Recommended: Omikron Project – “Solstice”

 

There’s a compelling mix of influences and expressions on Solstice, and tracing them as they perpetually come together and pull apart is the album’s winning quality.  Athens-based ensemble Omikron Project additionally sources its regional roots in music to Dutch and French origins, and the way these folk musics lend to the abiding sound is one of several points of interest.  That instruments like Hohner Guitaret, Aegean bagpipes, steel guitar, and didgeridoo are joined with more jazz traditional instruments such as soprano sax, drums, and bass are another source of delight.  But perhaps the greatest source of joy comes from the diverse array of expressions the ensemble produces from the unusual mix of ingredients.  The percussion-heavy “TTC” and the ambient fusion of “Floating” and the post-bop of “Five on Fire” and the electro-acoustic drone of “Zero Option” and the folk-heavy “Lost In Three” all lead to a parade of different sounds that, remarkably, all flow together in a way that makes perfect sense.

A nifty recording, and one not to let fly under your radar.

Your album personnel:  Nikolas Tsilogiannis (drums, percussion, idiophones), Alex Drossos (soprano sax, didgeridoo, beckophone), Henk Spies (soprano sax, electronics) and Dinos Zoumperis (bass, Hohner Guitaret, modular synthesizer, Aegean bagpipe).

This album is Self-Produced.

Listen to more of the album at the artist’s Bandcamp page.

Music from Athens, Greece.

Available at:  Bandcamp