Album of the Week: Kan Wakan

Kan Wakan is Gueorgui Linev, a Bulgarian born, LA-based composer and producer. Phantasmagoria Vol. 1 is his new record, the first of a planed trilogy, featuring vocalist Elle Olsun, drummers Ian Chang (Son Lux) and Gene Coye (Flying Lotus), and the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra. All told, they mix up  a light-headed heady potion of  orchestral pop that’s easy to listen to and easy to like.

Phantasmagoria is like a sequence of dreams or ghost stories using a lamp. At the core of it, all of these songs, whether written on piano or guitar, are stories that could be told at a campfire. A lot of it has to do with loss, and contrast of light and dark. ~ Kan Wakan

Originally planned as a triple LP release, Linev decided to chop Phantasmagoria up into three more easily digestible pieces for today’s attention span deficit. I find a lot of sad beauty in these songs, cloaked in lovely layers of sound that waver between simple song form and dense orchestral electronic mass. Light and dark.

I only wish it was longer…