Un-Kai [play hifi lofi] [license] [download]

We're very glad to present to you this debut-album of Un-Kai. Literally meaning "sea of clouds" in Japanese, the music represents a new, fresh approach in sound design.

Un-Kai is a collaboration between Ruben van Rompaey (drums/percussion/synths) and Rutger Verberkmoes (synths/programming/sound engineer). The two started working together when they met at the Rotterdam Conservatory in the Netherlands (1996). Although coming from different musical backgrounds they shared similar interests and soon started to experiment with sound concepts. In 2004-2008 Ruben recorded his three Eastern Expressions cd's in Rutger's Accent Audio studio and his Mozaic and Djembolale albums in 2009.

The concept behind Un-Kai is to integrate percussion and electronic music as closely as possible. Not just two layers, an electronic beat with percussion played over it, for example, but the sounds had to blend together in a more organic way. We tried to do so by using all kinds of technical tricks like triggering a vocoder by a bendir (percussion instrument) or using a convolution sample of a tabla (instead of a reverb sample) over a drum computer loop. But now we're getting too technical :-) Maybe more important than the above, it had to be danceable and an adventure to listen to!

Chill out on organic percussive beats, relax on various oriental atmospheres and immerse yourself into this unique sound adventure!