LOKAI
Florian Kmet (guitar)
Stefan Németh (EMS synthi, sampler)
Lokai capture, remodel and expand the sonic spectrum of the guitar by means of electronics, confronting them with the original and pure sound of the instrument. Along the axis of song formats and stochastic situations, Kmet and Németh create tracks which oscillate between dense layers and fragile, ramified constructions of fragmented melodies and sounds.Will Montgomery wrote the following about Lokai´s first album „7 million“ (Mosz records, 2005): „In lokai´s music tunes and tones merge and diverge. Guitar and software combine in compositions that stray to and fro across the borders between analogue and digital, structure and instability, music and sound. Parts of songs – loops, melodies, chords – float like a moody jellyfish in electronic space. Musical threads fly apart and reconvene in unresolved clusters. There´s always another twist of the kaleidoscope to come. With ears sharpened in Vienna, Stefan Németh and Florian Kmet carry their musical baggage lightly, edging their work into thickly textured explorations of states of uncertainty.“ 2009 Lokai released „Transition“ on Thrill Jockey records. Potentially being interpreted in various ways, the album title delineated also a transition in terms of how Lokai´s music was created: they brought their new pieces into a detailed, more structured form, driven by a subtle pulse or rhythm, whereas earlier tracks concentrate on free-floating textures and splinters of songs. A consequence of this new method was to include a drummer, Bernhard Breuer (Elektro Guzzi, Metalycée), for selected live appearances. Despite changing certain parameters within the project, there is probably one thing which stayed the same: a vivid interest in constructing a sense for wideness and space.
