Chicago’s Lapzul Debuts Robust, Creative Project “A Knight In The Dark: Volume 1”
Music is often a personal journey that is the culmination of hard work, dedication, and personal vulnerabilities. Lapzul brings all these pieces of musicality to life on his debut project A Knight In The Dark: Volume 1, a robust, creative, exciting tape that highlights strange yet vivid sounds that bring innovation to the forefront. Completely produced by Lapzul himself, there is clearly plenty of talent behind this burgeoning Chicago artist and he even managed to get four other Windy City creatives (all from the Solution Collective) to appear on the tape, showing that his inspiring nature connects with other inventive minds.
While the music itself is cohesive and deliberate, the process behind making A Knight In The Dark: Volume 1 wasn’t as precise. With a focus on putting a moment in time onto wax, Lapzul had no plans before recording any individual track. This organic, moment-defining exercise resulted in a lightning-in-a-bottle type effect with every track, each one representing the free-flowing and timely nature of the process behind it. With this dynamic in mind, Lapzul wanted to get the most from the artists he reached out to and he did just that by providing them with the space and production to let each artist be authentically themselves. Each song is produced by Lapzul himself and he also usually comes in second throughout the tape, making sure that the focus is the music and not all him.
This focus on the art and authenticity behind it has resulted in some weird music; and that’s not a bad thing. Lapzul didn’t want to make music that’s already popular. Instead, he wanted to help shape the sound that will be popular in the future. While this snippet of the project may be under 15 minutes in total length, there’s so many unique vibes to be found that it feels like listeners could digest this tape over the course of a few months. From fascinating instrumentals to undeniably peculiar vocals, there are complex musical workings here that feel like that beginning of something bigger than just this one tape. With a nomination for Chicago’s “Best Classical Entertainer” from the Chicago Music Awards already under his belt (as the name Mo Javi), Lapzul is clearly heading in the right direction and people are taking notice. It will be exciting to see what the future holds for this captivating and diverse Chicago musician, and it’s looking like more big things are on the way.
Listen to the entire project below and be sure to stay in tune with Lapzul.