Eruke Neutzeri

Eruke Neutzeri (Azkali: [e.ɾu.kʲe neu.tse.ɾi] né Leuneketzi; born October 3rd, 1989) is an Azkali artist, musician, poet, essayist, and writer. His music draws from an eclectic variety of styles, including post-rock, avant-punk, industrial rock, folktronica, and intelligent-dance-music (IDM). He is distinguished his idiosyncratic music, three-octave voice, and eccentric public persona, and is most known for his 2011 album We All Cried, which remains his only release to date. He is also a noted writer and poet, best known for his sole novel Both Mercy And Not, released in 2009, considered a landmark encyclopedic novel, and his collection of poems and short stories A Cup Of My Blood. He is married to Pameakali Azkali musician Hekereiki.

Eruke was born in Northwest Azkali. He was orphaned immediately upon birth when his parents were murdered by the Tobesode Brigade. He was kept and raised by the brigade until 2002, when he was around thirteen years old. Following the 2005 Noellastani coup, he migrated to Noellastan as a refugee and was settled in the Azkali Quarters of Turku. He met and befriended Hekereiki in 2008, and began writing his novel Both Mercy And Not, which was published in late 2009. He released his only album We All Cried in 2011 following the death of his girlfriend Utefeo to widespread critical and commerical acclaim. He married Hekereiki in 2013, and has been working sporadically on his second novel Bokeri since 2014.

Early life

Eruke Leuneketzi was born on October 3rd, 1989 in the town of Chikapi, nominally part of the Free Chekearoa Government, to Tzanakio Loukuru and Ari Leuneketzi. Eruke's mother Tzanakio (1960–1989) was a philosophy professor at the Western Otzeipao University and his father Ari (1955–1989) was the director of the Chikapi School band. His mother was the younger sister of writer Kazo, According to Tezhetsogidu Jezhu, Charlian war criminal and the leader of the Tobesode Brigade between 1986–94, Eruke's parents were found and shot immediately after his birth. Following this, Eruke was promptly taken in by the brigade and raised by them, accompanying the brigade through their continued massacres in Azkali. Eruke described in his memoir Death's Son, from A Cup Of My Blood, "[becoming] friends with death itself. I saw (never participated in) so many killings, looking emotionless behind the men aiming their guns, drunk with hatred at the people nearly always begging for their lives, that it became my default state of being (...) After the age of 7, it stopped becoming anything unusual".

At the age of 13, Eruke was abandoned by the brigade in Central Azkali, and lived in complete isolation for three years. He arrived back in Chipatzi in 2005, and upon learning of the abolition of Azkali slavery in the Ukilen Union, walked on foot to the Noellastani border, where he was given refugee status and rehomed to the Azkali Quarters in Central Turku.