Composer-producer OAFF aka Kabeer Kathpalia. Photo: Represent
After years of spinning singles and then providing Bollywood films like Gehraiyaan and Kho Gaye Hum Kahan with soundtracks, composer-producer OAFF aka Kabeer Kathpalia has released his debut solo album Between Flowers.
A deeply personal record that features the voice of his grandparents in voice samples, OAFF enlists the likes of Sid Sriram, Vidhya Gopal, Divyam Sodhi, Amira Gill, Manreet Khara and Pratika Gopinath (from Pune indie act Easy Wanderlings) for an astonishingly lush fusion electronica sound across nine tacks.
Although he’s often worked with singer, composer and producer Savera as a music duo, OAFF clearly intended to go solo with a different range of featured artists. Sodhi leads a rendition of the traditional song “Baalmaa” to open the album and elsewhere, Carnatic Prasant Radhakrishnan infuses emotion into “Kadri,” which is likely a tribute to Indian saxophone great Kadri Gopalnath who passed away in 2019.
The likes of Gill, Gopal and Gopinath bring their distinctive vocal style ranging from Punjabi folk to thumri to soul to their respective songs. Between Flowers specifically gets heightened by “Falling” sung by Sid Sriram in a way that feels equally OAFF and Sriram’s song in style. The producer, of course, colors the album with his distinctive atmospheric production, often adding cascading synth work and mindful, unhurried beats.
Clocking in at just over 20 minutes, Between Flowers somehow feels like a collection of sonic sketches, pieced together with care. It comes with an “immersive album film” featuring artists like Sodhi, Gill, Gopal, Radhakrishnan and more, with the lens focusing on OAFF and his creative mind.
The artist says in a statement about the making of the album, “Last year was a storm of emotions. I said goodbye to two grandparents, standing at the edge of lives well-lived, learning what it means to let go. But in the same breath, I said yes to love, to a lifelong beginning, as I married the person who makes my heart feel full. Between those two moments – loss and love – I found myself reaching for something to anchor me, something to help make sense of it all.”
He adds that these life changes made him question who he was and what it meant to create and “to feel alive.” OAFF adds, “Between Flowers grew from that journey – a space where grief and joy, endings and beginnings, coexist. It’s my attempt to hold those contradictions, to find meaning in them, and maybe, just maybe, to answer the questions that have followed me like shadows. I hope it offers you something, too.”
Watch the album film for ‘Between Flowers’ below.
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