Creaking wood, scraped metal and buffeted wind, thick with dank portent and evocative of a pitching, heavily-laden cargo ship, mark the opening moments of ‘The Road’, the first piece on Lokai’s stunning sophomore album ‘Transition’. Four years on from their debut ‘7 Million’ and the Vienna-based duo Florian Kmet and Stefan Nemeth have sharpened their sound into a tight, taut fusion of electroacoustic instrumentation and dub – in the loosest sense – atmospherics. It is this use of the recording space as an instrument that lifts ‘Transition’ into the category of masterpiece.
Central, then, to this recording is the new circumstances Lokai found themselves in: a new rehearsal space in Kmet’s old apartment, complete with an array of acoustic and ‘electromechanical’ instruments, an inspired heating system, and recording facilities. With no rush to complete the recording, all pieces here have a studied, thoroughly fleshed out feel, coherent structures developed from initially loose, free-form components. All aural elements -‘proper’ instruments , found objects, and the ever-fluctuating hum of the recording space – are given equal billing, there is no hierarchy. Electronic processing appears to minimal, with most sounds and activity derived from close investigations into the acoustic properties of the instruments, objects, and room.
There is certainly something Viennese here, particularly the meticulously recorded rattling which constitutes percussion, reminiscent of Martin Brandlmayr’s work in Radian (of which Nemeth is also a member) and Trapist, but the interest in rhythmic structure here, its development and deconstruction, is unique. In ‘Volver’, sustained keyboard tones, cracked guitar riffs and brushed metal gradually coalesce into something approaching exotica. ‘Glimmer’ weaves spacious Harry Partch plunks into something suitable for a postmodern Sergio Leone. These moments however remain fragile, and fleeting, and it’s the Lynchian gloom which overwhelms and captivates, seeping in like mist, putting you right beside Nemeth and Kmet as they create these spellbinding tapestries.
Light // Ljós // Licht from Gerald Zahn on Vimeo.
Joshua Meggitt
