Telepath (musician)

Luke Laurila, better known as Telepath (t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者), is an American musician notable for his considerable impact within the vaporwave scene. During the mid-2010s, his ambient sound and dream-like presentation turned him into the main originator of the slushwave subgenre. He also released albums under the alias Virtual Dream Plaza, and he currently releases music under the pseudonym Tianhuojian.

Laurila released his debut album in 2013, and began producing split albums with vaporwave artists such as Cat System Corp. He became a notable figure of the genre for his prolific output during 2014, and for co-founding Dream Catalogue, the first vaporwave-focused record label. His work with HKE under the alias 2814, including Birth of a New Day (2015) and Rain Temple (2016), is recognized for innovating the vaporwave genre beyond purely sample-based material. He also distanced the movement from its semi-ironic roots with The Path to Lost Eden, his split album with musician Nmesh. Birth of a New Day became one of the best-selling releases on Bandcamp, while The Path to Lost Eden originated internal discussions culminating with the hardvapour subgenre.

From 2016, Laurila started producing mainly original synth music, as opposed to his earlier sample-based efforts. His work as Telepath was integrated into Spotify's official vaporwave playlist, and featured as part of the soundtrack for Dan Vogt's video game Data Wing (2017). He made his first official public appearance in 2019, and continued his popularity on the Cat System Corp. split Building a Better World (2019). His hazy style of music and idiosyncratic sampling methods have impacted musicians both within and outside the vaporwave genre, while his work in 2814 solidified his status as a "vaporwave superstar".

Debut albums and collaborations (2013–2014)
Luke Laurila started producing vaporwave in 2013, releasing three solo albums under the Telepath alias during the year. Around this time, he produced two split albums with other artists from the scene: 2013's Nightlife with Silver Richards, and 2014's Interstellar Love with Vincent Remember. He tended to encounter these artists on the audio service SoundCloud, where he eventually met David Russo, also known as HKE. Laurila contacted Russo about releasing Interstellar Love on Dream Catalogue, Russo's record label. This event shifted the label's focus from personal usage by Russo to a vaporwave-focused release depository, which attracted a considerable audience. To promote the album, the label released a music video for its titular track on February 22.

During 2014, Laurila released Telepathic and Blue Dream, two split albums with Dutch musician Jornt Elzinga as Cat System Corp. Three music videos for tracks from Telepathic were released: "Direction" on May 28, "Fantasy" on May 30, and "Love After Midnight" on July 15. The third was created by Elzinga, who, on October 4, released a video for one of Laurila's earlier tracks, "Faint Light" from To the Future (2014). The two musicians later came to lead the project Fragmented Memories, a large-scale collaborative album featuring a variety of musicians from the vaporwave genre. According to Elzinga, the Telepath project had already garnered a significant amount of listeners by this point.

By the end of the year, there were 20 releases under the Telepath alias, including Beyond Reality, Face to Face, and Amaterasu. The third was later chosen by musician Angel Marcloid as one of her favorite albums on Bandcamp, the music sharing website currently hosting Laurila's music. His work with Russo on the split album 2814 helped establish the eponymous alias as a sample-free vaporwave project; this, according to Resident Advisor writer Andrew Ryce, began a new development for the vaporwave movement, as it shifted perspectives of the scene being a temporary piece of Internet culture to a completely new music genre.

Birth of a New Day, Virtual Dream Plaza, and The Path to Lost Eden (2015)
2814's second album, Birth of a New Day, was released in 2015. It reached the No. 2 spot on Bandcamp's ambient charts, and became one of the best-selling albums on the website. To promote his upcoming split record with vaporwave artist Golden Living Room, named Virtual Phantasy 2097, Laurila released three music videos: "Bliss" on February 8, "Healing" on February 13, and "Memories" on February 15. On June 11, vaporwave trio Death's Dynamic Shroud released a looping music video for "Here She Comes", a track from Laurila's side project Virtual Dream Plaza. Another music video for two records from this alias, Desire and Sensuality, was released by Laurila on October 2.

In October, Laurila and electronic musician Vaperror, the alias of Jeff Cardinal, released the split record Beyond Love under the collaborative pseudonym Televape. It was the first release of Cardinal's label, Plus100. Laurila also worked with Nmesh on The Path to Lost Eden during the same month. On October 19, Dream Catalogue released what was described by Fact as a "psilocybin-soaked album trailer" for their collaboration. November saw the release of Laurila's second collaborative album with HKE outside the 2814 alias, Gateway. It originated from a request by musician Equip for Laurila to release a record on his label Baro. For his final album under the stylized Telepath pseudonym, Interstellar Intercourse, Laurila released a music video for the track "Enchanting Beauty" on December 19.

All for You, Rain Temple, and Eternity (2016)
Laurila's first creation of 2016 was a music video for the Interstellar Intercourse track "Late Night Love", released on January 5. He also produced a track for Hacking for Freedom, a collaborative project led by musician wosX. He described Laurila's work as the album's highlight, and the track's music video was released on January 17. During the year, Dream Catalogue released two music videos for tracks from Birth of a New Day: "Distant Lovers" on February 27, and "Recovery" on August 20. In April and May, Laurila built funk-led musical mixes for Tiny Mix Tapes and Bandwagon respectively. In June, he released the split album Balance, a collaboration with musician Useless, under the Virtual Dream Plaza alias. His first release as "Telepath" only, All for You/Sensuality and its accompanying music video were released on June 30, 2016. It was later chosen by the Charlatans lead singer Tim Burgess as one of his favorite Bandcamp releases.

An official vaporwave playlist released in July by streaming service Spotify featured five of Laurila's tracks: two from Andromeda (2014) and three from Birth of a New Day. In September, Laurila released Secret Lover, which was described by Bandcamp Daily's Ari Delaney as one of his many "complex, emotional musical experiences". Dream Catalogue's music video for "Eyes of the Temple", a track from 2814's next release Rain Temple (2016), was released on September 18. On October 3, Telepath and Vaperror returned as Televape with the release Eternity, and a video album was released the same day. Laurila's next record as Telepath, titled A, was released in November. Three albums featuring participation by Laurila—Rain Temple, Eternity, and A— were listed by Simon Chandler of Bandcamp Daily as some of the best physical vaporwave releases of 2016. According to writer Lucy March, the quality of Telepath's physical releases caused them to later be resold for "hundreds of dollars".

Lovers Entwined, 100% ElectroniCON, and Building a Better World (2017–present)
In July 2017, Laurila released a new single under his old stylized Telepath moniker, titled "Farewell". In October 2017, Laurila and musician Agia produced the collaborative single "Circle of Love", one of seven tracks from their album as Lovers Entwined, The Light of Our Love. During the same year, developer Dan Vogt included some of Telepath's music, alongside tracks by artists such as George Clanton and Luxury Elite, in his 2D mobile racing game Data Wing. In 2019, Laurila performed in the second edition of 100% ElectroniCON, Clanton's vaporwave music festival. To maintain his anonymity, he wore a dark costume obfuscating his face and body. According to Flood Magazine, Laurila told future funk musician Ryan DeRobertis that, after finishing the performance, "he now understood the appeal of live performance after years of avoiding it."

In June 2019, Laurila released Building a Better World, his third split album with Jornt Elzinga. The first release on Hiraeth Records, Elzinga's then-recent label, it was chosen as one of the best ambient releases of August 2019 by Ari Delaney. Three music videos were released for the album's tracks: "Dawn over the Metropolis" on June 12, 2019, "Sector 131" on December 14, 2021, and "Awakening" on July 17, 2022. In 2022, Laurila released a music video for the album Wading in the Afterlife, his first release under the alias Tianhuojian. In 2023, The Path to Lost Eden received its first vinyl pressing, the album's second physical release since an original cassette run in 2015.

Legacy
Laurila's music has been recognized for contributing to the ambient proliferations of vaporwave. He has also contributed to the creation of what some writers call post-vaporwave, and his slow-paced sound led to the foundation of the slushwave subgenre. With The Path to Lost Eden, Laurila's cinematic usage of samples, according to Andrew Ryce, elevated the vaporwave genre towards a less ironic direction. However, this new direction, Ryce wrote, generated infighting within the movement, which resulted in the creation of the hardvapour subgenre. In the opinion of Tiny Mix Tapes, his Virtual Dream Plaza series classifies him as "one of the purest of adventurers."

Laurila's work with David Russo on the 2814 alias especially garnered him significant praise. The duo was described by Vice as "vaporwave superstars", with writer Britt Brown describing Birth of a New Day as "amazing cyberfuture ambient vaporwave". As the most critically-acclaimed vaporwave project, 2814 broke the common association between vaporwave and plunderphonics; according to Rolling Stone, they "have captured all the romance and wistfulness through bold, original compositions."

David Russo stated that Telepath is an important musical alias not only within the vaporwave genre, but outside of it as well. He wrote of the project as "genuine," contrasting Laurila's music with vaporwave's traditional appearances of irony, and said his collaborative production process with him represents "some of the most enjoyable experiences I've ever had making music." Jornt Elzinga said Laurila's music presents its own original worldview within the scene, and that he is proud to call him a friend; similarly, Angel Marcloid wrote that Laurila "had discovered a sound that was all his own," while Ryce called his work "distinctive".

Music and influences
Genres explored by Laurila's music include vaporwave, ambient, dance pop, dreampunk, funk, lo-fi, new age, post-vaporwave,  slowcore, slushwave, smooth jazz, and techno, most often sampling J-pop songs from his personal collection. In his Bandcamp recommendations page, Laurila lists ambient artists such as Mort Aux Vaches. His music also takes heavy inspiration from works by electronic duo Boards of Canada, and the 2814 project was compared to the music of Oneohtrix Point Never and Kavinsky.

Laurila's music is mainly characterized by constant reverberation and phaser effects, slow-paced melodies, and constant sample looping. It is distinct from traditional vaporwave's reliance on nostalgia and aesthetics, in that many tracks highlight a more hazy and ambient soundscape. His work, especially the Virtual Dream Plaza project, is also noted for long track runtimes and prolific frequency of releases; as described by Cokemachineglow writer Adam Downer, the Telepath project presents a "tendency towards maximalism". Downer highlighted Laurila's usage of the Japanese language as giving a sense of mystery to his music, while Jonathan Xinsei listed this as one of the reasons his work as 2814 turned popular. Album covers also play a role in emphasizing aspects of East Asian culture, often featuring images of Japanese women taken from 1980s commercials. The anonymous nature of these images was compared by Lucy March to the impersonal atmosphere of cyberpunk novels such as Neuromancer.

With Face to Face, Laurila presents what Downer called a "dreamy vapor slush" work, evoking emotions of melancholy and warmness. The album, like Laurila's other work, abstains itself from vaporwave's political discourse of "destroy[ing] the narratives that built the techno-capitalistic zeitgeist," according to Downer. By featuring the longest track within Telepath's discography, the 56 minute long "Your Love, Forever", Laurila serves what Downer called "a slowcore endurance test." The saxophone instrumentation of "Cyan Water Surface" presents a smooth jazz influence, while "Tonight, My Love" emphasizes vaporwave's signature bass vocal sound as a vehicle for expressing emotion. Amaterasu demonstrates Laurila's method of manipulating J-Pop samples; according to Angel Marcloid, it exemplifies his ability to merely complement the original work without changing its core style. "Live Forever", one of Telepath's tracks for the split album Virtual Phantasy 2097, was described by Cage Hashimoto as developing a middle ground between the chopped and screwed style of traditional vaporwave and the upbeat sound of future funk.

Birth of a New Day established Laurila's music as cyberfuturistic and dystopian, with the opening track "Recovery" featuring drones and sirens. By contrast, The Path to Lost Eden creates a jungle-inspired style and aesthetic more similar to his other work. Of this difference, Russo wrote: "It's not necessarily the style of the music that links the albums together, but the idea of taking the same concepts and being able to put them into different worlds." Fact Magazine stated that The Path to Lost Eden "charts the journey laid out in the title;" while Nmesh's side creates said "path", Telepath's side represents the "lost Eden" itself. According to Andrew Ryce, Laurila's side presents "long, hypnotic pieces," in contrast to Nmesh's "grand and filmic" sound. "Glowing Eyes" features lo-fi basslines and reverberated keyboard notes, which exemplify this divergence. "Heart Synthesis" and "Surface Tension", however, return to a less melodic, more atmospheric sound characteristic of Telepath's discography, with the former featuring distant ambient vocals during its runtime. In Beyond Love, Laurila and Cardinal's material is "particularly dream-inducing yet beat-focused" according to Flagpole's Gordon Lamb, and the duo presents "spellbinding music" according to Simon Chandler.

All for You's two tracks feature what Tiny Mix Tapes called "slappy bass" and "sugary keys". Its music, according to Tim Burgess, evokes a futuristic and uplifting sound which he compared to the style of rock band New Order. Rain Temple emphasizes ideas of what Miles Bowe called a "noirish" atmosphere, while Simon Chandler wrote of its "transcendent" value as creating a kind of "disembodied vaporwave". Of Televape's Eternity, Chandler said its "blissfully hypnagogic" music highlights an aura of mystery that is reflected by the record's "trippy" music video. He compared Telepath's A to HKE's album HK, due to both emphasizing atmospheric traits over musical structure, but contrasted Russo's dark and ominous sound to Laurila's "near-heavenly ambiance." The Light of Our Love, as abstractly described by Tiny Mix Tapes, "stirs the cauldron of our intimate life," with tracks that evoke senses of weightlessness, tranquility, happiness, and tension. Building a Better World again guides the musical style of Laurila and Elzinga toward an ambient-focused sound. The fifth track, "The End of the World", was described by Ari Delaney as invoking "analog bells underscored by gentle, whispering background features." The title track features "a bright melodic atmosphere" of "subtle pad sweeps" and synths, which Delaney felt created "the perfect soundtrack for a neon metropolis."

Discography
2013
 * Together
 * Look
 * Forever
 * Nighlife with Silver Richards

2014
 * To the Future
 * Interstellar Love with Vincent Remember
 * Dreamland
 * Gateway
 * Telepathic with Cat System Corp.
 * Blue Dream with Cat System Corp.
 * Beyond Reality
 * This Past Future
 * Disembodiment
 * Face to Face
 * Amaterasu
 * Andromeda

2015
 * Your Love
 * Antara Communication
 * Eternal Love
 * Virtual Phantasy 2097 with Golden Living Room
 * Faith
 * Disconnection
 * The Path To Lost Eden with Nmesh
 * Gateway with HKE
 * Another Night Together
 * Interstellar Intercourse

2016
 * All for You
 * Clandestine Love Exchange
 * Secret Lover
 * A

2019
 * Building a Better World with Cat System Corp. (2019)
 * Flora Miranda's LaLaLand Fashion Show (Original Soundtrack) (2019)