Markus Floats is the pseudonym under which Markus Lake, a multidisciplinary artist based in Montreal, releases the electronic music he creates as a solo artist. In addition to playing bass in various punk, shoegaze, synth-pop, and experimental bands, this DIY enthusiast is also a painter. The painting on the cover of Third Album is one of his.
The electro universe that Lake conceives under the banner of Markus Floats is like this pictorial work, with its colourful expanses clustering together. In the same way, Lake assembles different layers of sound, their juxtaposition creating harmonious combinations or surprising contrasts. These layers of sound can be soothing, dissonant, smooth, or grainy. Like an abstract painter in love with pure colour, Lake seems fascinated by the very grain of sound.
To fully appreciate these electronic landscapes, you have to listen deeply, to be on the lookout for the smallest detail. Lake’s ambient is often drone-like, but its horizontality is sometimes broken by the roar of celestial organs, robotic clatter, stridulations emitted by metallic cicadas, or spiralling arpeggios rising to the surface like clusters of bursting golden bubbles. Other artists come to mind, such as Kraftwerk (especially during the last piece) or Christian Fennesz (an avowed source of inspiration), but Markus Floats already has a world of his own. A fascinating world.
