Lapa

Meeting of the Waters

10
10/10
Brandon Backhaus | September 15, 2015

Today has been surreal. So much happened in one night. Universes colliding. Rubber bands snapping back. Waves crashing only to be sucked back out to sea to gather the momentum to crash all over again in an endless succession of natural forces. Magnets. Gravity. 

I'm focusing on breathing today. Having a clear mind unhindered by chemicals or altered by peripheral thoughts, focused. 

It's necessary to exercise my nickel-plated resolve, for my entire emotional catalog is about to be tested, the foundation of all my feelings rattled. 

I can't go into more detail than that right now, but Lapa's newly released record Meeting of the Waters is its soundtrack. 

Lapa is Ilya Goldberg of Emancipator. Meeting of the Waters just dropped on Loci Records, the label curated by Emancipator's seemingly endless hoard of classically-trained, electronically-gifted music gods. And it is a gorgeous team effort of talent and vision. 

Meeting of the Waters is infinite in its scope. Each song seems like it could go on forever. And indeed it seems at times like the album just blends together like watercolors, transitioning from one song to the next in a continuous flow where the waters meet and blend and seep and swirl. The kind of place where strange creatures call home; where delineations between fresh and salt water are visible. Brackish in its uniqueness. 

There aren't many musicians making this kind of flora, instrumentation layered upon layer after layer of percussive polyrhythms, haunted atmospherics, plucky strings, peaceful vibes, and goose-pimple-inducing swells before slamming unto the earth itself. And whatever the hell a guzheng is. 

Lapa has masterminded just the kind of record that lends itself to introspection. To ignoring the invites. To meditations. To clear-mindedness. To beauty and truth. To an aching honesty the type to make bones sigh. And that's exactly what the fuck I need right now. And let's be real, you probably do too.