Voices From The Lake: Remastered & Reissued

The album makes its debut vinyl release, as well as on dig­i­tal for­mats, on March 7^th 2023 as the duo make their way around the world for a selec­tive live tour. As well as a tra­di­tion­al vinyl LP, the reis­sue is avail­able as a 4 x 12″ box-set, also includ­ing an exclu­sive pho­to book. Find both options on Band­camp.

The Ital­ian DJs, pro­duc­ers and long-time friends are non­con­formists of ambi­ent & left­field tech­no, both mas­ters of their craft before join­ing forces. Paint­ing vivid, mul­ti-lay­ered sound­scapes with slow­ly unfold­ing rhythm and tex­ture is the duo’s MO, a by-prod­uct of which, is pro­duc­ing some of the most inven­tive­ly entranc­ing ambi­ent tech­no in the scene.

It’s often said that the best music comes about as a hap­py acci­dent, and that is cer­tain­ly true of Voic­es From the Lake. The career-defin­ing album first arose in the thoughts of Dozzy and Neel when the lat­ter was prepar­ing a mix for the for­mer’s wed­ding and named it Voic­es From The Lake. It was a per­ti­nent title that stuck in their minds, since both grew up in Italy’s coastal regions and in their ear­ly days, the pair held pri­vate par­ties on the shores of a lake.

Cel­e­brat­ed Japan­ese music fes­ti­val, Labyrinth, was at the time also held by a riv­er and a lake in the mid­dle of a for­est on a serene moun­tain­side. That exact set­ting served as inspi­ra­tion when mak­ing music to play live on stage. Dur­ing prepa­ra­tions, they ​“acci­den­tal­ly” wrote an entire album’s worth of mate­r­i­al. The result has only ever been per­formed live a few times — once at Japan’s Labyrinth fes­ti­val in 2011, at London’s Bar­bi­can, Barcelona’s Mira Fes­ti­val, Paris’ Marathon Fes­ti­val and once dur­ing 2022’s Ams­ter­dam Dance Event.

Those shows saw the pair using banks of ana­logue and dig­i­tal equip­ment to impro­vise in the moment, essen­tial­ly remix­ing the album live on stage. That spon­tane­ity is cap­tured in the orig­i­nal Voic­es From the Lake record­ings and on lat­er LPs such as Live at Maxxi in 2015, and the most recent EP, Quar­to Fred­do from 2020.

The debut album remains a stand­out achievement. 

A decade on, its qui­et inten­si­ty, musi­cal sto­ry­telling and slow­ly unfold­ing ten­sion remain in a class of its own. With metic­u­lous­ly designed sound and care­ful arrange­ment, the spaces left behind are just as impor­tant in con­vey­ing its cap­ti­vat­ing mood and emo­tion. Rather than tra­di­tion­al kick drums, hi-hats or snares, this is music craft­ed from lay­ers of real-world sound: drip­ping water, chirp­ing birds, rustling leaves or a dis­tant breeze, which defines the album’s organ­ic allure.

From deeply con­tem­pla­tive to cau­tious­ly opti­mistic, pas­toral organ­ic scenes to more under­wa­ter worlds, Voic­es From the Lake is a cohe­sive col­lec­tion of tracks that add up to one insep­a­ra­ble whole.