EMANCIPATOR

As his name suggests, Emancipator’s music evokes freedom and open space. Salt spray, dark soil, trees undulating joyously in a wind as free as the word can imply.

(you should really listen to this while you read)

Drum patterns roll like waves, unmistakably influenced by hip-hop, while synth and guitar melodies are thoughtfully woven into a thick forest tapestry. Distant storm clouds shudder with fuzzy bass, low and roiling, and I feel the hairs on my neck stand on end like so many redwoods tossed in the gale.

Concert 7. My bones ground against each other. Dry and gasping adrenals churned to produce the energy demanded by my muscles. Yet the endorphins came, as they always do in the presence of great musical talent. Concert season is a marathon, and I have been training.

When people ask me how I can enjoy 2 shows a week for a month straight, or as more often happens 3 or 4 shows in as many days, I tell them I just don’t have a choice. Portland is to blame really, or the booking agents that live here. I just can’t bring myself to miss the talent that floods venues like the Star Theater multiple times a week. Emancipator is a perfect example.

Douglas Appling had an instrument in his hands from the age of 4. Effortlessly fusing electronic, world and hip-hop music, the Portland-based DJ and producer self-released his debut LP Soon It Will Be Cold Enough in 2006 while still in college. Now the founder of a record label and the live band Emancipator Ensemble with 5 LPs to his name, he brings his far-reaching musical tastes to stages around the world to headlining festival stages as well as intimate clubs like The Star.

Appling’s own record label, Loci Records hosted 4 of its signed artists that warm spring evening.

LAPA, also known as Ilya Goldberg, might be more immediately recognized as the violin player on stage for most Emancipator sets, and opened the evening. I had the pleasure of a private LAPA performance at a dear friend’s wedding in June of 2018, complete with Goldberg’s family and dogs dancing in the crowd and napping beneath his DJ booth respectively.

Next followed performances by 9theory and Frameworks. As the tempos swelled and the crowd thickened, a roiling caldera of swaying bodies formed before the modest stage, wild and free.

Every joint complaining, I left the comfort of my balcony railing and swam to the front. The lights dimmed and Framework’s final track receded, echoing into the darkness. Stealing in beside sweaty and smiling humans, I felt the hairs on my neck rise in anticipation.

From within the eye of the storm I felt the implacable movement of glaciers all around me, the stalking of Ocelots and the shifting of plates deep within the Earth. Shimmering string sections lacerated the fragile atmosphere of a dense jungle and roaring currents sent the sea of bodies I floated upon crashing into and over itself. I drank the heat and the cold and the freedom of wind through my pores and soon could not help but loose myself in the dance. My prickling skin as bark, my eyes as stars looking up into creation, I wrung every drop of adrenaline from my wracked body and celebrated the song.

What else is one to do in this life?

Light some incense and listen to Baralku. Bumps well with: planning your next camping trip, ramen on a cold night, coastal sunsets.

♥ Zach