“Beyond The Yellow Haze is the debut release by Nigerian sound and installation artist Emeka Ogboh on Ostgut Ton sublabel A-TON. Combining subtle layers of ambient electronics, dance music and field recordings from the city of Lagos, Ogboh’s compositions reflect both the Nigerian city’s soundscapes as well as the artist’s increasing immersion in electronic music since moving to Berlin six years ago.
Like his sound installation Ayilara for Berghain’s main floor in the current STUDIO BERLIN exhibition, Beyond The Yellow Haze contains a veritable atonal orchestra of honking, motors, sound systems, sidewalk sales pitches and various sonic artifacts of Lagos’s Danfo bus stations and beyond. These serve as both punctuation and swirling atmosphere within a kaleidoscope of bass and polyrhythms. The unpredictable result is at once place-specific and geographically indefinable. A city in situ – and processed in memory and rhythm very far away.
The recordings were originally included as part of Ogboh’s 2018 exhibition No Condition Is Permanent at Galerie Imane Farès and self-released as a stamped and signed artist edition. Beyond The Yellow Haze will be released on A-TON as a 2×12” LP on black vinyl and in digital formats.
Born in 1977, Emeka Ogboh’s artistic practice focuses on ethico-poltical questions through sound, food and scent. His diverse body of work includes installation, video, photography and beer and has been featured in documenta 14, the Venice Biennale, the Brooklyn Museum and the American National Museum of African Art, amongst others. He lives and works in Lagos and Berlin.”
Tracklist
- Lekki Aiah Freeway
- Danfo Mellow
- Everydaywehustlin
- Palm Groove
- Outro
Production, arrangement and mixing by Emeka Ogboh. Additional mixing and production by Ilpo Jauhiainen. Mastered by Moritz Illner at Duophonic, Augsburg (1-4) and by Helmut Erler at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin (5). Cover artwork by Emeka Ogboh. Layout by Yusuf Etiman. © A-TON 2021
Released January 15, 2021
Emeka Ogboh | Beyond The Yellow Haze — Berghain
composer / sound artist / writer 