Orkid releases on vinyl the album Noi contra Noi produced by Adrian Despot and Sorin Pupe Tănase and embarks on the most extensive promotional tour in the band's 9-year history.
Orkid, the trio of nervous shoegazers from Bucharest define their style as post-traumatic blues. Their defining trait is an affection and respect for whales, orcas and all sorts of other sea, land and alien beasts.
With diverse influences ranging from punk and garage to post-metal, from indie and blues to math, prog or even academic music, Orkid have so far released 5 studio albums: Standing Still in the Dark (2016), Suruaika (2018), Deraiat (2020), In the Light We are Safe (2022) and Noi contra Noi (2023). Since 2018 their music is produced by Adrian Despot and Sorin Pupe Tănase at VdV Music Studio.
The 5 tracks on the band's latest album, Noi contra Noi, carry on the mood and sound of Deraiat, but in an even darker and louder tone. Shifting from dreamy shoegaze and surf sounds to post-punk, post-metal, prog and even sludge/ noise/ doom, Noi contra Noi is the trio's most complex material to date, which the band describes as follows:
"5 tracks that start with N:
1. Nu te dau
2. Nimeni și nimic
3. Nu lumea întreagă
4. Nu mai aude, nu mai există
5. Noi contra Noi
Exactly half an hour:
- of war, us against us,
- in which we don't give up.
- of walking on the wire, on the shards, on the edge of the pit,
- with mad joy.
- of unexpected, misunderstood, untried victory."
In their 9 years of existence they have played over 300 gigs, opening for bands like: Mogwai (Scotland), Death in Vegas (England), Mono (Japan), Madrugada (Norway), The Underground Youth (England), Lucy Kruger & the Lost Boys ( Germany) as well as the most popular local bands - Vița de Vie, Șuie Paparude, Coma, Subcarpați, The Mono Jacks, Emil, Implant pentru Refuz, etc. They have appeared in a TV show on TVR1 - Starea Nației, 2019 - and in dozens of radio shows - Radio Guerrilla, Tananana, Gold FM, Rock FM, etc.
Because two of the orcs come from the area of visual productions, Vlad is by training a screenwriter and film director and Radu is an animator and graphic artist, Orkid is a cinematic product, which also emphasizes animated visuals, illustration and design. Urban artist (illustrator, graphic designer, comic creator, graffiti artist) Pisica Pătrată, aka Alexandru Ciubotariu, joins them for live drawing concerts.
In 2022, one of Orkid's songs, Cad, was taken on the soundtrack of an HBO series (Ruxx), then two others (Stargaze and Beasts Apart) on the soundtrack of a feature film - Băieții buni merg în Rai (R: Radu Potcoavă). In 2018 they composed the entire soundtrack of an animated short film, directed by Vlad and Radu - Suruaika:
Orkid are:
Vlad Ilicevici: guitars, synths, vocals
Radu Pop: percussion, synths
Mihnea Dumitrescu: bass
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Pisica Pătrată: live drawing