Iury Lech

In recent years, the vinyl reissue has emerged as major aggregator of change - the means to discover and appraise the lost histories of remarkable musics from across the globe. Among the most striking and neglected of these, are the sounds which rose from the Spanish underground during the 1980’s and 90’s. Long coveted by collectors - this movement, washed in strange structures and ambiences  - mistakenly tied to broader gestures of New Age, is only beginning to receive the attention that it has always deserved. Among the rarest and most desired artefacts of its generation - an emblem of its heights, Iury Lech’s stunning Musica Para El Fin De Los Cantos is finally returning to our ears - the latest effort of the Berlin based imprint CockTail d'Amore.

Iury Lech is a Ukrainian born multidisciplinary artist, working in Spain across film, sound, and text. During the late 1970’s and 80’s he rose as a pioneer within a moment focussed on electronically generated audio and visual media. Recorded in 1989 and released in 1990, Musica Para El Fin De Los Cantos is often regarded as his greatest work. Drawing on the ground gained by Minimalist pioneers like Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass - built from repetitive rhythm and sheets of rippling resonance, drone, and ambience, the album is so striking and beautiful, that it seems shockingly unjust that it was overlooked when it emerged. Utilizing acoustic instrumentation, electronics, and synthesis, the album’s true context is within the larger canon of works by composers of his generation - those tapping the remarkable possibilities of sonic constraint, Costin Miereanu, Daniel Lentz, Wayne Siegel, Ariel Kalma, etc. An efforts of sublime subtlety and elegance - feeling so natural, that it seems to have assembled itself. Musica Para El Fin De Los Cantos is one of the great unacknowledged works in the second wave of Minimalism - long lingering in the shadows, patiently waiting to be offered its rightful place. With CockTail d'Amore loving reissue - the first on any format, that time has arrived. Emerging for a new generation of listeners, these are the profound depths of 1980’s Spanish ambient avant-garde - stunning truths waiting to be heard.