Moving beyond the piano-based minimalism of Bored of Excitement, this second volume in Kid606’s ambient series blends laid-back gamelan-influenced synthesizers with resonant field recordings and melancholic leads.  These ten tracks of completely drumless compositions are both restless and meditative. Waves of distortion mix with languid basslines and playful strings. John Lilly would approve.  “Escape to Los Angeles is a musical diary of the most peculiar and outlandish year of my life. After leaving Berlin to move to Los Angeles, I was immediately hit with a deeply unsettling Existential Dread of Living in another big city so soon. To avoid facing making a decision on where to live or what was going on in my psyche I went on a long road trip, ending with a pilgrimage to Roden Crater. I assumed I would live on the grounds there for a while to ‘get right with the world.’  “At a friend’s wedding in San Francisco along the way, I fell in love with an amazing girl who actually lived in Los Angeles. I still wasn’t ready to move back to L.A., and Roden Crater was way too far from L.A. to start a long-distance relationship. So we compromised and I moved to Joshua Tree instead. Even though I grew up in Southern California I had never even visited there. It was always a dream of mine to just roll up into some desert town where I don’t know anyone. To just rent a furnished apartment and see what happens. Or travel through India. I am very glad I chose Joshua Tree instead.  “The first six months were pure exploratory bliss, which some of these songs clearly represent. My days were filled with both novelty and routine. It was a way of living unlike anything I had ever done or imagined. Only in hindsight do I see how much of an extreme reaction it was to isolate myself in the desert after feeling so overwhelmed by city life and too much traveling. “Then cabin fever set in. Many of the colorful people I observed in the desert were sending me clear signals that things had gone awry. I didn’t visit L.A. often like I had planned. Definitely wasn’t as artistically prolific as expected. As much as I appreciated my girlfriend visiting and all the fun we would have, when she left it would uncover an acute darkness in me that I was not prepared for. Some of the songs on this album represent that darkness. “My relationship ended and things got even darker. By now I was truly desperate to leave both Berlin and the desert behind so I could move to Los Angeles and start a new life there. I would love to say that strength, insight and sanity is what forced me to simply pack up and move back to LA. What really happened is that my mom visited me and decided to retire in Joshua Tree. I graciously offered that she could stay with me at my place as long as she wants. After ten days of living with my mom, I actually did go crazy. Now I had a real reason to leave the desert and escape to Los Angeles.”