Drain Gang co-founder Ecco2k has dropped Echo, his second full-length, a globe-trotting record about loneliness, longing and loving a beautiful, hostile world. It is out now on his own label, 9th. (Ninth).
Six years is a long time to sit with one record, and Ecco2k has spent every one of them on it. The Swedish multidisciplinary artist, real name Zak Arogundade, has released his second full-length album, Echo, which is out now on all platforms via his own label, 9th. (Ninth). The video for ‘Sky Burial’ is below, and it gives you a good sense of where his head has been.
A record written on the move
Echo was written and recorded across a nearly uninterrupted stretch of travel, and it shows in the way it is built. Zak developed the music and the accompanying films in tandem, often composing tracks around moments he caught by chance on camera. At times the environment, and his camera’s view of it, matters more to the story than Ecco himself.
The story follows a vagabond who wanders mountains, deserts, beaches, cities and villages with a broadcast antenna and a crown of flowers, listening and transmitting in a world of overwhelming beauty and indifference. That antenna continues a visual thread through his work: wind turbines on his 2019 debut album E, electrical lines on 2021’s EP PXE, and now an aerial on Echo. The writing has moved from a coming-of-age self-portrait, through a longing to transcend personhood, to an embrace of the vast world beyond the self.
Arogundade is the sole vocalist throughout. Every track is produced by him or alongside longtime collaborators Gud, Whitearmor, Felix Lee and Mechatok.
The singles, the vinyl and the tracklist
Two songs arrived first, each with an expansive video shot on his travels: ‘Aldehydes and Ketones’ and ‘Sky Burial’. Both also appear on a limited-edition 7-inch vinyl issued in four versions, each carrying a single letter, E, C, H or O. Collect them and they spell out the album title.
The full tracklist is: ‘Aldehydes and Ketones’, ‘Echo’, ‘Industrial Strength’, ‘Fæmous Vagrant’, ‘Plume’, ‘Cuban Heel’, ‘French Exit’, ‘Loveless Animal, Lawless Criminal’, ‘Encore’, ‘Held Overnight’, ‘Swimming in Fountains’ and ‘Sky Burial’.
Arogundade also spoke to Kieran Press-Reynolds at Pitchfork about the record and his path as an artist. “[Echo] is the most difficult thing I’ve ever done,” he says. “It’s been my whole life for the past six years. I think about it every day. It’s not an accident that my life is like this. It’s something that I’ve chosen. It was extremely gratifying, even though I didn’t enjoy every second of it.” You can read the full conversation on Pitchfork.
As part of Drain Gang, alongside Bladee, Thaiboy Digital and Whitearmor, Ecco helped shape one of the most influential subcultural movements of the past decade. Echo builds on that foundation while heading somewhere that is entirely his own. More transmissions are promised soon.
Press play on ‘Sky Burial’ here, then give the whole album a proper run from start to finish. It is the kind of record that rewards headphones and a long walk.
