$5 at the Door 10:30pm DJ Set
Medium Zach started out as a DJ before focusing on making his own records in the studio. With a deep vinyl collection of funk, R&B, hip-hop, jazz, and soul, he’ll come through with a crate for a Late Night Lounge set at Berlin.
Medium Zach (aka Zach Bagaason) is a Minneapolis-based producer, recording/mixing engineer, artist, and educator with 20 years of experience across songwriting, production, and multidisciplinary collaboration.
Bagaason began his career as part of Big Quarters, whose debut Cost of Living (2007) became a landmark Minnesota hip-hop release. He helped shape early Twin Cities music production programs through Minneapolis Public Schools, YMCA Beacons, and Hope Community and helped curate Last of the Record Buyers, a producer-centered event series and creative hub that nurtured a generation of Twin Cities beatmakers. Bagaason’s work includes long-running partnerships with artists such as I Self Devine, contributing arranging and engineering to the album Rituals of Resilience, which accompanied an exhibition of the same name at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. His credits also include:
Mankwe Ndosi – Science & Spirit (Star Tribune TC Critics Tally, 2012)
Greg Grease – Down So Long (City Pages Best Album, 2018)
Lady Midnight – Death Before Mourning (City Pages Best Album, 2020)
Recording and mixing for astralblak (FKA ZuluZuluu)
Co-producing projects with 26 BATS! and Javier Santiago
Bagaason’s solo album Bad by Myself (2021) grew out of his multi-year #Beatstory series, a process-driven practice of documenting beat-making using samples, field recordings, and improvisation. He later expanded the project in an immersive live performance at Public Functionary with visual artist Nolan Regan Morice and continued this approach through two residencies—Ad-Hoc Sessions and En El Momento—focused on live sampling and spontaneous composition.
Bagaason teaches songwriting and music production at MacPhail Center for Music.
