outer worlds of techno, exploring the darker frontiers of it; Mena, who operates under the monikers of Warmth and SLVBRD, is a long-form specialist, creating sonic backdrops tailormade for those who dream of something beyond the world we currently inhabit.

While immediate surroundings directly influence each’s work, it provides a beautiful contrast on Fragments. The humid, sunny climes of Mena’s native Spain offsetting the greyscale undercurrents that Speith has been informed by via his Berlin base, together the duo strike a perfect balance.

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Both long time producers, the pair also share the added roles of running their own labels – Mena’s Archives; Spieth’s AFFIN – and first joining forces on mutual remix projects, it was these moments where the seeds were planted for Fragments.

In isolation, Spieth and Mena are masters of chiselling down sound. Feverishly mapping out ideas from the field and behind the sound boards, together they produce the kind of minimalism enhanced by club-sized sound systems. This effect, largely down to sharp, multi-dimensional production, which has been a strength of both artists over the years.

On opening piece, Spectral, and later with Appearance, Speith and Mena meld together the worlds of ambient techno and deep-listening, resulting in something likened to the soft winter sun reflecting off sheets of ice. The environment continues to play its part on Exosphere – a sonic waterfall with emotive, surround-sound majesty plunging deep into the heart like a knife. Mena has always dealt heavy in emotional force, and alongside Spieth’s icy pulses of sound, they carve out Fragments’ premier piece.

Meanwhile, Obscured and Surfaces glitter with the kind of cadence that has always been at the core of Mena’s ideas. Vistas of sound that play between orbital and oceanic. Black Marble has its own sense of liminality, too; Spieth zeroing in with gradient moodscapes, and together with Mena, the pair conjure up a series of stirring, soft drones likened to blankets of fog.

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While Exosphere may be one of the most bourgeoning pieces that both Spieth and Mena have written, closing composition, Dark Tide, may be their most adventurous. Beyond the worlds they create, here there’s something starkly futuristic. Like an evolving tableau inside some revolutionary-designed mansion centuries ahead from now, even with repeated listens, it reveals new facets that previously escape the mind’s eye.

The world of experimentalism is all about diversions and circuit breakers. That bid to be released from certain realities, and on Fragments, Spieth and Mena unlock the gates that lead to somewhere afar. With dynamic and provocative passages of sound, the pair produce something subtly translucent. It’s subtle because it’s not obvious; they make you work for it, but the deeper you travel, new space emerges. There’s a stunning resonance here, and with both playing off each other’s strengths, the results are something beautifully overpowering.

Fragments is out now via Affin. Purchase from Bandcamp.