Image: Manu Fauque
Parisian producer Darius shares his new album OASIS, the 14-track LP is out now via Roche Musique.
OASIS was born from the desire to offer a more intimate sound experience, as a nostalgic nod to his teenage years during the nineties. Sonically, it touches on groovy rhythms, mind soothing synth and funky cosmic arrangements inspired by his journeys, offering escapism for the listener. To bring the project to life, the producer collaborated with many talented artists ranging from the up and coming such as Amaria, Flwr Chyld, Lo Village, and Devin Tracy, to widely acclaimed singer and producer Kadhja Bonet and Benny Sings, as well as long time partners from the Roche Musique entourage Duñe and Wayne Snow. The process of writing the record was a truly personal and transformative journey for the artist who has created his own sincerely unapologetic body of music. “It is impossible to please everyone, what counts is the personal pleasure of creating, of wanting to share our artistic sensibility in a pure, sincere and assumed way. In any case, on this project I wanted to listen to myself as much as possible and I am really happy with the result.”
The title of the record encapsulates the energy Darius was looking to convey, perfectly summing up what the music is about with the aim of creating music as moments of escape and self abandonment. “It is interesting to see that for some people it is almost a vital element, as important as water, sun, and love.” Both title and cover are both in synergy for what the producer was trying to emulate throughout. “I tried to carry out this same reflection for the cover by looking for a symbol that was both universal and singular and that could visually translate the diversity and the musical unity that I wish to share on this project. This circle of colours came to me as an obvious choice. It illustrates well all the musical atmospheres that could be listened to according to each person’s mood. It also echoes the light spectra that I will be using in my visual show around a large animated lighted sphere on stage during my upcoming concerts.”
Inspired by the midtempo, filtered French Touch of Daft Punk, Cassius, Stardust and others, while also taking additional cues from funk, disco and R&B, Darius’ music avoids the central reliance on samples that characterises the work of so many other artists working within that space. Instead, he builds his interpretation of French House around mental landscapes, full of symbolism and arrangements that move with a dreamlike logic, suffused with spacious breaks that spread out infinitely before your ears and immersive, echoing synth pads, a kind of cosmis, star-filled romanticism. A longtime stalwart of influential French label Roche Musique (FKJ, Wayne Snow, Cezaire) since making his debut in 2012, the discreetly-working producer has garnered praise from The Fader, Complex, Clash, Hypebeast, Flaunt and more, amassed millions and millions of global streams and provided remixes for Dua Lipa, Jessie Ware, Lianne La Havas and Flight Facilities, amongst others.
With this new album comes a new visual live show Darius we’ll be presenting to the audience. An evocative sphere will travel with him during his much anticipated tour through Europe and North America in the following weeks.
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