An interesting new release tonight from Sweden’s Boy Omega, the artist name of the multi-instrumentalist, Martin Henrik Hasselgren.
He’s known for mixing acoustic musical elements with experimental electronics, field recordings, old analog gear and other assorted instrumentation.
But now for something completely different.
‘Hollow’ is notable for including a very short sample from the intro of Craig Leon’s 1983 song ‘She Wears a Hemispherical Skull Cap’, which Boy Omega wasn’t expecting Craig Leon to reply to his request to include, let alone sanction it.
But he did, insisting that he really liked the song and was happy for it to be released.
Craig Leon is the producer behind artists like Ramones, Suicide, Talking Heads and Blondie, while also releasing some top notch albums of his own.
Boy Omega describes his song as dark and cinematic, associating it with 1990s TV drama Twin Peaks where “it could play at the Roadhouse” (an iconic tavern), while The Man from Another Place (one of the many oddball characters in that series) dances to it in the background.
Well I can associate it with being cinematic but rather in the sense that early doors it replicates dramatic theme tune music from pivotal 1960s British TV dramas like The Prisoner and Man in a Suitcase, often fabulous orchestral arrangements the likes of which you rarely hear these days and which were usually the work of the incomparable composer Ron Grainger.
Imagine that sound mixed with the sort of retro soul, blues and jazz concoctions that Amy Winehouse used to come up with (think of her version of ‘Monkey Man’) and even throw in a touch of Ska along with something from Paul Oakenfold and a Peter Gabriel-like vocal to round it off and to my mind at least you’ve got a flavour of this ultra imaginative piece.
(Continues after the Spotify link)
He plays all the instruments apart from saxophone (Per Baltzar).
This is his first time putting out music on his own label and an album, ‘Bloom’, will follow in September.
Find him on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/boyomega
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/boy_omega/
Bandcamp: https://boyomega.bandcamp.com/
Photo by Torbjörn Lorén, featuring his son Svante dressed as a ghost at Halloween.
