Premiere: Orchestra Of Spheres Share Single 'Koudede'

Wellington psychedelic travellers Orchestra Of Spheres have announced the impending launch of their latest studio album Mirror, and unveiled the record's cosmic lead single 'Koudede'. Drawing on the band's shared love of Tuareg, Niger musician Koudede of legendary collective Group Inerane, Orchestra Of Spheres lay down a massive groove to impel listeners on a reflective voyage of sonic discovery. Mirror will be out on double LP internationally in early November, the otherworldly team of Baba Rossa, Mos Iocos, EtonalE, Woild Boin and Farmerboy (aka Daniel Beban, Nell Thomas, Erika Grant, Riki Gooch and Reece McNaughten) are playing a sure-to-be dazzling release party at Meow on Saturday 20th October with buds The All Seeing Hand and Boss Christ, before traversing the globe for a celebratory European tour. Beban lifted the lid on the ideas orbiting OoS's latest tune and forthcoming plans, let his words echo through your mind and open your ears to 'Koudede' below...

"Koudede is a lament for the Tuareg musician Koudede from Niger. He played under his own name and in the band Group Inerane. I was a big fan of Group Inerane since Sublime Frequencies put out the Guitars From Agadez album in the early-ish 2000s, and it was a huge buzz for me that OoS got to support Group Inerane at a gig in Utrecht in 2011. They were a beautiful band, amazing loping grooves by their drummer who'd only been playing a year or two at that stage, funky as hell, twin chiming guitars just playing the most simple, beautiful lines. The guys in the band were all super nice and we had a feast with them and got to chat to them. Koudede was really enthusiastic about our music too, and said his mate ran a festival in the desert in Niger and we should come play.

It was really then a few months later later that I read a one-line post in a blog somewhere that the musician Koudede had died in a car crash in Niger. I never thought of writing a song about it, but when we were working on material for this new album I had a kind of loping groove in 5/4, with a guitar line that reminded me a bit of Group Inerane. I was trying to come to come up with some lyrics and the thing that stuck was just singing the dude's name, Koudede. So I came up with a poem based on an idea by the English experimental poet Bob Cobbing, which is using the different letters of someone's name as the basis for the words of a poem. So that's what the lyrics of the song are, K-O-U-D-E-D-E. Koudede, kissing oblivion, unending desert, the urns are drying, unicorns are dying, ecstatic death on the exoplanet, etc...

We recorded the track with the band and a horn section all playing live in the studio, there's the funereal oboes played by Oscar Laven, bass clarinet by Blair Latham and the full version of the track has a fantastic soprano sax solo by Lucien Johnson.

At the mo OoS are preparing for a European tour in November. We'll be heading to Germany, Sweden, France, Italy, Switzerland for a bunch of gigs. The new album is called Mirror, that's coming out in October and we're having a release gig in Wellington at Meow on 20th Oct with All Seeing Hand and Boss Christ."

'Mirror' is out internationally on Friday 2nd November on double LP via Fire Records.