Last updated on November 20, 2020

Rebirth can be a challenging event. Receiving new revelations from an unfamiliar creative place can be difficult territory for an artist’s fans. But sometimes rebirth can be a return to roots, as with The Disco Biscuits’ Aron Magner. His trip has returned to where his personal evolution as a keyboardist synth jam master began: on piano. With the introduction of his new band SPAGA, Magner has delivered a self-titled jazz stunner on his label AM Records.
Jason Fraticelli on upright bass and Matt Scarano handling drums fill out the trio of talent that delivers this excellent debut with Magner. Having two highly respected Philadelphia jazz musicians on the record with one of the men responsible for shifting perceptions on jam-rock fusion sets a high bar for Magner’s new work. The piano man has returned home, and SPAGA is a six-composition documentation of a new act’s birth. This record surpasses any boundaries that have been predetermined for both the genre and Magner.
The attitude is a big part of the record. The album’s Philadelphia musicians were friends and family who recorded locally. Keeping it real, flowing, and organic seemed like the way to create a largely acoustic record, detached and unplugged from all the gadgetry that had been The Disco Biscuits’ trademark sound.
“Creed” is the first single, and it helps ease in the sonic transition. Heavy synthesizer reverberations battle the graceful elegance of piano interludes in a trancelike dance held steady with a precision backline. Full immersion into the dream that is SPAGA really begins in the elegant echoes of “Marionette in the Snow,” whose nuanced emotions reverberate from each note. A marriage of musicianship has created vulnerable grace set to music, each crescendo dropping away into space. Close your eyes and get carried away on each note.
Great musical composition is lush with contrasts, and SPAGA unfolds into a circle of purposeful artistic impressionism that feels improvisational but doesn’t contradict its deliberateness. The nature of “Four Angels” could be heaven and hell, or light and dark; yet, that would be too simplistic for so complex a tune. Ethereal, haunting, and, yes, dark. Fraticelli’s bass is unbelievable on this track, and personally I look forward to seeing a live performance of this one.
Combinations of rhythmic syncopation on “Colors” create an interplay between Fraticelli’s bass and Magner’s piano, achieving transcendence. “Resurrection” is the strutter of the album, the most funky, genreless song of the record. Happily all over the place, this funky bit of cool is just that. The album closes out with “Nils Idea,” which takes the artist full circle. Softly drifting away with a solo piano composition, the idea that none of this would be happening without The Disco Biscuits drifting away cannot be missed. The truth is, for people like me, SPAGA’s self titled debut is the soundtrack for creation, despite the loss of former things.–Lisa Whealy