PREMIERE: Akmuo - Life [Kizen Records]

Beloved Berlin imprint Kizen Records expands its 2025 account with another long player, this time sliding into the slow burn of dub. Lunar Cycles is the latest chapter in the ever-expanding catalog of Lithuanian producer Tadeuš Jatkevič, better known as Akmuo, whose recent years have been a steady drift through every shade of delay, echo, and negative space. His new album doesn’t chase reinvention so much as deepen the craft. It moves like someone walking familiar streets at a different hour, recognizing the contours while noticing new colors in the shadows. Across ten tracks, Akmuo shifts tempo and density yet holds the same suspended atmosphere, letting each piece behave like a different facet of the same mineral. The result feels almost didactic in the best way, a primer on how dub can stretch across forms without losing its pulse. Our premiere today, Life, is part of the album’s closing pair alongside Lunar 2. It’s a fast mover on paper, deep in the 140s, yet carries itself with a softness that defies the number. Two dub chords orbit each other in slow rotation, drifting in and out of alignment while the four to the floor anchors their dance. Percussion gathers in small increments, never announcing a shift yet constantly nudging the track forward. The background hiss blurs the edges, turning the whole thing into a kind of illuminated fog. It’s a fitting endpoint: energetic, restrained, and quietly luminous. Lunar Cycles arrives November 28 on cassette and digital formats. @kizenrecords www.instagram.com/_akmuo/ www.instagram.com/kizenrecords/ Write up by @gilleswasserman Follow us on social media: @itsdelayed linktr.ee/delayed www.delayed.nyc www.facebook.com/itsdelayed www.instagram.com/_____delayed www.youtube.com/@_____delayed Contact us: [email protected]