Re:VIVE, an initiative of the Netherlands' Institute for Sound and Vision, sought Dara Smith and Ian McDonnell to produce a conceptual work, based on the theme of water, using their audio-video archive as a sample source. The duo obliged with
Struggle & Emerge, released in 2016 as the third
Lakker album. It incorporates the producers' own field recordings, as well as material from radio and television broadcasts. The Netherlands, by necessity, has a complex infrastructure for water control, so manipulations of rhythmic machinery are a natural component of the album. The sense of unease, punctuated with bursts of harsh noise, evoke the land's constant flood threat. "Maeslantkering Gating" grinds and batters with far more force than anything heard on the 2015
Lakker album
Tundra. "Broken Clouds" is filled with bristling distortions that obscure an alarmed dispatch of some kind. Even when the pummeling recedes and gives way to muted whirrs and ghostly melodies,
Struggle & Emerge is a bracing -- sometimes stifling -- album to absorb. ~ Andy Kellman