Telepath (musician)

Luke Laurila,[3] better known as Telepath (Japanese: t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者, Hepburn: terepashī nōryoku-sha), is an American musician notable for his considerable impact within the vaporwave scene.

His work with HKE under the alias 2814, including Birth of a New Day (2015) and Rain Temple (2016), is recognized for innovating the vaporwave genre beyond purely sample-based material.

His work as Telepath was integrated into Spotify's official vaporwave playlist, and featured as part of the soundtrack for Dan Vogt's video game Data Wing (2017).

[17][18][19] On June 11, vaporwave trio Death's Dynamic Shroud released a looping music video for "Here She Comes", a track from Laurila's side project Virtual Dream Plaza.

[24] For his final album under the stylized Telepath pseudonym, Interstellar Intercourse, Laurila released a music video for the track "Enchanting Beauty" on December 19.

[citation needed] An official vaporwave playlist released in July by streaming service Spotify featured five of Laurila's tracks: two from Andromeda (2014) and three from Birth of a New Day.

[citation needed] In September, Laurila released Secret Lover, which was described by Bandcamp Daily's Ari Delaney as one of his many "complex, emotional musical experiences".

[37][38] During the same year, developer Dan Vogt included some of Telepath's music, alongside tracks by artists such as George Clanton and Luxury Elite, in his 2D mobile racing game Data Wing.

[47][48] With The Path to Lost Eden, Laurila's cinematic usage of samples, according to Andrew Ryce, elevated the vaporwave genre towards a less ironic direction.

[9][1] Genres explored by Laurila's music include vaporwave, ambient,[5] dance pop, dreampunk,[32] funk,[31] lo-fi,[1] new age,[3] post-vaporwave,[47] slowcore,[15] slushwave,[9] smooth jazz,[15] and techno,[27] most often sampling J-pop songs from his personal collection.

[15][32] Downer highlighted Laurila's usage of the Japanese language as giving a sense of mystery to his music, while Jonathan Xinsei listed this as one of the reasons his work as 2814 became popular.

The album, like Laurila's other work, abstains itself from vaporwave's political discourse of "destroy[ing] the narratives that built the techno-capitalistic zeitgeist," according to Downer.

The saxophone instrumentation of "Cyan Water Surface" presents a smooth jazz influence, while "Tonight, My Love" emphasizes vaporwave's signature bass vocal sound as a vehicle for expressing emotion.

[15] Amaterasu demonstrates Laurila's method of manipulating J-Pop samples; according to Angel Marcloid, it exemplifies his ability to merely complement the original work without changing its core style.

[citation needed] "Live Forever", one of Telepath's tracks for the split album Virtual Phantasy 2097, was described by Cage Hashimoto as developing a middle ground between the chopped and screwed style of traditional vaporwave and the upbeat sound of future funk.

"Heart Synthesis" and "Surface Tension", however, return to a less melodic, more atmospheric sound characteristic of Telepath's discography, with the former featuring distant ambient vocals during its runtime.

[1] In Beyond Love, Laurila and Cardinal's material is "particularly dream-inducing yet beat-focused" according to Flagpole's Gordon Lamb, and the duo presents "spellbinding music" according to Simon Chandler.

[citation needed] Rain Temple emphasizes ideas of what Miles Bowe called a "noirish" atmosphere, while Simon Chandler wrote of its "transcendent" value as creating a kind of "disembodied vaporwave".

He compared Telepath's A to HKE's album HK, due to both emphasizing atmospheric traits over musical structure, but contrasted Russo's dark and ominous sound to Laurila's "near-heavenly ambiance."

The Light of Our Love, as abstractly described by Tiny Mix Tapes, "stirs the cauldron of our intimate life," with tracks that evoke senses of weightlessness, tranquility, happiness, and tension.

The title track features "a bright melodic atmosphere" of "subtle pad sweeps" and synths, which Delaney felt created "the perfect soundtrack for a neon metropolis.