Sonlife - Sonlife (DSPPR) [Downtempo]
Happy New Year all, let's make 2024 a good one. I'm feeling pretty refreshed after swapping the screen for books & pretty much ignoring social media for a few days. It also gave me a chance to catch up on some LPs I missed or didn't pay enough attention to last year.
One of them is the debut album from London-based Turkish/British producer Ogul Can Genc aka SONLIFE on Chris Coco's DSPPR. It's propelled by reassuringly familiar downtempo beats to help dispel the holiday lethargy, further tempered by all sorts of floaty ambient layers to ease the reality reentry turbulence & should help you get 2024 on the road nicely.
If this old school downtempo vibe is your thing then you could do a lot worse that check out the Slow Hop playlist. It's full of live, hip hop tempo grooves and instrumental beats.
Notes From The Artist
This album has so many elements of sounds from over the years, old field recordings from past phones, live samples from my old band Haraket, very odd and rough ideas conjured in the middle of night in my early twenties. It’s an amalgamation of old and new. In a way it all came together perfectly and at the right time. I don’t have any formal background in music, and don’t come from a particularly musical family, so this whole thing started out as just curiosity and a laptop. I’m so happy to have something like this in the world after many years of dreaming about it!
A very special thanks to Ed Bernez, whose cymbals appear throughout the album and who’s been a very close friend and collaborator for many years. Thanks to Sam Leach, who has shown so much incredible support, both lending his wicked talent and very sound advice to the project. Thanks to Abi
Hardiman, also a long time friend and collaborator, whose voice appears in forms throughout loads of my tunes, in the background or foreground, lending its beauty to the music.
Thanks to James Wilson, Emma Barnaby, Wilfred Petherbridge, James Mollison, Plumm, Jacob Read, Jack Marshall, Euan Gubbins, Wilfred Taylor, Tristan Gibbs, Harley Alexander-Sule, Chris Waller, Adam Foster, Brendan McCull, Leo Picking, Marina Blake, Jerome Toole, Brainchild, the Clonquers, James Warburton, Olivier Huband, G55, Foundies, Sarah/Jonathan/Caspian, India Footer, Eva Bradley-Williams, Ed Firth, Bôh, Karla/Jukka/Bobby who have all been part of my journey and this album being made, I love you all.
Thank you to the tree that accompanied me in making a lot of the album, outside the window at the Sydenham flat. It was sadly cut down two days after the album artwork was taken.
Thank you to my dearly beloved Harley, showing all the support all the time and for being a wonderful human being.
A huge thank you to Chris Coco, who has wholeheartedly believed in the music from day one and who has given up so much time and effort to support and push me in all of my musical endeavors, big love.
And finally thank you to my family: mum, dad, Gülden and Ela.
