- A few years ago, Lakker told RA how they approach writing music: "We [have] a sound in our heads for the tracks, a lot of texture and grit, but no external concept. It's how we always work." But part of that has changed. Last year's Struggle & Emerge, for the Netherlands Institute For Sound And Vision, was part of a project that used field recordings and archival footage to explore the Dutch's relationship to water. Eris Harmonia uses sound to explore the "different reactions and emotional responses to the current world climate of chaos and uncertainty." The music won't explicitly make you think Trump and Brexit, but the concept guides Lakker into interesting sonic themes.
The record has a pristine sense of space, its narrative alternating between ethereal and discordant. The soft "Song For Rathlin" and "Empress" are sophisticated and emotionally deep—skeletal percussion outlines an interior world, while billowing ambiance and celestial voices fill it with longing. "Eris Pt 1" and "Pt 2" are beatless sound sculptures derived from similarly degraded textures. But a subtle difference in tone makes the former angry and the latter soft and kind, highlighting the thin line between those moods.
TracklistA1 Song For Rathlin
A2 Extinct Peoples
A3 Empress
B1 Eris Pt 1
B2 Eris Pt 2