SWG3, Glasgow
Feb 23rd, 2025
Glasgow’s venue SWG3 has three levels that have respective sub venues, for myself I have been to ground floor gigs but for tonight we entered a different door and headed upstairs. The room was 2 thirds full as on came support act the young music of Finn Brodie. His show was solo on guitar and vocal, playing music that fit into the Indie folk category, he had an edge.
Having written and sung on stage since he was the tender 15 years of age I soon realised where this edge had come from. His music entertained in an enjoyable bond between him and his guitar, he couldn’t disguise a certain melancholy. His songs were about confronting the lies in the world and becoming free from the pain they cause. So in the traditional sense it was folk/indie protest music performed in a kind of solo beauty.
This night the main act called Zaho de Sagazan, a band who attract all the interest a music group can muster. Zaho is a newly famous and successful singer/ song writer and musician. She could not be more fresh in every way. Her very short rise to big league fame has an amazing story of winning high level awards, interesting collaborations and when her debut album was released in 2023 called ‘La Symphonie des éclairs’ a new wave of music hit the scene.
Her own interests have originated in a fascination for 1980’s electronic music. But with this act it has been given an honourable new beginning because of her originality towards what she and her group are doing. As early as 2015 when she was only 16 she was right on enough to post music videos on Instagram, and spent time in dance studios.
In 2021 she achieved in her epic journey a starting jump into the flow of music festivals. This new life signified a major step on the path she was creating. When her debut album came out in 2023 it remarkably only took a year for her to walk away with a platinum award for it.
This mesmerising gig, filled with admirers, was simply something great. The strange instruments, smoke and lighting all went into the kind of performance that makes you feel very lucky to be there. The style was in a copious way enjoying every nuance available all filtered into this electronic conduction with her as singer in the most natural presence you can think of. She was explosive, deeply involved, in a totally entertaining immersion that seemed to open up her very soul and with it the effect upon her audience.
It had the energy of a heavy rock concert with the style of perfect experimentation that could rival most things out there. Opening up her lungs led to an extreme experience, as the three instruments reached crescendos equally powerful and in moments formidable. The French lyrics kissed the night with its obvious charm. There wasn’t a point in any of the night where the song was lost on us with regard to not knowing what they were about. Instead we followed the whole thing with ease, revelry and cutting edge beauty.
Music remains very much alive and in this original band we see that its potentials are still capable of being re-written, re-forged and re-ignited. It’s great to find a sound and attitude so ready to express entire worlds, reach highs and lows with massive impact and create a deep running beginning to their formidably young career.
Words: Daniel
Photos: Anastasia
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