The world looks enormous around Echo. Mountains, wastelands, and hulking infrastructure surround the protagonist of Ecco2k‘s new self-directed film, where even an industrially scarred beach becomes a stage for an Airbus A380-800 taxiing in the background. The imagery accompanies “Aldehydes and Ketones,” released October 22 through 9th (Ninth), marking the Swedish multidisciplinary artist’s first official solo offering since his 2021 EP, PXE. Behind the Ecco2k moniker, Zak Argundade reunites with longtime friend and collaborator Gud, who wrote and produced the instrumental, while Argundade wrote, performed, and produced the vocals. It is a return with a considerable distance folded into it, bringing together a new song and a visual project that has been gathering pieces of the world for years.
Shot across 12 countries over six years of uninterrupted travel, the accompanying video carries the passage of time into an expansive journey through landscapes both natural and man-made. Arogundade directed, shot, and edited the film himself, following Echo beneath vast skies and through environments where the beauty of the earth presses against the imposing structures built upon it. There is something unsettling about placing a wandering figure beside machinery of that magnitude; the surroundings become impossible to treat as mere scenery, demanding just as much attention as the person moving through them. The film’s sweep gives this release a particularly immersive quality, inviting listeners to look beyond the artist at its center and linger on everything stretching toward the edges of the frame. For Arogundade, whose practice moves between music and visual art, those images are another part of the expression, carrying the release somewhere a song alone cannot.
That outward gaze also marks a shift in the story unfolding across Ecco2k’s solo work. His debut, E, offered an introspective coming-of-age self-portrait, while PXE reached toward the possibility of transcending personhood; “Aldehydes and Ketones” now opens the view onto the vastness beyond the self. Alongside Bladee, Thaiboy, Digital, and Whitearmor in Drain Gang, Arogundade helped cultivate a sound and aesthetic that listeners embraced as a shared identity, but this release continues tracing a path distinctly his own. The movement feels especially fitting for a film assembled through years of travel: Each new setting makes the central figure smaller while giving the work more room to expand. “Aldehydes and Ketones” and its accompanying video are available now, with the invitation extending well beyond another glimpse into Ecoo2k’s inner life — this time, there is an entire horizon waiting on the other side.
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