Berlin-based duo OY create space opera album

After wowing audiences at major festivals across many countries for the last couple of years, the original and creative duet consisting of Ghanaian-Swiss vocalist & musician Joy Frempong and producer & musician Lleluja-Ha are back with new songs from another world.

OY’s new album is a space opera - highly danceable avant-garde, based on a core of vocal loops, electronica and drumming. It tells the story of mankind’s prosperous future on a planet called 'Space Diaspora’ on which humans finally developed the ability to learn from their mistakes.

Life on Space Diaspora is a reflection and a distortion of our own struggling world, conveying sentiments of modern alienation and transnational identity. OY’s thoughtful and humorous, tongue-in-cheek approach looks back at current times from the vantage point of a chaos-driven but blooming society in our own future. A vision which elicits tears as well as smiles, and praises the huge potential of the in-between.

The Space Diaspora fable is a framework which enables OY to make use of their multiple talents and create a playful and imaginative opus, bursting with melodies carried by Joy Frempong’s formidable voice. As voices have remained the strongest form of communication throughout history,  the album’s electronic core is built out of transformed vocal samples. They reappear in synthesized form - as melodies, chords or patterns - backing the band’s reflections on transhumanism, diaspora or transculturation. The resulting sound could be described as a futuristic blend of rebellious tribal jazz and electronica, which the band call “Oyxploitation”…

Initial pre-release concerts in Paris, Fes and London have generated great media reactions, with comparisons to Laurie Anderson, Grace Jones and MIA, and a show described as ‘a visual and utopian universe’, ‘a spectacle that cheers up listeners’, ‘a captivating performance pitched somewhere between preaching and performance art’, and ‘a set that confirms to us that music is a power, a force’.

The broad musical background of the co-writers ranges from underground experiments to composing for contemporary theatre and reflects that, for them, there is just one love: music as an entity. OY face the absurdity of life with humour, they share with generosity and invite listeners to participate in their musical journey.

This album is an ode to those who move, and an invitation for people to let go of fears and use their imagination to travel far. After all, in spite of all technological inventions, the farthest we can travel is still with our minds.
— OY

From previous press on OY
“A thoughtful and elegant synthesis of electronica, hip hop and pop” (MOJO, UK)
“Eccentric, nomadic and colour-saturated music” (Les Inrockuptibles, FR)
‘’One little ask and the entire room is on their feet dancing, joining them on their vivid journey’’ (Music OMH, on OY’s performance at The Great Escape, Brighton)

Joy Frempong is a vocalist/musician with a rich background in electronica, urban music & improv, and a very personal approach to electronic music. Equally at ease when processing sound or writing unforgettable melodies, Joy has performed & recorded with the likes of electro-dub band Filewile, hip hop combo Infinite Livez vs Stade (Big Dada) and more, before starting the OY project with an initial solo release (“First Box Then Walk”, 2010). Joy was born in Ghana, has lived in Switzerland and is now based in Berlin.
 
Lleluja-Ha started his journey into music as a drummer and composer in the fields of electronic dance & pop music and has been exploring his eclectic approach ever since. As a singer-songwriter he toured with several releases, most recently with his solo project Sun Of Moon (Motor Music) and regularly composes for classical orchestras, films, numerous perfomance and theatre productions, a.o. for Burgtheater Vienna, Schaubühne Berlin and Kammerspiele Munich. Lleluja-Ha joined OY in 2011. He lives in Berlin.