King of Truth Records is proud to announce the release of "Ocean Music II: Songs From The City'. Available 4/26/16 on a deluxe, limited-edition 12” 45RPM vinyl and in all digital formats.
Ocean Music began in the summer of 2013 as a songwriting project for New York-based multi-disciplinary artist and healer Richard Aufrichtig. Having released thirteen records under various names over the previous six years, the opportunity to start again satisfied a deep need to wipe the creative slate clean. Though initially a solo project, Ocean Music has since evolved into a raucous and rousing live band. What is presented on Ocean Music’s second album, Songs From The City, is something that lives comfortably alongside that live experience – a quieter alternative, a parallel road.
Whereas the first Ocean Music record featured expansive orchestral arrangements, Songs From The City draws sonic inspiration from the many modern-day troubadours Aufrichtig has often been compared to. Drawing thematically from sources as varied as the Chilean author Roberto Bolaño, thirteenth century Troubadour and Minnesinger lyrics, Gregorian chants, the Major and Minor arcana of the Tarot, Zen Koans, Child Ballads, and modern day celebrities of the new-song movement, Ocean Music transports the listener to the magical place of touching the real.
As a collection of songs, the four compositions were first workshopped at an evening devoted to exploring cartographies at New York City’s Flux Factory, and at an international music festival in Southeast Alaska – where Aufrichtig performed on a small stage on a driving range in the summer rain. With Songs From The City, Aufrichtig shows himself to be a profound and compelling songwriter, bringing to life abstracted stories capable of expressing the fragmented nature of city life and the modern quest to remain true to oneself in spite of it.
When he sings, on the album’s first song:
I’ve been lost
I’ve been found
I’ve been out in the sound
I’ve been all of the lights in the skyline
- Aufrichtig leads his listeners, like the singers of old, into a new perception of their waking lives.
Songs From The City opens the doorway into a new song world, for both Aufrichtig and his listeners.