Was this part of what you believed? - LLK (Out now)

[LLK]

It’s been a while since I shared music here, my approach of music is rather slow, and I always think a lot about why it is that I create, which delays the space between releases even more. However I’ve been back at work on my personnal project MOWUKIS, and I’m really happy to be able to share this new piece of music with this community.

You can preorder the full thing should you feel so inclined but in the meantime, the opening song is available as a pay what you want download.

It feels somehow a bit intriguing to share this EP here, because I think from all the spaces of the internet, this might be the one where I talked at length the most about the problematics and underlying questions that are pivotal to this music, its lyrics, the decisions that made it sound the way it sounds. But in a sense, this is my preferred way of asking those questions, so I’m glad I can finally continue this conversation through music.

I always feel a bit at odds with the various creations being made on this forum, mine being so songwriting / singing centrics, but this is decidedly the one where the people here influenced me the most. Be it @glia through his sonic research on noise / rhythm and extensive sharing of his creative process, or @dan_derks incredible “phylum” which much like for many people here still is to this day one of my most essential album of last year, and many others but I don’t wanna quote everybody.

I also owe a lot to the people here just for the tools I used, in that way, it’s of all my body of work the most influenced by the spiritual choices impulsed by Monome and enhanced by the myriad of people on lines that turned its initial ethos into a thriving landscape. Most of the rhythms have been made with a combination of Norns + Grid / OPZ and Maschine, most of the synths were Norns / Vermona Perfourmer / DSI Rev2 and some Reaktor ensembles, and there’s a Volca Modular popping in and out sometimes.

I won’t delve into more details since I talk a lot on this forum already and you might just want to listen, but I’d happily answer questions if that becomes a thing.

I can’t thank you all enough for how much you brought me, and I just hope I could bring my own part to the strange edifice that’s being built between those virtual porous walls.

[glia]

love the cover and type design (i’m shallow and this is what i think of first)
listening now and production on the 1st track is gorgeous

@LLK

I always feel a bit at odds with the various creations being made on this forum, mine being so songwriting / singing centrics

Songwriting and singing are really central to my musical life. I never record myself but they are skills I may delve into more someday. With finite time come choices…despite my passion for these musical avenues, I simply don’t have the time and patience to work on all the styles and techniques that interest me. But I LOVE hearing people like you who craft intricate and delightful music in this way!

Thank you for sharing the songs + additional context on the release. Just preordered!

[LLK]

These kind words mean a lot to me, thank you ! I always feel stupefied whenever I get to touch someone whose musical endeavour is far from mine, and I can thank you enough for all you shared about your process. I mean to do that more myself if I can find the time, as I grew more and more inclined to consider sharing what you learned while creating and teaching it back to whoever might want to find out about it is a core value of creation, equal in importance to the finished creative output we share.

[ht73]

Appreciate this so much… music with heart… the cover is also very appropriate and really does express what’s also to be found in the music… thanks so much for this

[dan_derks]

damn, that break one minute in absolutely devastated me. really looking forward to this gorgeous release and beyond humbled to be a footnote

[LLK]

@ht73 Thank you ! It’s definitely music with heart(s), there’s a lot of me in it, and it’s always a challenge for me to release it because it feels like exposing very deeply burried part of myself. I love the cover too, I’m super happy to see people respond to it positively, and I’m just thankful I’ve got something so fitting to accompany this music.

@dan_derks I don’t know how to express my gratitude for your work and for taking the time to listen to mine if music is a conversation, I definitely had a lot of discussions with Phylum last year, and it informed a lot of my thought process on noise, what it could mean musically, how it could move, and how more acoustic or traditionnally electronic sound should answer to it and blend in and out of it.

[thom]

Listening to this first track is really an enjoyable experience.

[LLK]

Thank you @thom I decided to share this one first because it had the title in it and I felt it was a good statement about what the whole EP was about.

[grey]

This is dope. Gives me of Raz Ohara and the Odd Orchestra vibes. Wishlisted for release!

[LLK]

Didn’t know about them so I’m just checking them out right now (listening to “The Burning (desire)” because I liked the title), makes me want to take the guitar out again and try to see what comes out of it, but that’s somewhere on the schedule for next year anyway :-). Thank you anyhow ! I think the rest of the EP has a lot to offer, I hope you’ll like it too !

[BonJoey]

Love this. Great stuff!

[jacobino]

Really lovely. Preordered, can’t wait to listen to the whole thing. This first track hit me

[LLK]

@BonJoey Thank you for taking the time to say nice things I’m very happy you liked it !

@jacobino Thank you so much ! I think the black heart is kind of a fitting rally sign for this one song.

[LLK]

We’ve received the test press this week and gave them several thourough listens, and they sound great. It’s such a thrilling and emotional thing really, to listen to your own music on vinyl, the impressive physicality of it, the kind of sacred ceremonial of taking the time to listen to it properly, it’s a bit terrifying and exilirating everytime, to press play and put the needle on.

The master for vinyl was done by Cem Oral at Jammin Masters in Berlin, and it was cut on Master Lacquer by Fredi at MPO in France which I’ve come to trust over the years.

I’m really happy with the result, the vinyl mastering and the way it sounds is slightly different, but I feel like the format fits this release especially well, and overall it just felt like a huge accomplishment that it sounded the way it does. Pressing vinyls is both a commitment and a priviliege, and you’ve got to make sure you really want to go through the hassle of doing it, but after a few careful listen I feel like it just makes sense, and I just can’t wait to be able to share more about it.

[LLK]

It’s my birthday today, so in order to have some kind of celebration I decided that I’d share another track because sharing music is my idea of fun.

Hope you’ll enjoy it, it’s a very different energy from the first one but it definitely comes from the same place in my heart / head.

[jacobino]

Happy Birthday Louis! Will listen to it now and say something later!
Can’t wait for the full release, mid September?

[LLK]

Absolutely, September 17 ! I received the Vinyls recently they look and sound great, I’m really excited that the whole thing finally comes out in a few weeks (which is kinda why I’m sharing one more track before it does really !).

Also in other matters, I’ll see if I have the strength to adress more of the themes behind this EP in the coming weeks with actual written words. It takes a great deal of energy from me mentally to comment on my own work, since it’s exactly there for me NOT to have to speak. But I also feel at the same time that it could be a valuable addition to this particular release so maybe I’ll give it a go if I have the strength, I don’t know.

Anyhow I will never say enough how thankful I am for the support of the people here. It’s extremely touching for me.

[thom]

Tonight I had the pleasure of listening to a second song from this new album.
It was perfect timing. The song helped me find peace at the end of a difficult day.

Thank you again for sharing @LLK !

edit : For those who haven’t listened to it yet, the song can be played on the Bandcamp page of the album.

[LLK]

@thom

The song helped me find peace at the end of a difficult day.

That’s probably the best thing any musician can hear, especially during these times, they take a toll on all of us, so I’m very happy if my music could help, even just a little.

[LLK]

So “Was this part of what you believed?” is now released and you can all listen to it in full on Bandcamp. It’s also available as pictured above in glorious (white) vinyl fashion, a physical object I’m very proud of as it feels like both an accomplishment and an artistic proposition of its own. I probably won’t release everything I do under that format systematically, but I think this particular piece of work deserved it and I hope people who bought the vinyl will enjoy their copy.

I hope listening to the thing as a whole beats listening to each tracks individually. I really more than ever meant it as a journey, each song influenced eachother, the way it all flows together sometimes felt more important to me than what every track meant on its own, so I do hope this sense of continuity and story telling through variations of sensory experiences translates in the finished release.

More humbly, I just hope it’ll resonate with you. Those 5 songs carry the influence and the musical and technical input of so many of you on lines, Norns is the most beautiful demonstration that music however isolated it can feel through the process of making it, is always, at its core, a collaboration and a collective process. There’s many of you all in there, I’ll never thank you enough for helping me reach new musical territories, and finding new ways to express myself through music, it means the world to me.