With well over a decade of history as collaborators on and off the stage, Doug Appling and Ilya Goldberg have defined the Emancipator sound as a veritable rolodex of vivacious music. Of his own accord, Appling has already released two LP’s and two EP’s across the last two years under the Emancipator moniker, continuing his solo production work alongside a cast of other musicians and instrumentalists. Goldberg’s last full-length LP, Spirit Vessel, released through his individual Lapa project four years ago and expanded upon the soft-spoken motifs found in his debut Meeting Of The Waters LP. Now, pushing into lightly-trodden territory at full speed, the Emancipator and Lapa projects have met in the middle for the collaborative, dance-floor centric LP 11th Orbit.

Moving across tempos and temperatures in composition has engendered a vast studio catalog spanning a variety of rhythms, modes, and attitudes that have made Emancipator not just a mainstay veteran of instrumental electronica, but a malleable force onstage in virtually any context. Uptempo grooves have always been part and parcel of either musician’s compositional gait, but 11th Orbit is a quintessential house album with a potent infusion of world music and classic Emancipator hallmarks. Hitting it’s stride out of the gate, “To Infinity”, “Mamba”, and “Vortex Cortex” all set the major flavors of the record, introducing steady-beat cocktails of spacious and pocketed arrangements made with footwork in mind. Maintaining it’s cruising altitude at variable speeds, tracks like “Leopard Shepard”, “Crow Nebula”, and the closing song “Hailo” bring the energy down to subtler pace, showcasing more effusive musical tangents and rhythmic interplay that record has to offer without cutting the overall vibe and tone set from the jump. From start to finish, 11th Orbit paints a clear and potent picture of the dance-friendly side to the Emancipator and Lapa mindsets, adding yet another grab bag of hearty ingredients to future Emancipator performances.

In a modern paradigm currently dominated by brackish, full-throttle sound design and unrelenting downbeats, Emancipator and Lapa continue to suffuse a palatable and organic approach to electronic music across an ever-growing swell of appreciators, curious revelers, and unsuspecting new fans. With the addition of 11th Orbit to the available arsenal, the rest of 2022’s Emancipator performances are sure to include a host of uptempo choices and surprises, keeping the package as fresh as it’s ever been. If you’re feeling a dire need to scratch the itch left in the wake of this lush new LP, check out the Submersion Festival tab in our websites header above for ticketing information and the full weekend lineup!

FOLLOW Emancipator: Soundcloud / Bandcamp / Spotify / Official

FOLLOW Lapa: Soundcloud / Bandcamp / Spotify / Instagram