What constitutes ambient music can be quite different to practically any individual listener out there, but essentially, it all can be divided into one of two broad categories.
On one hand, it is something that can be exceedingly enjoyable and be both listened to and used as a quality audio background for any type of activity.
On the other, it very often ends up as a bland aural wallpaper, that practically blends into the walls (or open spaces) and ends up being labelled with one simple word – boring. Unfortunately, more often than not, recordings categorized as ambient end up in this second category.
You really have to have a musical vision (and knowledge) to be able to escape the traps of the ‘boring’ ambient, and the LA duo of Mia Garcia and Hailey Naiswanger that operate under the moniker of OHMA, do exactly that on their debut Between All Things.
Their extensive knowledge and experience are reflected in their background. Guitarist Garcia explores sound through a visual lens and composes a range of films and animations. Working as a musical director for neo-soul artist, UMI, she produced Introspection Reimagined at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La studio. Concurrently, woodwind wizard Hailey Niswanger has written, recorded, and performed with a variety of artists, including Beyoncé, Clairo, Esperanza Spalding, and Headhunters drummer Harvey Mason – all parallel to creating 2 solo albums under her musical moniker, MAE.SUN.
Their diverse musical backgrounds work their charm through combining the best elements of almost any type of instrumental music – from jazz and classical to post-rock, with only minimal excursions into, for some, dreaded new age genre.
Essentially, the duo is able to aurally fill the gap between all things, real or imagined.
