LFR001 - The Visitor by Kinoteki

"The Visitor" is the second project in Kinoteki's ambitious creative initiative, "The Sacred Vessel Program", aiming to detail the many lives and many struggles of the [slightly] fictional cultural capital known as "The Vessel".

With geopolitical tension rising again at the hand of a tough fiscal year for Vessel Industries, Alter Island, the home of Sacred Vessel's prophet, the Alter-Ego of Abraham (or simply, The Alter), risks another attempted invasion from the neighboring micro-state of the United States. Will you sacrifice your life for the glory of The Vessel, or will you let your home burn?

"The Visitor" follows another lost soul from The Vessel, Julie, the hopelessly romantic, eternally struggling daughter of two high ranking executives at Vessel. During her persistently unsuccessful search for love, she thirsts for attention by any means possible. A strained relationship with her parents led her to discover that her parents secretly enlisted their daughter to fight in a war that'll never end. Knowing the inevitable can't be avoided, Julie decides to continue her search for love, before it's too late.

"I still think about it every day", Kinoteki remarks. "The city districts, the fucked up mega structures, the corporate greed, it won't leave me. I left too many loose ends open with the last project [Faith and the Vessel], but I had no idea where to take it, so I thought to myself: what if I looked at this place through someone else's shoes? What if I was an outsider looking in? I knew that was the right way to go, but like with all my projects, I can't execute it without a twist."

Almost as if it's a victory lap for Kinoteki, "The Visitor" relies on familiar sounds inspired by their past records (notably 2023's "breakup album", "Dawn of the Final Hour", 2022's collaborative effort with long-time hater, Kelbin, "Silence Kills", and the often forgotten industrial-inspired dance record under their Phonebox moniker, "You Hurt Me"), toying around with sounds and concepts that shatter the preconceived notion of what the Kinoteki project is supposed to sound like, with most of the tracks only utilizing software for arrangement; the majority of the track list relies on hardware samplers and esoteric analog synths, a first for Kinoteki.

"I've always been obsessed with breakup albums as you can probably tell from my record "Dawn of the Final Hour", but that album; there's no real soul to it, it was simply just me having fun with a brand new sound palette. I wanted this album to be in the same vain, but again, with a twist. I've also kind of just, changed since making that album. I'm not same person I was two years ago. What used to excite me then doesn't excite me anymore. The friends I had, the connections I made, the love I felt; it's all gone. What used to be an escape for me [creating music] became a burden; a curse. There's a bit of a trauma bond with the process now (which I'm hoping you can't tell *laughs*). At the same time, I can't just stop making music without closing the loose ends I've left behind. There's so much left for me to explore. The process of finishing this album resulted in myself having to blur the lines between the world I've been obsessed with building up and my life to the point the people who really know me probably think this album's incredibly personal. Don't get me wrong, it is, there's no point in hiding it anymore [haha]! But I guess it's more or less because I intended Julie to be a vessel (no pun intended) to dump my life into. A vessel to express how I truly feel, where I am mentally, et cetera. A self insert if you will. An outlet for whatever I'm feeling; inspiration for whatever fucked up story beats come to my head for The Vessel. She's basically the stress ball I never had, for lack of a better term, and probably the only reason I was able to finish this [fucking] cursed album."

Recorded from October 2022 to December 2024

Cover art by Lobearta
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Track art by Lopashes, Sparrowdovestarling, Vyzer, and Kinoteki
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Produced by Kinoteki
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Executive Production by Jack Bayley and Sam Canelo
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Mixed and mastered by Phonebox and Jack Bayley
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A very special thank you to everyone involved in making this happen and keeping the dream alive (Weavie, Matt, Jack, Exa, Tay, Anna, Sam, Riley, Elric, Stephen, Zoey, Anny, Andrea, Doxa, Juno, Arielle, Travis, Julie, Mari, Marie, and the demons that follow me every day).

Dedicated to everyone on the other side.

2025, Kinoteki under exclusive license to Limiting Factor Records Ltd.