The initial full-body paralysis induced by the soporific industrials of Belgian-Italian duo Lumisokea (Finnish for 'snow-blind') soon gives way to mesmeric, hyper-attuned listening experiences.
Koenraad Ecker and Andrea Taeggi came together as an improvisational pair in 2008, while studying at Amsterdam’s music conservatory. The duo combine acoustic instruments with analog hardware to craft deeply nuanced, grayscale sound environments.
For their live performances, Lumisokea channel an interest in inducing listener trance states via a new visual project, developed in collaboration with video artist Yannick Jacquet (Legoman), which aims to dilate the audience’s experience of physical space through the projection of abstract, geometrical light beams into a pitch black room suffused with smoke.
The duo has released two EPs on independent Dutch label Eat Concrete, Automatons and Selva (2011, 2012), and were featured on its Benefit for the Psycho In-Active compilation in 2013. Their first EP for Opal Tapes that same year, Apophenia, was developed around reel-to-reel tape treatments and cyclical rhythmic schemes, and they were also included in the label’s No Lotion compilation. A still-untitled new LP of tracks combining piano, tape experiments, and recordings made with rare vintage synthesizers, including the Arp 2500, Syrinx, Optigan, and EMS synthi a.o., is scheduled for release by Eat Concrete in early 2014.