Or1. is the new side project from artist and composer Oxaï Roura. As if his music wasn’t uniquely inventive enough to begin with, this latest sound encapsulates something completely different and is quite literally unlike anything else around.
Back From Sirius B is a piece of music spanning a mere minute and a half long. The audio features multiple layers of voices – a shower of a Capella performances, a very simple melody line that is repeated throughout, with certain snippets of alternative tones and notes and moments of expression. All in all the result is something that feels very gentle and intimate at first, later growing into something that draws you in with its sense of togetherness – the sound of the crowd, essentially – then finally evolving into something quite chaotic and overwhelming, even just slightly unsettling as everything begins to collide and feel louder.
It’s interesting to simply experience this as the raw vocal artwork of an artist crafting a short yet memorable soundscape and working out from there what it seems to be expressing. It’s almost impossible to come to a near certain conclusion, but it’s intriguing to consider how differently the experience would be received by each listener. To then learn the back story makes it sound completely different again, and that’s the power of music, as well as the reality of perspective and how much weight it truly bears.
Oxaï Roura is never one to shy aware from artistic and musical exploration, and this latest project is perhaps his most daring, his most unusual, and potentially his most interesting. The release has a certain addictive quality to it – something about the consistent, subtle growth within the audio, building and building until it’s all suddenly over. That quick finish feels a little too limiting, it makes it all seem too short, and so you’re likely to head back and listen over a fair few times. By this point, the simple melody of the leading voice will have made itself comfortable in your consciousness.
Find and follow Oxaï Roura on Facebook, Twitter & Reverbnation.
