5 x 4, by Lau Nau

5 x 4

by Lau Nau

supported by

more...

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$8 USD or more
Black Vinyl LP
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Limited Edition LP on 140g vinyl.

Artwork by Ester Grossi. Foldover packaging printed with special fluorescent pantone colors that are especially luminant under UV light, housed in a resealable sleeve with sticker. Includes DL code.

Includes unlimited streaming of 5 x 4 via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Sold Out

1.	Lightiella 01:22	buy track
2.	Amphipoda II 06:13	buy track
3.	Pleomothra 04:01	buy track
4.	Isopoda 08:25	buy track
5.	Ostracoda 06:07	buy track
6.	Sessilia 05:45	buy track
7.	Hyperiidea 05:30	buy track
8.	Calanticomorpha 04:25	buy track

about

5 x 4 is a new solo collection from award-winning Finnish composer, producer, and musician Laura Naukkarinen, recorded at Elektronmusikstudion EMS in Stockholm using the historic Buchla 200 modular synthesizer, an AKG BX20 spring reverb, and, on two songs, her voice. The album shows yet another side of her singular musical universe, by turns aquatic and meditative, always pulsing with energy.

Lau Nau's ninth solo album, 5 x 4 is being released by her longtime co-conspirators Fonal (Finland) and Beacon Sound (US). Composed and recorded at EMS over a period of five years, the title is a reference to the Buchla's sequencer, which has five steps and four tracks, thus creating the characteristic five-beat tempo behind the compositions. The eight tracks that comprise 5 x 4 fluctuate between different moods: the contemplative hum of Isopoda; the coral-like tones and lush vocal melodies of lead single Sessilia; and the carbonated radiance of Hyperiidea and Amphipoda.

Boomkat review: "Highly recommended... The album coaxes us in with a pair of delicate instrumentals before Laura allows her vocals to complete the picture. We're reminded of Caterina Barbieri's 'Ecstatic Computation' on 'Pleomothra', as a lilting 5/4 saw wave prangs with wordless vocals that glide across delicate electronics like hot oil on ice. On some level it still sounds like folk music, inseparably connected to Northern European sacred sounds and early music played on the kantele, the justly tuned Finnish five-string zither that Naukkarinen used on her earliest material. None of these references are completely upfront, but listen to the wistful 'Ostracoda' and you'll hear echoes of a distant past in its mossy melodies and rickety plucks.

When Florian Fricke attempted to reconcile folk and electronic music on the first Popol Vuh recordings, he zeroed in on traditional music's intangible mysteriousness - the kind of intrigue that comes from centuries of oral tradition. In contrast, Naukkarinen picks out its warmth and playfulness, inflecting familiar bleeps with the meter of a fairytale. 'Sessilia' begins with blunted organ drones, but as soon as Naukkarinen's vocals materialise we're whisked away into the deep forest, across bubbling streams and frozen lakes. It's deeply visual music, so evocative you can almost touch the bark and fur, and while Enya's an overused musical reference right now, it's hard not to draw parallels between Naukkarinen's oblique revivalism and the Celtic legend's new age treatments in the 80s."

beaconsound.com

credits

released April 28, 2023

Recorded at Elektronmusikstudion EMS Stockholm 2017-2022.
Composed and performed by Laura Naukkarinen with Buchla 200 modular synthesizer, AKG BX20 spring reverb, and voice.
Recording and mixing: Laura Naukkarinen
Mastering: Alho Audio Mastering
Cover art: Ester Grossi
Layout: Sami Sänpäkkilä

license

about

Beacon Sound Portland, Oregon

Upholding the power of culture over the culture of power since 2011.

beaconsound.com

contact / help

Contact Beacon Sound

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like 5 x 4, you may also like:

Fractured Whole
by Cruel Diagonals

supported by 20 fans who also own “5 x 4”

Enya for the Upside Down. Soothing and unnerving in the same sitting. It's a wonderful place to be. Anthony Owsley
go to album
Valo Siroutuu
by Sontag Shogun x Lau Nau

supported by 19 fans who also own “5 x 4”

Beautiful intimacy has always been something of Sontag Shogun's music, and this new record, thanks to the collaboration with Lau Nau has taken this further. It is possible that the use of lyric and vocals becoming more prominent has encouraged this sense of closeness, but simultaneously the lushous textural layering has continued to remain at the core. As such the record strikes a perfect balance of staying true to Sontag Shogun's previous form whilst also charting new territory. nujumi
go to album
Everywhere at the end of time
by The Caretaker

supported by 18 fans who also own “5 x 4”

Actually astounding and emotionally moving, creating a community that I have been proudly a part of for 2 years OrsonXD
go to album
Big Lunch
by Rob Moss Wilson & Cool Maritime

“Big Lung” combines ambient music with spoken-word poetry for a warm, relaxing listen. Bandcamp New & Notable May 9, 2020
go to album
Prismatic / Loomstate
by Curved Light

Opalescent synth waves crash gracefully on top of each other on this enlightened electronic album. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 11, 2016
go to album
A Sonic Womb: Live Buchla Performance at Lapsus
by Suzanne Ciani

If Ciani and her Buchla 200e synthesizer are an old, eccentric married couple of sorts, this performance is a vow renewal. Bandcamp Album of the Day Sep 15, 2020
go to album
Living Torch
by Kali Malone

supported by 18 fans who also own “5 x 4”

My heart is beating slower and faster at the same time kwellou
go to album