OUW008 - OJP044 : Evoke / Disperse

Cover art by A.L. and Wataru Iwata

OUW008 - OJP044 : Evoke / Disperse

After releasing the poetic album 'No Directions' (see OUW004 - OJP041), the Japanese duo Evoke returns with this mini album.

'Disperse' was composed as a response to the Nuclear Plant Accident that happened at Fukushima in March 11, 2011. 

Some of the field recording samples were provided by Prof. Koji NAGAHATA from Fukushima University who has been recording the soundscapes of Fukushima City after 3/11/2011. 
The text was written by Wataru Iwata and read by Yukiko Hiranuma.

Cris Ubermann then realised a beautiful video based on the track.



There are 4 additional tracks that complete the mini album.

Digital release on the 29th of May 2020.

Track listing:

1: Contageous Finale ( part)
2: Current 2020
3: disperse (feat. Nagahata Koji, DJ Kou, Pulse Convention)
4: Current (Live at Okkoto)
5: Contageous Finale (whole)



And on Bandcamp:

OVD035 : Pierre Vervloesem / 1983

Cover art by A.L., pic by Pierre Vervloesem

OVD035 : Pierre Vervloesem / 1983

1983, the year of the DX-7! 
1983, the year of National Lampoon's Vacation! 
1983, the year IBM releases the IBM PC XT! 
1983, the year Harrods was bombed! 
1983, the year Space Shuttle Challenger launched her maiden flight. 
1983, the year of Tootsie! 
1983: the year a 5.2 earthquake hits central New York! 
1983, the year the US unemployment rises to 12 million! 
1983, the year Fraggle Rock premieres during January of 1983 on HBO! 
1983, the year the video game Mario Bros. was first released! 
2020, the year Pierre Vervloesem releases his album 1983!

Another masterpiece from Pierre and already his 5th for this year! 
3 long tracks to go up your head and move in all directions!
See also his 2 series here and here!

Digital release on the 22nd of May 2020.

Track listing:

1: Natural Computer Music - 25,02m
2: Five Things to Forget      - 16,46m
3: Procrasti Nation              -    9,30m



And on Bandcamp:

ODG130 : MAMA HOPE / Space Cake

Cover art by Lucio Cavallari

ODG130 : MAMA HOPE / Space Cake

Amal Harbaoui and Lucio Cavallari are MAMA HOPE.

They formed in Italy the contemporary nu-r&B group, influenced by a far reaching array of musical genres and styles.

Amal derives her name from her Tunisian descent, her Arabic name means ‘Hope’.

Lucio, all-round artist, once worked as a chef in the tropical rainforest of Costa Rica. Wildlife, shamans and the jungle lifestyle impacts the way Lucio now lives in the present. Cooking every day the ‘best pasta ever’ earned him the surname of Lucio Mama. 

Just as you can trust a good cook, the music food of MAMA HOPE embraces you like a family recipe book.  

MAMA HOPE has an important meaning: Make-believe-love is real love, the fusion between maternal love and hope that produces further altruism.

MAMA HOPE sounds float through passages and ambient landscapes, dreamlike and full of electrical stimuli. Amal's vocals double, or return in a single deep dimension that touches your soul and heart.
Their musical influences are manifold and these are some of their artists to whom they refer: Hindi Zahra, Selah Sue, Y’Akoto, Fiona Apple, Miss Li, Liz Green and Erykah Badu.

With this first mini album, they offer you 7 profond and intense songs to excite your soul and emotions! Enjoy!

Amal and Lucio

A video for Space Cake:

All music written by Lucio Mama except 'A Hope' written with Riccardo Belluto Leccese.
Lyrics: Amal Hope, Lucio Mama expect When Man enters Woman by Anne Sexton.

Digital release on the 18th of May 2020.

Track listing:

1) Adam Lullaby

2) Short

3) Amar C

4) Solar

5) Space Cake

6) A Hope

7) When Man Enters Woman (Bonus track)

And on Bandcamp:

OJP042-OUI019 : Pulse Convention / At the Gate

Cover art y A.L.

OJP042-OUI019 : Pulse Convention / At the Gate

Pulse Convention (see also the beautiful OJP038 'Simultaneous Spontaneity) reunited for this live concert at Tokyo Shibuya The Gate on the 1st of November 2019. 

All the tracks were improvised and show as always their typical cinematic atmospheric sound. Powerful at times or quiet at others, mixing contemporary electric keyboards, electronics effects on saxes while the rhythmic duo of contrabass and drums adding the spices of natural jazz, 'At the Gate' captives this moment where the band is playing like coming out of a single brain...Plain magic! Enjoy!

A short video of them performing at The Gate HERE.

Digital release on the 15th of May 2020.

Track listing:

And on Bandcamp:

OAS011 - OUC024 : Yanqin Gao / Blind Films

Cover art by Yanqin Gao

OAS011 - OUC024 : Yanqin Gao / Blind Films

Yanqin Gao (see also OUC001 Prelude) has been self involved in a lot of artistic activities such as painting, collage, creating and assembling by hand musical instruments and also composing music for short movies. 
She currently lives in Shanghai.

This is a compilation of the pieces she composed for those movies. 
The four instrumental ones were composed in advance by virtue of the stories of the films. They are describing mysterious and nostalgia feelings about tracking people in the past. After all, the soundtracks became new stories parallel to the visual parts. 
The music is a mix of contemporary classical and romantic music from the beginning of the 20th century, quite melancholic and with a small Asian vibe.
The fifth dreamy song was written for a dramatic moment when Yanqin happened to see an old lover after they separated for ten years. They had a cup of coffee but didn’t talk too much. The song is more like a dialogue between Yanqin and a younger self. The song is quite a departure from Yanqin only instrumental songs and her warm but quiet voice leaves again a very melancholic and dreamy atmosphere, though not a sad one for sure.

4 tracks of contemporary classical and a 'pop' song! Enjoy!

Yanqin

Her music for the short film 'In Venice':

In Venice from Yanqin Gao on Vimeo.

Digital release on the 8th of May 2020.

Track listing:

1: He's Walking Alone
2: In Venice
3: Message for the Past
4: Night and Fog
5: When I See You Again



And on Bandcamp:

ODG122 : Xtof Calis / Spinoza et le problème de l'expression

Covert art / Photo by Pedro Bruneel

ODG122 : Xtof Calis / Spinoza et le problème de l'expression

Xtof Calis is the moniker of Belgian musician and composer Christophe Calis (°1971, Ypres), who resides in Brussels, at the edge of the Sonian Forest. His solo career started after he left the Belgian trip hop band Sutrastore of which he was a founding member and the main songwriter. Xtof Calis has also composed the music for the tv-documentary “Rien n’est pardonné” (2017).

As a philosophy student Calis discovered the work of French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. This inspired him to develop the concept of ‘devenir-son’,  ‘becoming-sound’ and to explore how sound can territorialize the body. With the aid of laptop, synthesizers and guitar, Calis' sound-sculptures create contemplative and meditative affects in a unique style of ambient music, marked by an experimental and glitchy edge

Xtof - Photo by Pedro Bruneel

About the album:
"After I finished ‘Actif et réactif’ (2019) I forwarded my album to Jo Bogaert, one of the Belgian pioneers in electronic music. The album referred to a book by Gilles Deleuze, ‘Nietzsche et la philosophie’. Bogaert was enthusiastic about the album and suggested that my next one could be about another book by Deleuze, namely ‘Spinoza et le problème de l’expression’. As I was already intrigued by the Dutch philosopher Spinoza and in particular by his description of the soul as ‘what the body can do’, Deleuzes book inspired me. As a tribute to both, Deleuze and Spinoza, I titled this new album after the book and named each track after one of the chapters. The pieces - for a large part improvised- continue to explore the concept of sound-becoming. Sound-becoming encouraged me to let go of my thinking mind and fill the space of my home studio with an adventurous multiverse of sound. It is a fundamental part of my personal quest for stylistic endeavours that bring joy and courage in a post-capitalistic society. "

Composing, playing, recording and mixing by Xtof Calis.

Digital release on the 1st of May 2020.

Track listing:

1: Rôle et importance de l’expression
2: Les triades de la substance
3: Le parallélisme et l’immanence
4: Théorie du mode fini
5: Théorie de l’expression chez Leibniz et chez Spinoza



And on Bandcamp:

OUW011 : Blaine L. Reininger / Mantras

Cover art by A.L.

OUW011 : Blaine L. Reininger / Mantras

Mantra and Me

"The mantra Om Mani Pädme Hum is easy to say yet quite powerful, because it contains the essence of the entire teaching. When you say the first syllable Om it is blessed to help you achieve perfection in the practice of generosity, Ma helps perfect the practice of pure ethics, and Ni helps achieve perfection in the practice of tolerance and patience. Pä, the fourth syllable, helps to achieve perfection of perseverance, Me helps achieve perfection in the practice of concentration, and the final sixth syllable Hum helps achieve perfection in the practice of wisdom.

"So in this way recitation of the mantra helps achieve perfection in the six practices from generosity to wisdom. The path of these six perfections is the path walked by all the Buddhas of the three times. What could then be more meaningful than to say the mantra and accomplish the six perfections?"

— Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Heart Treasure of the Enlightened Ones^[33]

"I have had this mantra with me for many years. I first became aware of it through the channel of Ram Dass, when I was about 18. It has stayed with me, an ever-cycling theme of my awareness, meditating, sleeping, cycling, on the bus, at the dentist.

It had been difficult to find musical renditions of this mantra which were more in keeping with Western musical taste, not annoyingly clangy and syrupy Asian pop, so I decided to make some of my own for people to use in their lives. The fact that the music would appear on CD’s and spin around like a 21^st Century prayer wheel was also appealing. 

So, I hand them over to you to use as you see fit."

Om Mani Padme Hum

Blaine L. Reininger

Athens, 2020

Blaine - Athens 2020

" I've had those mantras on my computers for a few years now and listen time to time to them when doing exercices or under stress when finishing an urgent job... I thought that in those uncertain times, it was a good opportunity to share them to the rest of the world, hoping that they could be of some inspiration for some or healing for others. I thank Blaine for letting me put them on line on the Off Bandcamp" Alain Lefebvre

Bandcamp only digital release on the 27th of April 2020.

Track listing:

1: Tubten

2: Veil of Thoughts

3: Maha mantra

4: Om Mani Spring

5: Rimpoche

6: Om Mani Padme Hum 1

7: Om Mani Padme Hum 2

Bandcamp: