The Director’s Cut: Raz Ohara – Tyrants

If by any chance you were ever fascinated by the ageless, genre-less, and race-less voice of mysterious figure Raz Ohara, you will have a long journey ahead to discover the vast and eclectic collection of works this unclassifiable musician, composer, singer, Dj, and sonic explorer has released.

He is not only known for his solo work but also for the many formations he’s belonged to (The Odd Orchestra, Feathered Sun) and countless collaborations with the finest artists of all genres including Apparat, Chilly Gonzales, Luomo, Acid Pauli, Oliver Doerell.

As a singer-songwriter, he’s praised for his unique vocal style gifted with a soulful and beautifully strange voice with an ability to convey deep lyrics of love, loss, deep introspection, and exploration of emotional and spiritual themes.
2023 is set to be the year in which Raz Ohara releases the album, Tyrants. The album is a continuation of his previous works (Moksha, Like A Jungle Sometimes) and showcases Raz’s unique sound design coherently.

Raz started working on the album Tyrants in 2017 and mixed the finished version in 2021. The writing process began with listening to sketches and sound files he had collected throughout the past years, which he had not yet given up on. The album is thus a natural continuation of his previous works and showcases Raz’s unique sound design coherently. His increased focus on composition and arrangement is highlighted even further in this release.

In the oblivious environment surrounding his hideaway lake cabin, he produced an album that is rich and diverse in its sonic palette, ranging from harshly distorted synth-peaks, and cinematic soundscapes, all the way to avant-garde contemporary classical, and jazz music. It is an album that invites the listener to explore and discover not just the intimate self: it is also a very personal, intuitive observation and reflection on the world that we are living in today.

How to listen: There are a couple of ways to proceed. First, you can listen to the whole album, which you will find below, and then read the notes. Or, read the notes as you listen to each track. This will completely change your perspective on the whole release itself and bring you closer to the artist and their work.

Bardot
I started looping a treated piano we had recorded for the live studio album „Chez Cherie Session“ (Raz Ohara and Owen Roberts „Chez Cherie Session“).
The vocals were recorded straight into my laptop into its in-built mic.
The idea was to briefly record the vocals to keep the idea intending to do a proper recording on another day, but the expression of these vocals came naturally and the sound fits well to the general sound aesthetic of the track.

I like the lyrics in the song: „All love is gone, there’s nothing I love, there’s no one I love…“ in a world where we are told to constantly optimize ourselves, and say yes, be politically correct.

It is a good thing to allow yourself to feel what you feel and express it, even if it’s ugly. There will be no salvation otherwise. We need to give ourselves that space, at least to a certain amount. On this song, I played an old dusty piano that someone had left in my apartment for the lead melody on top of the looped piano. It’s nice how those two different pianos of different recordings come together in a nice way and the song conveys a nostalgic melancholic reminiscent of a French film. It is for the off-grid Synth Arpeggio – that slowly finds its way into the song Jl it takes over all aQenJon at the end and gives it a minimalistic techno vibe – I cherish this song. 

Instant Memory 

This song has a long history undergoing many different versions and genres unJl it sealed for an ambient approach, mixed with a sophisticated classical music approach by the cello performed by Lih Qun Wong. The main pad originates from a Kalimba recording, reversed and with a cutback.

I treated the vocal in a way to make the voice sound as if it were coming from a different state, which also matches the lyrical content. It’s like being under this
vacuum bulb before one reaches a „k-hole“. When everything you know loses all attributes and goes straight down to one single absolute truth. 

River Of Surrender 

The reason why it took me so long to finish this song was because I didn’t find the lyrics for the vocal melody that I initially was flirting with.

I moved on, sending the track to a guy called Children from Mexico City who played the drums. I asked him to be inspired by the score of the movie “Birdman” and so he played the drums on the track in a similar way. This turned out splendid.

One day I woke up and approached the song with a different feel, finding a different melody and expression for the vocals, and wrote lyrics and recorded them the very same day. 

Whistleblower 

In this song, I talk about a vision of a higher self. Furthermore, it is a reminiscence and an homage to bold activists putting their lives at risk, acting for a purpose that goes beyond personal interests.

I initially started the song by creating a nervously pulsing synth loop. Later I recorded a piano that balances the distressed mood of the synth and calls for reason. It sounds like it’s played by your old school teacher from grade school. Solid and trustworthy. 

Where To 

I have been using these lyrics on different tracks and projects. The first version of it I wrote for a song on Apparat’s album “Walls”. For the version on “Tyrants” LP, I recorded a simple version on a guitar out in the woods with my collective, Feathered Sun.

We gave the stems to Acid Pauli who produced a club version from it.
It was not until the album was already finished that I decided to do a version for the album last minute. I looked through folders of cello recordings that I had recorded with Lih in the past.

These voices of pizzicato cello stems were actually recorded on a different song and for a different album project, but they fit just perfectly on “Where To” and it pretty much made the track.

Pretty Bird 

I wrote this song many years ago.
It is the song that eventually made me suggest that our collective, the downtempo project Feathered Sun should have that very name, and the song has been a hymn at our shows ever since.

I’ve recorded different versions on different solo albums of the song (Chez Cherie Session, Like a Jungle SomeJmes ), but never felt like I having nailed it.
I hope I did it this Jme and so I will not have to record the song again.
Prior to recording vocal and guitar I asked Lih to record a cello intro for it , however, in the end I mixed a long intro with the enJre song, without having to edit or do a single cut. The different tracks of cello/vocal&guitar fit perfectly running alongside together. 

Tyrants

The title song “Tyrants” portrayed the idea of salvation from earthly manifestation and tyranny, symbolized by the figure of a divine martyr. The words are inspired by the

words of Persian poets. Sonically the album is an attempt to blend acoustic sound recordings with processed analog synth sounds, to blend musical genres and manifest them as one, so to speak. It is an acoustic expression of the transformative times we are living in, a realm of mankind being mastered by technology. The gap of this transformational process is a glitchy moment of Jme. It is portrayed on the front cover image of the album, by glitch artist Azamat Akhmadbaev. 

Gnosis 

This is one of the two instrumental tracks on the album.
I asked Lih Sun Wong to create an instrumental cello song for a singer-songwriter album I was working on at the time. By using her loop machine she layered voices and created what you will hear all through the song and which I eventually used for this very album. I added a brass section that later was substituted and performed by musicians. I asked Viktor Wolf to play the flute, to perform it in a way, as if you were to find yourself on a boat trip down through the wood of an Amazonian river, gently driving down, surrounded by the spirits of plants and trees, carried away by all knowledge, everything you’ve always known, everything you’ve not been told. 

Vert Allure 

This is the only song on the album where I used a loop of a record that is not mine. I treated the guitar-percussion-sequence intensely so that it sets the trippy vibe for the track coming in and out with envelope filtering, ranging with its frequency through another filter effect. I loved it so much and had it running for a day or two in my lake cabin hideaway. My neighbor friends were celebrating a birthday party so I sneaked over there and had a drop of acid – now the loop was even better. I started to record the vocals leaving a lot of space between the lines so they flow and interweave with the waves and vibe set by the sample loop. Another trippy sound that comes and goes is a Kalimba I played with a volume pedal cutting the attack. It reminds me of a plant spirit roaming around the space 

Boots&Nils 

The sample setting the mood for this song is of a recording, again from „Chez Cherie Session“ Lp. I like the interaction between the loop and the ever-changing funky synthesizer lead voice circling around it. It is therefore I named the track, Bootsy (Collins) & Nils (Frahm). I tried some vocals and wrote some lyrics for it, but it would have made the song too sweet. The tune could go on forever I feel, but at some point, you need to stop. So I stopped it. Full stop. 

Grab it here.