“As humans, we tend to forget where we come from, where our origins lie. And we tend to forget that most of our achievements in science, technology, art, or philosophy are actually based on exchange and blend of different cultures on a constant and endless global diaspora.”
The thoughtful words spoken by Lleluja-Ha, one half of the Berlin-based OY, are the naissance by which the avant-garde duo has grown upon for Space Diaspora. With vocalist Joy Frempong, OY’s third album reflects on and explores human struggle, the excess of fear in and of alternate cultures, and the redundancy of the everyday. It features the prosperity found on a newly inhabited planet when mankind realizes the err of its previous ways.
The title track off Space Diaspora depicts man’s journey and future on the planet bearing the same name. “Space Diaspora” is an up-tempo loop of vocal sampling circumnavigating its way through tribal percussion. As OY has presented to listeners in previous tracks, this record is an appreciation of traditional sounds blended with new technology, where primal beats meet electronic melodies, a style that OY has named “Oyxploitation.”
The animated video for “Space Diaspora,” which we are eager to premiere today, shows the rupture of a system gone too fast and too long, no longer functional enough to support life as we know it. But with that break comes new discovery and awareness to learn from our mistakes—found on Space Diaspora. Under the direction of Moritz Reichartz, the 3D artist creates a world inspired by OY’s single and the storyline that permeates through this album. Combining textures found in nature with untraditional animation techniques, Reichartz portrays the destruction of our familiar world and the exodus to an unknown yet beautiful planet where colors and a cultural serenity are bountiful—a home in which humans have the appreciation for the variety of their origins.
