Video Premiere: LAWA ‘Konstrukt/Yaogoai’ – From New Album ‘Manipulation’, Drops October 2022

Today is the day when The Shaman introduces you to an Austrian duo of electronic wizards who create awe inspiring cinematic soundtracks that captivate and manipulate your inner thoughts. Going under the moniker of LAWA, which also happens to be an acronym of their names, Alain Leonard and Alex Wank, the latter maybe be familiar to some readers of these hallowed as the drummer for the revered death metal deviants Pungent Stench.

LAWA (Alain Leonard & Alex Wank)
LAWA (Alain Leonard & Alex Wank)

Although a new name to us at Shaman HQ, the duo have been exploring the crazy world of cinematic electronica for a number of years, and as presales for their latest album Manipulation, closely followed by its sibling, Instrumentalisation, went live this week, it gives The Shaman great pleasure to bring you the first single in the form of the last two cuts Konstrukt and Yaogoai.

Yes, that’s two tracks in one which have been seamlessly merged together along with a spliced video outlining the horrors the atomic bomb would have on our fragile planet. Now take cover and press play below for the nuclear force of Konstrukt and Yaogoai.

More On LAWA, ‘Manipulation’ & ‘Instrumentalisation’

There are places, they say, best left unexplored. Temples of darkness, ziggurats of gloom, resting places for those desperate souls whose essences have not fully departed this mortal plane…Who knows what awful secrets lurk there, deep in the black places of the Earth?

LAWA know. For their latest round of releases on the always forward-looking Cineploit label, the duo of Austrian mega-synthesists Alain Leonard and Alex Wank access realms as yet unseen by human eyes. Expanding on their previous records’ diet of soundtrack-heavy electronics and percussive mayhem, Manipulation and sister album Instrumentalisation dive headfirst into the deep end of techno darkness, taking the listener on a one-way trip into unknown dimensions of industrial, malevolent horror. Listen. Listen closely.

LAWA (Alain Leonard & Alex Wank) 'Manipulation'
LAWA (Alain Leonard & Alex Wank) ‘Manipulation’ Artwork

You will find yourself running, panic-stricken, through skyscraper canyons and waste-strewn alleys, pursued by nameless, faceless automatons. You will stand within far-distant hidden cities, cowering from the impossible shadows that form among those twisted architectures.

You will sleep; and aeons later, awake, somehow fundamentally altered from the person you once were. You will transcend time. You will, at the last, cheat death. And, unsure of whether your perceptions are to be trusted, you will listen to this music… and listen again. Do you dare?

LAWA (Alain Leonard & Alex Wank)

On to practical matters. On previous LAWA records our intrepid explorers reinterpreted newly excavated reverberations and resonances from the dustier reaches of the celluloid world. And here again, as ever, the influence of the Italian Masters looms strong. Reanimating the festering remains of Ennio Morricone, Bruno Nicolai and Riz Ortolani might, in some quarters, be frowned upon as somehow disturbing the natural cycle of existence. But there is music yet to be discovered within the legacy of those enigmatic souls. Not all ghosts bear malice. Some wish it to be known that the fruit of their endeavours tastes as succulent as ever. Would it not be impolite to refuse the offer?

And bear witness. Manipulation and Instrumentalisation are presented as a compound organism of music and visuals, distinct and seemingly incompatible elements intertwined like poison ivy. The artwork for these twin offerings was conceived and developed by one Thomas Zackl, designer extraordinaire and the visual genius behind many past Cineploit releases. In the art deco stylings of Herr, Zackl‘s illustrations we can see the perfect symmetry of sound and light, of dread and hope. These figures maybe you, or your loved ones – or, if your fortune deserts you, they may depict the likeness of your ultimate nemesis. Look into the mirror of this music and find out…

LAWA (Alain Leonard & Alex Wank) 'Manipulation + Instrumentalisation'
LAWA (Alain Leonard & Alex Wank) ‘Manipulation + Instrumentalisation’ Artwork

And finally, a vital question. Do the men of LAWA know what they have wrought? Do they perceive their compositions the same way others do, as a medium for channelling that which the cautious may shy away from in fear and trepidation? Perhaps not. Perhaps, in the crepuscular, myceloid dusk they inhabit, they are merely humming along to the music of the cosmos, the eternal tolling of a vast, all-encompassing bell. Disturb them at your peril!

Manipulation Tracklist:
01. In Case Off
02. Devils
03. Grave
04. Griff
05. Winters
06. Inhumation
07. Dark Walker
08. Squelettes
09. Visions
10. Boyaux
11. Injection
12. Sakkad
13. Konstrukt
14. Yaogoai

The latest LAWA (Alain Leonard & Alex Wank) album Manipulation will be released at the start of October by Cineploit Recordings with it’s sister album, Instrumentalisation, being released January 2023, along with a compact disc version featuring both albums with different artwork. Presales are available now for the vinyl and compact disc over on the labels webstore.

Label: Cineploit Recordings
Band Links: Facebook | Instagram