Sonic Alchemist: Raz Ohara
Producer, songwriter, and composer Raz Ohara is not just releasing a new album, he’s unveiling a world. Memories of Tomorrow, his 9th forthcoming full-length work, is a cinematic, soul-baring journey shaped by vintage analog synths, acoustic textures, and deeply human emotion.
Crafted entirely live without samples or loops, it’s a testament to instinct, impermanence, and 30 years of fearless sonic evolution. Berlin-based and boundary-less, Ohara has long been a shapeshifter—whether fronting projects like The Odd Orchestra or Feathered Sun, or collaborating with genre-bending artists like Apparat, Chilly Gonzales, and Acid Pauli. His music fuses the rawness of Nina Simone with the fluidity of ambient electronica, always dancing between tradition and experimentation.
In Memories of Tomorrow, time collapses. Its music made from memory and for the future—an immersive world that moves effortlessly from introspective stillness to euphoric rhythm. Lead single “Vessel of Love” pulses with emotion, tackling intimacy, repression, and liberation through a hypnotic, transcendent lens.
Q: You collaborated with Acid Pauli, a producer known for his genre defying sound. What drew you to work together, and how did that collaboration influence your creative process?
Acid Pauli has been a colleague of mine for many years and a producer who I respect for his free-spirited approach when it comes to Dj’ing and producing music. Martin has been a collaborator with our collective Feathered Sun in early days when we invented this new electronic dance music genre that became known to the world as „Downtempo“. When asking Martin for a remix I never know what I will get. He is unpredictable and he has inspired me not to respect rigid, unspoken rules, that we hear, especially in fields of electronic dance music, today.
Q: There’s a cinematic, almost ritualistic quality to your work. Do visual art, film, or literature ever play a role in shaping your sound
I try to create a soundtrack for the visuals appearing in my mind. They may be provoked by thoughts, feelings, ideas, as well as conflicts that are presented to me on the sojourn of life and in order to grow and heal. I like to make my days pleasant by filling the space with a certain ambience. Imagine, I have to be with the music I am working on for weeks or month - so it’s vice versa: I sometimes ask myself how I like to spend my days and with what soundtrack.
Q: In an age of endless digital tools, how do you stay connected to the raw, emotional core of your music?
It’s about following what you are intending to say and being aware when you get lost and seduced by endless possibilities technology provides. This I think goes for all humanity: what do we intend to do, where do we want to go, and why - rather than letting technology take the lead, naive, blind, and disconnected. This sadly seems to reflect the state humanity is in today. The world is in the hands of a few traumatized men - and observing the pace of development of AI, one most conclude: things are completely out of control.
Q: Looking forward, are there any dream collaborators or unconventional mediums you’re interested in exploring next? What is next for you?
I would like to act in a film by Vincent Gallo. Besides that, I am working on a free-jazz influenced album – I happened to record the most gifted Portuguese musicians during a week in a studio in Lisbon, in summer 2023. We recorded improvs, each musician in separate rooms – for me to be able to create a completely new piece of art, in post. It will yield an experimental album with meditative soundscapes and poetry.
Q: What are your greatest inspirations or influences?
People I meet in everyday life. The conflicts that arise with people through interactions. My struggle. Current social problems. Activists, and writers like Dieter Duhm. Eastern mysticism.
Science and nature. Sex and Love.
Q: Anything else you would like to share.
Play my music and make love out loud for christs sake
Photo Ishka Mikocka
Interview Leila Antakly
