OOOTOKO - OOOTOKO

A Closer Listen

Our first taste of OOOTOKO was last year’s striking video for “Elvas,” which features choreographer and dancer Laura Guessan struggling with an impossible rope.  The Middle East timbres and Dune aesthetics are indicative of the cinematic tone of this nineteen-member international band, led by Belgian violinist Damien Chierici. But as the tempo changes, harmonic vocals and vast instrumentation of follow-up “Theme Of Parallax” indicate, there’s far more to the collective than this.  Chierici’s ensemble crosses boundaries like borders, creating an alternate sci-fi universe in which music is the melting pot.  The cover image recalls the monolith of 2001, although ironically that was 2001 as imagined in 1968, before the landing of the OOOTOKO monument, which is clearly on another planet.

Film producers should really start lining up now to book this band, as there seems to be no genre they can’t conquer, and no instrument they can’t play.  The opening track slides from swing to rock and back again, punctuated by glockenspiel; “Malo” begins with piano and horns.  But the strings are never far from the surface, like the dancer’s tumultuous rope, and like the rope, they start and end in flowers.  New melodies are always in bloom.  Perhaps the best fit would be a James Bond production, not only for the occasional spy movie vibe, but for the music’s jet-setting flavor.

“Little Ghost,” teased last season with a snowy video, is another left turn: courtlike in tone, with wordless madrigal vocals, the piece suggests a procession, a coronation, a master ballroom.  At the very end, the album’s first words: don’t let me fall.  Not to worry; with nineteen participants, there’s no chance of that happening.  The joyous “Medellin” explodes with handclaps, trumpets and hints of castanets.  With every selection, the ensemble expands its tonal and geographic scope.  And still surprises await: the solo violin of “Tatihou Garden,” that turns into an accordion duet, then into a dance, stomping into its final seconds; the sudden disco turn of “Iseo Lake;” and the choice to end with the Celtic ballad “Eileanor Na Run.” (Those who purchase the vinyl will receive an additional track, “Inisherin.”)  “Eileanor Na Run” is the story of a woman who defies social conventions and forges her own path, which is exactly what OOOTOKO has done here.  The astonishment is that they have done it with such universal appeal.  (Richard Allen)