Ekca Liena - Skyward Vernacular (2021)

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.