“Not so straightforward, is it?” remarks Markus. Both generally and rhetorically, he’s passing comment on life. However, in the closing weeks of 2017 & opening months of 2018, he could as easily be talking about the ‘how’, ‘what’ & ‘why?’ of Dakota’s stage show and its December-released 18-track LP companion, The Nine Skies.
Dakota has had its spiritual side from the off. The first and second ‘Thoughts Become Things’ albums were the pathfinders for this new, and possibly most definitive of Dakota projects. These releases were measures deployed to see if electronic music’s citizenry were receptive to something deeper and more involved.
The tipping point for The Nine Skies’ didn’t occur however until last year, and the aftermath of the attack on Florida’s Pulse nightclub. In respect of ‘The Nine Skies’, Markus’ own awakening started predominantly through books. The underlying theme of each of the 18 tracks on the album broadly falls into one of the Skies’ nine realms.
Dakota’s extraordinary The Nine Skies LP will be released through Coldharbour Recordings on December 8th. You can pre-order it here. Dakota adherents can also look forward, in the not too distant future to the The Nine Skies box set. This very special limited edition audio-visual release will include the DVD of Markus’ performance of The Nine Skies at Prague’s O2 Arena, as part of the Transmission 2017 event.
