GAIKA will release a new album, War Island OST, next month.
Set for release jointly through his own The Spectacular Empire label, alongside Mexico City imprint NAAFI and Shanghai label SVBKVLT, the project started life as the soundtrack for GAIKA’s War Island installation, which premiered last year as part of Nine Nights’ Channel B exhibition at London’s ICA. Earlier this month, he previewed the new record with a track called ‘Gladius’, produced by Giant Swan’s Mun Sing, while another cut, ‘Zatōichi’, was released in November last year.
"War Island is the story of a braggadocios gravel-throated drinker lost in former glories and failed romances," reads a press release accompanying the album’s announcement. "The last man in this pub telling anyone who will listen tales from another time, oblivious to his own demise. War Island, like the country it chooses to satirise in its title, is a concept record bereft of moral compass in its leadership."
In addition to the album and ICA installation, the wider War Island project includes a film and a sample library created alongside Spitfire Audio. The new album follows on from 2020’s Seguridad EP, which came out through NAAFI.
The Spectacular Empire / NAAFI / SVBKVLT will release War Island OST on April 29, 2022.