Mistical (Bajareque)

‘Mistical (Bajareque)’ is a collab project with Parmigianna and Saige Spirit.

Covert art for ‘Mistical (Bajareque)’

AFC in the house.

AFC is Ancient Future Collective, founded by Savej. After a handful of in-person retreats for music production, Savej expanded the vision with 12-week online training cohorts. Cohort 1 lifted off in July of ‘25 and went through September. Amongst the participants: Parmigianna (Gianna), Saige Spirit (Mollie), and myself.

As part of the course design, the cohort was split up into “pods” (small groups) of 3-4 participants. Gianna and I were 2 of the 4 members of our first pod. Somewhere in that span of time we tossed around the idea of eventually working together on a track.

Months later, in December, I had a seed idea that I pitched to Gianna. I started the seed on Ableton’s mobile app, Note. I imported the project into an Ableton project, made a few adjustments and submitted the demo as a potential collaboration project. Gianna dug the vibe, and the project was in motion.

As mentioned in the ‘Premonition’ post, after the first cohort completed the curriculum a remnant of ~10 or so from cohort 1 kept meeting weekly. One of the outcomes is a monthly call for collaboration projects. In January, Mollie and I were paired up for a collab. After working with Mollie on another project, it dawned on me that her touch would be a nice addition to the piece that Gianna and I had begun. I ran the idea by Gianna. Gianna dug that vibe, too, so a 3-way collab project was now in motion.

Gianna and Mollie both put heavy doses of their magic on the track. I added my bits, did some bass design, and mixed the track.

This track had a nostalgic, chill vibe from the start. While the project was coming together, Amy and I were experiencing our first dry season in Panama. Prior to moving to Boquete, we had no idea there is a rainbow season in the highlands due to a natural phenomenon called “bajareque.” It’s a very fine mist that appears to move sideways, mostly, being so easily bossed around by the wind. January through March is also a windy season with gusts up to 80 kilometers per hour.

This mist can and often does occur on sunny days. Meaning → rainbows. Lots of rainbows when the sun is low—ish, like 8am and 5pm.

Amy and I walk into town often, a time we sometimes use to listen to the projects I’m working on. As this track was in the mixing phase in January / February, we were often listening to it while walking in the bajareque.

At the same time, our li’l trio was contemplating concepts for the title of our track. I was already thinking of pitching ‘Bajareque’ when, one morning, the word “mystical” came to mind. Mystical. An attribute of this magical mist.

Mystical. Mist.

Boom! “Mistical.”

And like that, ‘Mistical (Bajareque)’ was a thing.

We pitched the track to High Vibe. They dug the vibe. And on 4/20/2026, we put it out into the world in hopes that many others would dig the vibe, too.