Oriol makes music that feels refreshingly free of contextual obligation or implication, yet it also feels so very now in its feeling, execution, and most importantly of all, sound.
His debut album, Night and Day is a tour of some made-up tropical resort, complete with fake palm trees, overcrowded saunas and manmade lakes, and its intrinsically funky energy is so warm and contagious that not getting pulled into the hot tub by the churning whirlpool at its centre is rather difficult.
With a diverse geographical history, moving from Barcelona to London to Boston (for a musical education) and back to the UK, his sound reflects all of these locales quite clearly. There’s a studied, exacting quality to his music, something very professional – and the percussion is nearly virtuosic. But there’s also something that very loosely ties him to his compatriots in the UK – and whether or not this is actually tangible or just the result of common knowledge regarding his history of working alongside Floating Points at CD-R or being remixed by FaltyDL and Shortstuff doesn’t really matter, because the music quells any concerns about classification or context.
In my review of the album, I hesitantly framed it in the wake of the nascent (or perhaps even already dead) “chillwave” movement, based mostly in North America. It would be difficult, maybe impossible, to properly align Oriol with this trend, but the aesthetic similarities remain hard to deny, which is why his debut LP comes at such a perfect time. His nostalgic funk sound rubs up against contemporary producers like Toro Y Moi quite favourably, and having all those ostensible competitors and peers means that his brisk professionalism and musical ability is highlighted and enhanced in harsh relief against the amateurish din of, er, chillwave.
One of Planet Mu’s newest signings, part of an impressive wave also including Chicago footwurk weirdo DJ Nate, FACT spoke to Oriol over a series of emails to find out more.
“I’m from a lot of places…”
“So who are you, where are you from, what do you do?”
“I’m Oriol, I’m from a lot of places, but I grew up and live in the UK. I make music, play saxophone, and teach saxophone.”
Why ‘Oriol’ – what does it mean to you?
“It’s my name. Words aren’t my forte and every time I tried to think of a name for myself it sounded contrived, so I used the name my parents gave me.”
Do you feel like being born in Barcelona had any tangible effect on your sound? When did you move to the UK?
“I was a few months old. It’s the UK that has had a tangible effect on my sound. Barcelona and Trinidad (where my dad is from) maybe had an intangible effect on my sound. Both of those places are inspiring places to be – ‘Coconut Coast’ is about a beach on the east coast of Trinidad, Manzanilla, which they say is lined by one million coconut trees.”
What about your time in Boston? What did you do there, study there, and so forth, and how did it affect you?
“I think when you’re in a 24/7 musical environment it helps you to hear music in a way you didn’t before – I just got really into music. My ears were lacking before I went to school but now it helps that I can hear a melody and play it or hear a chord sequence and be able to transcribe it.”
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