Otherwise known as Arturs Liepins, the sphinx that is Dunian is quietly stirring in the shadows, waiting to show himself when the time is right or never at all. Barely emerging in late March this year with nothing more than a myspace page offering just four tracks, the Latvian newcomer has gifted our ears with one of the most thoughtful, spacious and uplifting short players this year.
Although the four tracks (totaling eleven and a half minutes) can be listened to as a single entity, the EP almost feels as though it is in two halves. The intro track, appropriately titled "All Intros" is an emotive, inviting, and very natural opener, with almost elemental soundscapes. Ghostly voices lament in the distance to a soundtrack of jangling, alien claps and whips which sound cold and unfamiliar, yet the listener is welcomed and made comfortable by the wall of soft echo and bass that Liepins has carefully crafted to keep the balance. Painfully, the track ends almost as soon as it has begun. Not necessarily a bad thing however, as it certainly cries out to be replayed.
And so we move on to "Mind Body Mind". This takes a similar direction to the first track: distant, indistinguishable voices; lazy, warm bass; discrete claps and clacks. This track has more of a familiar feel however, as the beats and instruments sound more human, and they have a stronger presence throughout. The distant voices and cries converge slowly for the first half, before briefly soaring into the sky in full flight, trailing behind them a following of starry sounds. It is at this peak that the heavy sampling of Cocteau Twins’ "Essence" is most evident. The song then fades out with chirps and shimmers of sound skipping across treetops, or a frozen lake, or just under the edge of the atmosphere. This first half of the EP brings a sense of familiarity through its very human and organic nature, and two tracks in, it is easy to get lost in it.
Liepins then cleverly gives a robotic slap across the face in "Where Is the Problem" and upon wakening; we find ourselves somewhere darker and less native. The opening whirr of the track evokes a different feeling. The sidestepping claps are still there, the beats still precise and crisp, but the new presence of a machine-like sound with auto-tuned robots and the slow, tuneful humming of machinery, offers a different experience. They seem intent on continuing from where their organic predecessors left off, although much like "All Intros", it feels like it finishes when it is just starting to flow.
In the conclusive (and in my opinion, strongest) track "Love to Match", the organic combines with the machine, and we are taken to an altogether different place than where we were before. Soaring, floating, empowering, head-nodding – the music speaks for itself.
Liepins takes the listener on a journey that delves into a broad spectrum of emotion, location and texture. I find myself floating in space, roaming a forest lit up with a soft glow guiding my way, and underwater, playing with the glowing lights as I cool off from the tropical heat. This is an altogether hi-fi affair, with an ambiance similar to artists like Baths, Four Tet, Mathemagic, and even Flying Lotus. There are many words which I could use to describe this increasingly popular style of music, but thankfully Liepins has saved me the bother, in heading straight to the core and producing a piece of work so rich and full that it does indeed speak for itself. Dunian was sent from the future. Whether it was 3 years from now or 300 – who can say? Either way, his alien code transmitted via mp3 tells us this: we have a bright future ahead of us.
[Dunian Myspace]
[Download Dunian's EP for free]
meh.
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