Pre-order of Omni. You get 3 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.
Purchasable with gift card
releases May 10, 2024
£10GBP or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Translucent red vinyl, with folded 4-page lyric insert, download code. *Initial orders come with an A4 signed photo insert.
Includes digital pre-order of Omni.
You get 3 tracks now
(streaming via the free Bandcamp app
and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the
complete album the moment it’s released.
British artist Douglas Dare announces the release of his fourth album Omni. Seen by Douglas himself as a bold rebirth and embrace of the electronic, Omni is all at once a throbbing, avant-garde, queer, dark and cinematic record imbued with a love of rave culture and sense of fearless storytelling that’s deeply evocative. Omni will be released on May 10 via Erased Tapes.
Douglas has shared the first taster of the record with ‘Mouth to Mouth’, a pulsing, synth-laden track that begs to be played loud. ‘Mouth to Mouth’ sees a collaboration with label mate Daniel Brandt who appears on production duties, with beats supplied by Rival Consoles. Speaking on the track, Douglas says, “life, death, fate and orgies; this is the heartfelt club track I always wanted to write.”
Since 2013, Douglas has blurred classical, chamber-pop, folk and avant-garde to dazzling effect, with a startling voice that can stop you in your tracks. It’s why he’s played with luminaries like Nils Frahm, Perfume Genius and Ólafur Arnalds, and was selected by David Lynch and The Cure’s Robert Smith for their respective cultural festivals in Manchester (MIF) and London (Meltdown).
But Douglas’s fourth album, Omni, is a fresh awakening. Encouraged by Erased Tapes founder Robert Raths, he decided to step away from acoustic instruments, especially the piano he grew up playing, and swapped them for synths and drum machines.
His new music has much in common with Arca and the late SOPHIE, two artists for whom self-expression meant liberation. “I got to hang out in the studio with her,” says Douglas of the latter musician, “the way she made music made a big impression on me.” And yet Omni is steeped in the kind of deft storytelling, sweeping strings, elegant contrasts and fairytale atmosphere that marks Douglas out as a crucial and singular voice. It’s not often you hear a strutting electro banger that could have been straight out of 90s Soho, with vocal loops inspired by US experimentalist Meredith Monk.
For Douglas, Omni is about reconciling all those different sides of himself – the songwriter, the raver, the lover, the observer. It’s a hugely queer record: seductive, sexy, lusty, untethered from the genre binary. “It’s even got sailors on it!” laughs Douglas. “You don’t get more queer than that.”
credits
releases May 10, 2024
All songs written and performed by Douglas Dare
Published by Erased Tapes Music
Produced by Daniel Brandt and Douglas Dare
Except Teach Me produced by Fabian Prynn and Douglas Dare
and
Omni and The Stream produced by Douglas Dare
Executive Producer: Robert Raths
Mouth to Mouth beat programmed by Rival Consoles
Teach Me beat programmed by Fabian Prynn
OMNI was performed by
Douglas Dare: all vocals, synths, acoustic guitar, piano and beat programming
Daniel Brandt: beat programming, samples, pedals and percussion
Fabian Prynn: drums and percussion on Teach Me
Simon Goff: strings on Sailor
Ralph Heidel: all flutes and saxophone
TJ Allen: additional percussion and mellotron
Vocals, guitar and piano recorded by Douglas Dare in London
Drums recorded by Fabian Prynn at the 4AD studio, London
Strings recorded by Simon Goff in Berlin
Flutes and saxophone recorded by Ralf Heidel in Berlin
All strings and flutes arranged by Douglas Dare, except The Stream arranged by Ralf Heidel
Mixed by TJ Allen in Bristol
Mastered by Zino Mikorey in Berlin
Lacquer cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle
Notable mention goes to Merryn Jeann and her 2020 project A Song for Everyone, which inspired me to write Mouth to Mouth
Photography and artwork by Fran Gomez de Villaboa
Designed by Robert Raths
Styled by Jaime Moreno
Red seatbelt dress designed by Maximilian Raynor
Red wool dress designed by Amanda Bodell
Special thanks to the people who made this album possible
Daniel Brandt, Fabian Prynn, Ryan West, Simon Goff, Ralph Heidel, TJ Allen, Zino Mikorey, Merryn Jeann, David Taylor, Robert Raths, Emily Appleton Holley, Anton Magnusson and the whole team at Erased Tapes, Maximilian Raynor, Amanda Bodell, Fran Gomez de Villaboa, Jaime Moreno and Jordon Byron Britton
Douglas Dare is a London-based singer-songwriter, originally from the coastal town of Bridport, South West England. The son
of a piano teacher, Douglas began composing instrumental music from a young age but it was not until studying popular music at University in Liverpool in 2008 that he began songwriting....more
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