Odd Beholder — Atlas

Both sober and dreamy: Odd Beholder’s music is as sublime as an empty parking lot in early morning light. In spring 2017, the band will release its second EP «Atlas» that takes up the cool and minimalistic electronica of the first EP «Lighting».

Odd Beholder articulate alienation. As beholders, they stand next to what’s going on in a strange world, but they don’t perceive themselves as innocent bystanders. Instead, Daniela Weinmann and James Varghese try to sort things out and make sense of their impressions.

«Atlas» continues where «Lighting» left off. While the first EP put the act of beholding in the center of the songs, the second EP highlights the beholder himself. Like a tourist, like a pilgrim he roams the earth in search of direction. He’s broke, he worries, he has difficulties to find his point of view and he yearns for a companion. “The songs on «Atlas» discuss fear, our strategies of coping with it and its danger of corrupting our moral compass and our logic. The songs are an invitation to let go of fear and to dedicate oneself to something that is worth finding, keeping and fighting for”, explains the band.  

«Isometry» and «Moon» talk about the difficulties of letting go. «Garden» follows the cycle of sowing, waiting, reaping, dying, sprouting and resurrecting. «Coins» and «Atlas» are hymns against fear, the latter examining the fact that although you don’t know the future you still have to take care of it yourself – without worrying too much. «Coins» asks the question what is actually measured with money.

Odd Beholder develop their songs by experimenting but their goal is simplicity. The precise, unpretentious music reflects Daniela Weinmann’s and James Varghese’s shared interest in ambivalent moods. They create introverted, stripped-down music that becomes a Trojan horse for bigger things.

Since the release of «Lighting» a lot has been set in motion for Odd Beholder. Both on the large and small scale the duo literally has been on the move and gathering attention with their many concerts and above all the underground hit «Landscape Escape» as well as the corresponding video shot in Azerbaijan. Now «Atlas» – in both meanings as a mythological figure and as a collection of maps – depicts a metaphor for orientation and worries. „The first EP opened with the words: ‚I’ve been young all my life (…), I just couldn’t find the strength to really care‘“, Daniela explains. „Obviously, this has changed. We’ve changed. We care. Indifference isn’t interesting anymore.“