Ekca Liena is an alias of English musician Daniel W J Mackenzie. Under this banner he produces music which generally defies a central description, favouring instead an eclectic array of influences and styles. Placed roughly in the ambient underground scene, this does form the basis of a lot of Ekca Liena material, however there are frequent, often violent excursions into other styles. Over his largely melancholic releases you will find exercises in noise, psychedelics, electronica, drone, modern composition and nods toward the avant garde.

Mackenzie has described his work as having a ritual element. This seems apparent in his approach to rhythm and texture, where environments are created that invoke reflection, aggression and catharsis. Critics have likened Ekca Liena to a wide range of artists including Fennesz, Tim Hecker, Global Underground and drone-doom forerunners Sunnn O))).

Possibly his best known work is the excellently received Slow Music For Rapid Eye Movement, a sprawling kaleidoscopic journey through beautiful and haunting dreamscapes that some reviewers praised as an underground ambient classic. Since then he has released work on various international labels, collecting glowing press responses along the way. Each release tends to bring out a slightly modified side to the central Ekca Liena sound: Sleep Paralysis contained clear influence from heavy doom spiked post-rock; Swarm With Swarms escalated electric guitar loops into white hot noise; Mapping The Boundary Layer created a lush sound-world around environmental field recordings.

The future will see further sonic offerings, developing and evolving the core even further through solo work and collaborations.

Aside from Ekca Liena, Daniel also makes music as Daniel W J Mackenzie and performs and release music with the drone band Plurals.

http://www.ekca-liena.co.uk/