Wata Igarashi

Acclaimed across the techno community for his meticulously sculpted productions that blend precision with profound psychedelic depth, Tokyo-born producer and sound designer Wata Igarashi has also built a reputation through captivating DJ sets and live shows. During the 2010s he gained recognition via club appearances, podcast contributions, and a series of EPs that offered atmospheric interpretations of minimal techno and acid, among them the 2018 release Question and Answer. His first full-length effort, Agartha in 2023, shifted toward non-club material shaped by Berlin School electronics and the ambient techno of the 1990s.

Igarashi entered the release cycle in the early part of the decade, issuing the minimal techno EP As It Is in 2011 and subsequent records on Sienna Obscure and Counter Pulse. He additionally created music for the Night Aquarium installations at the yearly Eco Edo Nihonbashi Art Aquarium exhibition. Junctions, his 2014 EP, marked the inaugural output on Berlin’s Midgar label, after which he formed ties with The Bunker New York—appearing at the venue’s global club events and delivering the 2016 EP Mood of the Machines on the imprint. Further material followed on DJ Nobu’s Bitta label with Haziest Just Before the Dawn, plus additional Midgar and Bunker releases; both the 2018 Question and Answer EP and his striking reworkings of Aurora Halal’s 2019 track “Eternal Blue” drew widespread notice.

Collaborating with Voiski under the name WAV, he put out the EP 9719 on Delsin in 2020. He subsequently launched his own digital outlet, WIP, which began issuing a run of numbered EPs that opened with serene ambient works before moving into techno pieces developed for live performance. Additional projects included Travelling on Omnidisc and the 2021 album New Dawn on Figure. Agartha arrived on Kompakt in 2023 as his debut full-length, incorporating ambient and kosmische elements alongside improvisation rooted in jazz fusion.