If you’re at all familiar with Dylan Anderson’s work as Kakune, you’ll know it’s distinctive vibe: lush, ambient, and decidedly wistful. His 2016 LP Succumb 2 was a study in atmospheric melancholy and impressionistic tones—a spacious, immaculately detailed record coated in soft blues and grays. Today, however, marks the arrival of Angel Unlmtd, a new project that takes its cues from a whole different spectrum of electronic music. While the change in alias doesn’t signal the death of Kakune, Anderson felt the shift in focus was too dramatic to house under the same name.
“I decided to create a new moniker because while this certainly borrows electronic elements from Kakune, stylistically it felt like a whole different realm of textures, soundscapes and approach,” Anderson explains. “This project genuinely started as an exercise of gathering segments of my favorite films, silencing them and adding my own scores via Ableton. I’ve always wanted to create a soundtrack to a movie or short film. This project originated from that idea and is predominately instrumental in nature. Kakune is still alive and hasn’t gone away entirely albeit most of my attention has been on this effort.”
With “ICCEBLOC13,” the first single from Angel Unlmtd’s forthcoming debut, Worldbuilder, Anderson carves out a much more experimental and wide-ranging universe. Whereas Kakune’s compositions, however unconventional, generally conform to a singular style, the web of sounds being spun here collide and careen in all sorts of divergent directions. There are moments both bombastic and serene, jarring and playful, caged in a sprawling cinematic aesthetic that spurns traditional pop or rock structures. According to Anderson, it’s this mercurial, multi-layered approach that is the defining feature of his debut.
“Worldbuilder is about sound design and textures,” he says. “It’s an amalgamation of my love for soundtracks, ‘90s video game scores and synthesis. This album is certainly all over the place but its main theme is definitely meant to be cinematic. Whether it be absurd, powerful, uncomfortable or contemplative, I think everyone will find something palatable.”
Worldbuilder is out Oct. 12.
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