Swedish multidisciplinary artist Zak Arogundade, better known as, will release his second full-length album ‘Echo’ tomorrow.

He’s part of the collective Drain Gang, alongside Bladee, Thaiboy Digital, and Whitearmor, which helped found one of the most subcultural movements of the past decade, with a cult sound and aesthetic.

On ‘Echo’, he builds on those foundations while continuing to move into a territory entirely his own. He’s the sole vocalist on the album, and all tracks are produced by himself or alongside longtime collaborators Gud, Whitearmor, Felix Lee, and Mechatok. 

Out via his own label 9th (Ninth), the 12-track record explores loneliness and longing, and the struggle to remain sensitive in a hostile world. It’s also a declaration of love for that world, and the fleeting privilege of being alive to witness it. 

‘Echo’ charts the journey of a vagabond character who wanders the world carrying a broadcast antenna and a crown of flowers. Moving alone through mountains and deserts, beaches, cities, and villages, he searches for signals in a world of overwhelming beauty and indifference, listening and transmitting.

Drawing on his mixed-media repertoire, Ecco2k developed the music and accompanying films in tandem, often composing tracks around particular moments caught off-the-cuff on video. The environment and his camera’s perspective on it are at times more central to the story than Ecco himself.

“The transcendent can express itself through the most ordinary things, and the sublime is so beautiful that it is frightening,” Zak says of his latest work.

There’s a visual through line that connects of all Ecco2k’s works: The aerial he carries on his back is an instrument of communication on this record, similar to the wind turbines on his debut album ‘E’ (2019) and the electrical lines on his second EP ‘PXE’ (2021).

Across these projects, the songwriting has evolved from introspective coming-of-age self-portrait, through existential longing to an embrace of the vast world beyond the self.