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12"
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AY 012EP
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Featuring 4 tracks from OMFO's Omnipresence album (remixed for vinyl use) with a very special remix by Viennese super-heroes Makossa & Megablast. Years of travelling Central Asia far and wide -- making hundreds of recordings, delving into ancient musical cultures, learning to play strange and unfamiliar instruments -- have culminated in this experimental electro-acoustic masterpiece. An unprecedented combination of sound and instruments takes you on a journey through time and space.
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CD
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AY 022CD
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This is the third full-length release by German Popov aka Our Man From Odessa aka OMFO for Essay Recordings. Omnipresence is the magnum opus by explorer and discoverer, OMFO. Years of travelling far and wide, making hundreds of recordings, delving into ancient musical cultures, and learning to play strange and unfamiliar instruments, have culminated in this experimental electroacoustic masterpiece. An unprecedented combination of sound and instruments takes us on a journey through time and space, captivating the imagination from the very first moment. Collaborating with artists and musicians from around Eurasia is his greatest passion; traditional cultures and their connection with cosmic metaphysical forces, his greatest inspiration. OMFO wants to introduce Western audiences to what he regards as the "intrinsic modernism of the Orient." This includes extending the listener's experience of music beyond the boundaries of mere entertainment and taking it into the realms of ritual. His "Primitive Equations" project with DJ Goldfinger -- a series of events featuring the music and art of indigenous people -- uses "field recordings" accompanied by video projections of related images. In October 2007, thanks to the Aga Khan Music Initiative in Central Asia, OMFO was able to visit Tajikistan, where he had the opportunity to work directly with musicians from the remote Pamir mountain region of Badakhshan. This led to a series of multimedia events throughout Europe and Central Asia: "Falak: The Heavenly Music On Stage." It is from this wealth of experience that OMFO has drawn the inspiration for Omnipresence. In his quest to resolve the issue of traditional cultures and their role in the age of technology, this record is a catalyst for the fusion of these two seemingly irreconcilable concepts. At the same time, OMFO continues to work in the field of film music, mainly creating soundtracks for the video installations and performances of leading Kazakhstan artist, Almagul Menlibayeva, whose work will be shown at the Venice Biennale this year. This is true music from Omfostan.
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CD
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AY 012CD
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O.M.F.O. -- Our Man From Odessa -- is the master of crossover par excellence. Born in the port of Odessa (Ukraine), German Popov emigrated to Amsterdam in 1989. As an explorer, German Popov loves to travel around Central Asia making live recordings of everything from the traditional songs and melodies of the steppes to the modern restaurant bands of Tashkent with their tinny keyboard sound. So welcome to electronic Walachia, where folk meets Kraftwerk and where bizarre instruments and electronic sounds combine to create a whole new musical dimension. With his ideas and his musicians he bravely goes where no human ear has dared to go before. Futurism meets folklore imaginaire: ladies and gentlemen, we are floating in Eastern European space. His first album on the Essay Recordings label, Trans Balkan Express put him in the international spotlight and none other than Borat, (the controversial Kazakhstani journalist character invented and portrayed by British-Jewish comedian Sacha Baron Cohen) has chosen two tracks from the album -- "Money Boney" and "Magic Mamaliga" -- for the soundtrack to his latest film. Produced by Atom TM and O.M.F.O
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CD
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AY 002CD
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2002 release. With flutes and stringed instruments, Jamaican dub techniques, laptop producing, kosmonautic lyricism and electronic sound engineering, Trans Balkan Express mixes the musical spice of the Southeastern European provinces with the club culture of the West. German Popov, aka Our Man From Odessa (O.M.F.O.) travels from Amsterdam via Berlin to the hinterlands of the EU, the Karpates, the Black Sea, right into the front garden of Asia. The result is an album featuring music located somewhere in-between space and a Balkan wedding, happily ignoring musical boundaries of any kind. Trans Balkan Express is where modernism dances with tradition, and where the "old" Europe flows into the "new."
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