«Pianist Oli Kuster (Menschmaschine / Oli Kuster Kombo / Astronauten / Züri West) and musician and sound artist Robert Aeberhard (dadaad. an open tuning / Fitzgerald & Rimini / Trummer) met for a special kind of cooperation: «OKRA» is a duo for piano and sounds. The grand piano as a sophisticated and well-established instrument meets raw soundscapes, made of field-recordings collected from all kinds of places in the world. Sounds and noises are distinguished from tones by their origin of irregular oscillations of arbitrary frequencies and amplitudes, whereas tones show periodic oscillations. The combination of sounds, noises and tones when played by «OKRA» results in organic and interwoven creations, reduced and fragile moments. An enchanting, yet disturbing kind of “Traummusik” emerges, a film of acoustic pictures, inevitably taking the listener on a journey. The spaciousness of their music led the duo to play their concerts in surround sound, by placing loudspeakers also in the back of the audience. With this setup, the spatial richness of their music can be perceived as a physical experience. Consequentially, the album «OKRA» is mixed in surround sound.»
OKRA are Oli Kuster (piano) and Robert Aeberhard (field recordings). Cover images by David Zehnder, graphics by Katharina Reidy, videoclip «Wayfarer» by Yannick Mosimann. Released 2016 at Everest Records. OKRA’s website.
Reviews: Der Bund, KulturPort.de, Loop, Spiegel Online.