Existence76 & OpenOptics

The Way OM

Several years ago while ritualistically combing through the Swap Meet, I stumbled upon a great collection of records from India. There were about 12 full sized boxes of LPs and a small box of about 100 45s. Even though it was early on a weekend morning, I wasn’t the only one there as many people descended upon the find (I happened to meet DJ Beatnick that day shout out!). I tried to negotiate the sale of everything but my broke ass couldn’t muster but half of what the seller wanted. I did however, cherry pick some solid LPs and bought the entire box of 45s (about 100 45s and 25 LPs) all of which were from the 1960-70s. The years that ensued after that day (and already a fan of Bombay the Hard Way) lead me to really appreciate this Bollywood sound with my own creations and share it with others.

Linking with OpenOptics on a musical level, we figured that we had a similar appreciation for this music and set out to create an album with these records as a basis. The ease in which we found samples and put together these musical compositions were remarkable; many times the sampled sounds were the same key or tempo to our initial tracks. Kinda spooky in a good way.

Our title for this short but thorough project indicates the continual quest for the search of happiness through sound/musical expression. Its a reflection we can see in some of the traditional singing/music we have expressed in this EP. We hope you find your way to OM, enjoy our creations and hope that this fosters an appreciation for this music through our stylings. Enjoy!

-Existence76