Lakker shares new track, “Oktavist,” from forthcoming album

Tundra out May 12 on R&S Records

STREAM: Lakker – “Oktavist” – SoundCloud

Photo by Eileen Carpio

Following Containing A Thousand and the Mountain Divide EP, their pair of sublime releases for the label, Lakker now deliver their debut album Tundra, perfectly in line with R&S’ techno heritage whilst also taking in influence and inspiration from the varied likes of No U-Turn Records, the choral music of Arvo Part, Merzbow, early Human League, and raw ethnic music.

The crowning achievement of their decade long musical career, Tundra sees them once again blurring the lines between the ‘real’, organic / natural and the synthesized, virtual and ‘artificial’. The album contains field recordings from motorway tunnels in Japan, church bells from Schöneberg, a female choir from Dublin and Inuit throat singers. As Dara explains, “we’ve always been interested in voices that sound like synths and synths that sound like voices.”

“Also, the atmosphere and feeling you get around the ocean, wind and storms has always been an influence. Both the unpredictability and the potential. Constructive and destructive forces. Parallels can be found in the chaos and saturation of the digital age and the faceless algorithms that surround us.”

Sharing an affinity for natural, weathered sounds, field recordings and atmosphere with the likes of William Basinski and Pan Sonic, their heartfelt melodies and harmonies underscore the human aspect of the interfacing of science and the natural world. From the brutalist skyscraping “Mountain Divide” to the plangent vocal melodies of vocalist Eileen Carpio in “Three Songs,” to the punishing drones and drum machines of the titletrack and beyond, Tundra is a titanic album of diverse and intense soundscapes that demands exploration by not only Aphex Twin obsessives, but also fans of the the likes of Sunn o))).

“The parallels of the love of the virtual and the natural which are reflected in our music is reflected in our own personal journeys, constantly re-framing our understanding of science and reality in its beauty and wonder with the affairs of the spirit, the heart and the unquantifiable.”