Lingua Lustra - Holo • Deep (2023)

Wow! Two new full-length discs of spellbinding electronic music from the ever-prolific workstation of Albert Borkent, aka Lingua Lustra, an artist we can’t get enough of here at Carpe Sonum central. Borkent’s released a mountain of work strewn across many labels throughout the new millennium, each one a never less than intriguing morsel to chew on, listen to repeatedly, and digest over and over. His inspiration for this one appears to come from a fascination with holographs, interactive virtual reality, the awe and mystery of cyberspace. Yes, he’s not the first to explore such phenomenon, but his approach is surely one of the more piquant and original out there. Making effective use of sequencers that don’t deem to simply ape the Teutonic neural networks of the 70s, tracks on the Holo disc like “En Route” and “Synchronicity” are like falling to softly congealing velvet, their pulsing rhythmic matrices simply loving the alien. On the Deep disc, “Sunsplash” effortlessly vaults you into orbit via the superheated thrust of atomically-split electronic vectors, while “Swim to Heaven” posits ecstatic dancing via static discharge, synths naked, whooping, and suchlike. Borkent’s obvious affection for, and love of, his stylistic forebears is deeply evident across these two discs of abject atmospheric wonder.