2814

Members: Norman Kawasaki-Gucc, Frankie Franksi, Scraps.
Genre: Ambient, Dreampunk.
Biography:
2814 (stylized in fullwidth characters as ２８１４) is a British-American collaborative ambient and dreampunk project of the electronic musicians Luke Laurilla and David Russo, aka Telepath テレパシー能力者 and HKE (an abbreviation of the earlier moniker “Hong Kong Express”) respectively. The duo is best known for its sophomore album, Birth of a New Day (新しい日の誕生), described by Rolling Stone as “a late night cruise through the cyber-future dream highway.”

2814 debuted in 2014 with a self-titled release on the Internet music label Ailanthus Recordings. The album was followed up in early 2015 by Birth of a New Day, released digitally and in a limited run of CDs on HKE’s own label, Dream Catalogue. An Indiegogo campaign later in 2015 to press a double LP record version of the album ended with £6,432 at 161% of its goal. The project released its third album, Rain Temple, in 2016. In 2019 duo released compilation album, Lost Fragments, containing their previous works found in other compilations, as well as new releases.

The project has described its own work as a focus on the surreal qualities of vaporwave rather than a 1980s or 1990s aesthetic. In the groups interview with Rolling Stone, HKE said when describing Birth of a New Day, “We wanted to show how the whole vaporwave vibe could be made as original music rather than just relying on the same muzak and kitsch-pop samples everyone else had been using for years…” Not Not Fun Records boss Brit Brown called the album “amazing cyberfuture ambient vaporwave,” while Vice called the duo “vaporwave superstars.”

Albums:
• ２８１４ (2014)
• 新しい日の誕生 (2015)
• Rain Temple (2016)

EPs:
• Pillar / New Sun (2018)
• Voyage / Embrace (2020)

LINKS:
Homepage: https://dreamcatalogue.com/
Bandcamp: https://dreamcatalogue.bandcamp.com/album/–18
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/dreamcatalogue