AKRON ANK is the solo project of guitarist and composer Phillip Tielsch, based in Cologne, Germany. His debut single, “Lakxim9,” was released on October 23, 2026, through FEAIK RX. It introduces karg, a seven-track album that Tielsch expects to release on December 18, 2026, and a way of making doom and drone music from individually recorded guitar notes.
Tielsch built his own sampler, an instrument that lets him play back those recordings, and tuned each note for just intonation, a system based on simple whole-number frequency ratios. He then used granular synthesis, which reshapes recorded sound through tiny fragments, to transform the guitar material. In his answers below, he explains why “Lakxim9” became the project’s first release and how its place on karg relates to the album’s wider range.
Three questions
(1) Doomnation Radio: Why did you choose “Lakxim9” as the first public statement from AKRON ANK, and what does its title mean?
Phillip Tielsch: The best way to explore an unknown landscape is not with a map. You enter it at some point and first try to figure out what laws govern it.
“Lakxim9” seemed like a suitable starting point because it brings together several of the essential elements that define AKRON ANK: the heaviness of doom, the peculiar sonic character of just intonation, and a form of sound processing that gradually transforms the source material without dissolving its character.
The music develops slowly. Small changes therefore acquire a weight of their own. The guitar remains present throughout, even as its sonic properties shift.
“Lakxim9” is an invented name without a fixed meaning. It could refer to a place, an unknown substance, or the designation of an experiment whose purpose has long since been forgotten.
(2) Doomnation Radio: Where does “Lakxim9” sit within the larger structure of your forthcoming seven-track album, karg?
Phillip Tielsch: The seven tracks on karg inhabit the same musical space, but behave quite differently within it.
“Lakxim9” is the third track and, in some respects, occupies a special position. It is the most doom-driven piece on the album, yet it also has a relatively accessible, almost epic melodic structure.
There is no contradiction in that.
That is why it seemed like a suitable choice for the first single. It reveals some of the album’s fundamental characteristics without giving away what lies ahead.
(3) Doomnation Radio: How did you shape the guitar’s sustain, repetition, and processing on “Lakxim9”?
Phillip Tielsch: “Lakxim9” and the other tracks on the album share a very similar instrumentation: guitar, Moog, and granular synthesizer. Drums appear only on the title track, “karg”, and towards the end of “frost”.
To tune the guitar as precisely as possible to the just intonation of a particular key, I built my own sampler instrument. This involved recording and tuning every individual note. Then I played the parts using this sampler instrument.
From these recordings, I loaded individual notes and sequences of notes into the granular synthesizer and embarked on a psychedelic journey, keeping my third eye open throughout.
“Lakxim9” by AKRON ANK is available on Bandcamp.
