Vessel

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Cat No: TAR092

Release Date: 18 December 2020

Label: Tin Angel

Packaging Type: Slip Sleeve (CD or Vinyl)

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 5052442016427

Genres: Electronic Synthwave

Description
Sarah Nowicki and Matthew Robinson might have cut their teeth in the basements, attics, warehouses and patios of the Brooklyn DIY scene, but thatâ€™s not where Opal Onyx really began. It was, in fact, a hair salon in Cleveland, Ohio, where they first laid down the foundations for this astounding musical project. Robinson was the receptionist there. â€œI was begging for somebody interesting to walk in,â€� he says. â€œAnd then Sarah came through the door!â€� Nowicki was in search of work, but also armed with a CD of self-recorded songs that demanded to be listened to. â€œI heard he played the cello and started getting really excited because I had all these songs. At the end of the day, flipped it to Matt, he listened to it in his car, turned straight back around, ran back into the shop and said â€˜we have to make music togetherâ€™.â€� A few years later, when Robinson moved to New York, Nowicki soon followed, a deep creative bond now formed. There, they were immersed into the cityâ€™s DIY scene, a place where brilliant, boundary-pushing projects would emerge and disappear within the space of a week. Their sound was elusive and new, evading genre but somehow capturing something so transcendent that they could weave their way onto any bill in the city. â€œWeâ€™d be the one band with a cello at a noise gig,â€� says Nowicki. â€œThen weâ€™d fit in to an electronic show, then weâ€™d fit into a singer-songwriter show, then an ambient show. With us it was always different, a unique blend of styles all merged in to one.â€� 13 years later, New York has changed. Those basements and bakeries are no more. â€œWe donâ€™t go to Warehouse spaces anymore because they donâ€™t exist,â€� Robinson says. â€œThe most important cultural institutions in Brooklyn are all being shut down, and theyâ€™re not being replaced.â€� The studio where they recorded their extraordinary new album â€˜Vesselâ€™ throughout last year, as well as its predecessor â€˜Delta Sandsâ€™ is among the casualties. â€œI would wake up in the middle of the night and Iâ€™d be there for 4.45 in the morning, I was that excited to go to the studio. New York is silent there at that time, it was like a playground. Now itâ€™s been demolished and turned into a parking garage.â€� Thereâ€™s one thing that hasnâ€™t changed; Nowicki and Robinsonâ€™s creative desire is every ounce as insatiable as it was when that CD exchanged hands in the Cleveland salon. And on â€˜Vesselâ€™, that shows.
Tracklisting