to listen to their latest single … a song worthy of the term, ‘priceless’. A priceless piece of composition.
‘Invited’ is the fourth single release from their upcoming album by Norwegian duo Apothek. An eponymous nine-track album which by now, has become a much anticipated debut.
Its landscape is built up from loops of airy synth, laid across a sparse crevasse like strings of fairy lights flashing in a night-garden. Scatterings of random splodges and samples of electro noises, some eerily intergalactic, others like chittering aliens, populate a growing soundscape until it explodes with a burst of war drums and gnarly drum loops, into a panoramic vista of endless proportions.
The instrumental is equal parts Larsen as mad scientist and master tailor; the result is a broadsheet of electronic indulgences interlaced with a delicate embroidery of classic keys sequences. Melding both futurist and classicist visions, Larsen forges a sky at night canvas which, with his luminous vocal palette, Mykleburst colours and highlights apropos of the songs lyrical nuances. And what nuances, what sentiments, what images inked across the nocturnal typeface with exquisite vocal precision.
“And try to remember through the veils of all the marriages, and how you rose from the secret of the skies, bearing your beating heart”….
“Prickly hided and the skinny eyed, slack bodied animals, a subway roar shakes the air out and the stilettoes vibrate”
Apothek’s musical journey has been a bit like a Viennese waltz. What started in adagio, quietly and gently, without much show or fuss, has gradually gained momentum through a continuous blur of turns and change steps, waltzing into the andante whirl in which it finds itself today.
Larsen and Mykleburst have developed their sound in a fashion similar to the patissier building a mille feuille. By endlessly layering experimental electronica upon organic acoustic, they have created a multifarious sonic diversity, a scalable network that offers up a vast foundation and limitless scope for their future projects.
‘Invited’ is not just the result of clever juxtaposition, it is a strikingly unorthodox fusion of opposites; on-point, imaginative lyrical poesy and electronic fantasia at its finest.
Apothek’s self-titled debut album will release via Propeller Recordings on 30th September (the week I celebrate my birthday – all presents gratefully received!). You can pre-order it now though, follow the link: http://apple.co/2aUn7eN
Keep up to date with all of Apothek’s antics via their social pages:
apothekmusic.com | facebook.com/apothekmusic twitter.com/apothekmusic | instagram.com/apothekmusic
dervswerve 