Tracklist:
01. Skyward
02. Drowning Flight
03. Night Art
04. Always Returns
05. World Pivot
06. Look Your Last
07. Through Decades
08. Skyward Vernacular
09. Folding
Release Date: December 17th, 2021
Label: Consouling Sounds
Written and produced by Daniel W J Mackenzie.
Mastered to tape by Ian Hawgood.
ALBUM BIO
The first full length Ekca Liena album was released as a CDr in 2008, causing a ripple in the burgeoning ambient underground despite the small run reaching a very select audience. It would go on to become a cult classic, reissued twice - first in an expanded 2CD format, and then on vinyl via Norman Records’ own Public House Recordings. Woven into a sizeable discography is the backbone of Ekca Liena’s central sonic story, a sequence of epic full length works that this early release commenced. Thirteen years later part five of this sequence comes into the world, and in doing so brings an end to both the story and the Ekca Liena project itself.
Skyward Vernacular combines and elevates elements from all the preceding albums: the oneiric majesty of Slow Music for Rapid Eye Movement, the desolate dark magic of Graduals, the seismic destruction of Gravity and Grace and the subconscious hypnosis of Veiled State. Its title suggests a departure from the ground, from the earth, displacing what came before and sending it, finally, into cosmic oblivion.
Skyward Vernacular closes what has been a dramatic body of work, and is itself a dynamic journey through sound designed to stir the emotions. Soaring heights are fuelled by layered pads of distorted guitar, whilst patient analogue synths conjure passages of reflection. Noise and melody contribute equally to a feeling of rapture, and periods of quietude and near stasis provide an ethereal undertone. In a way it’s classic Ekca Liena, a return to the start that brings with it everything that has been explored and expressed since.
ARTIST BIO
Ekca Liena is the earliest and most known project of musician and sound artist Daniel W J Mackenzie. Following several years of formative bedroom producing, the name Ekca Liena was coined as Daniel’s attentioned turned more towards deeper, longer form music. First appearing on the debut compilation of the celebrated and much loved Dead Pilot Records in 2007, the label released Slow Music For Rapid Eye Movement the following year to critical acclaim. The album ended up being reissued twice, joining a discography that has steadily grown since via numerous record labels based around the world. Treading into heavier, noisier music as easily as modern composition and minimal ambient, Ekca Liena doesn’t fall easily into specific categories and scenes, and has managed to largely avoid being neatly pigeonholed. This and an almost non-existent live history has allowed the name to retain an elusive character, where the music - heard as it was intended at the point of creation - stands front and centre.
