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Ophelia Records Announces Advent Project With Release of Volume I

May 22, 2020 By Tori Matthews

Ophelia Records is the imprint started by Seven Lions, one of the most influential voices in electronic music to date. From his unique taste of melodic bass to interplaying with any genre he wishes like house, psy trance, and drum and bass, Jeff Montalvo is a tastemaker that many artists aspire to. He has quickly grown the Ophelia family, with artists like MitiS, Trivecta, and Crystal Skies dropping killer tracks on the label, an explosive start for the label. The freshman label has exploded with a slew of releases from resident artists as well as premiering mixes through the Observatory and Ophelia Odyssey series. Since social distancing began, Montalvo has taken to Twitch to continue playing for fans and includes 30 minute segments with his fellow artists to answer questions and talk about the music production process.

While we have been loving getting to see behind the curtain, we are beyond excited for this new project. Ophelia has released their first volume of Advent, a bi-annual EP series that spotlights rising producers within the melodic bass and bass scene. By showcasing fresh sounds and talents, Ophelia Records’ presence in the sub-genre is a promising push into a movement we can get behind.

Ophelia Presents: Advent Volume I clocks in at eight tracks, with each artist hand selected to be apart of the first edition. Fans got to hear the tracks live yesterday on Seven Lion’s Twitch channel and the chat was flooded with shock, excitement, and the constant question, “Track ID?!”. Well, now we can dive in for the weekend.

Ophelia Presents: Advent Volume I starts off with Thrillogy’s “Enough”, which got huge props during the stream, an energetic melodic bass track that has incredibly beautiful build ups that captured our hearts. Next up Luke Anderson & HGHLND continue the inspirational trend with “Darkness” that takes us to new heights, accompanied by warm drum fills and a little splash of that dirty dub to top your Ophelia cocktail. Draeden takes us into his version “Dystopia”, showcasing his incredible depth of growling bass accompanied with tasty arpeggio fills that have us listening over and over again. We are then introduced to Awakend, who we got to meet at the beginning of the stream. “Save Me” will definitely a favorite on the EP, his mastering of sound design and layering is incredible.

Canada native, Slooze, takes us to the futuristic side, painting a picture of a broken world. His song, “Evolution” creates a juxtaposition of glitching bass and sparkling synth work that captures us in this new reality. Diving into our feels, Amidy delivers with “Fix You”, a definite contender for the famous sad boi EDM club. But nothing is better than hearing an artist play their heart right out on the decks. Switzerland based Arpyem welcomes us into his melodic house party with his energetic “ndal”. A playful track that really lets the four to the floor pop amongst the smooth synths. Closing us out we get gritty with it with Caster’s “Chimera”. Keeping his musical identity fluid, we get an incredible range in snarling dub and an underpinning of dark psy.