OHNomad shares new EP ‘The Awakening’

Based in San Francisco, OHNomad is not a typical figure in contemporary classical music, he’s a hedge fund manager by day and meditative artist by nature, inhabiting two worlds that rarely converge. Yet, it’s precisely this contrast that makes the context behind his work so intriguing and through a blend of Eastern philosophy, world travel and minimalist composition, he creates music that’s equally dazzling and conceptually fascinating.

Born from reflection rather than routine, OHNomad’s artistic journey began during the stillness of the pandemic when much of the world paused. His early works, including his 2022 debut “Morning Inspiration,” signalled the arrival of a composer intent on forging a new kind of modern classical music. Shaped by extensive travels through India and Tibet, his sound carries the echo of Buddhist thought, the discipline of Western classical tradition and the warmth of global folk music.

By 2023, OHNomad had already established himself as a leading voice on the international stage when his first sonata, “Place of Origins,” premiered at Taiwan’s National Recital Hall. Now, OHNomad shares his latest project titled The Awakening, a four-song EP created in collaboration with pianist Chi-Jo Lee. The record captures a journey not of geography but of consciousness, presenting a voyage from reflection to revelation.

Structurally, the work functions as a condensed version of a ten-movement suite, loosely modeled after Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Each piece arrives as a world within a world, a soundscape that flows the physical and the metaphysical. Engineered by Grammy Award-winner Matthew Snyder at Allegro Recordings, the performances shimmer with intimacy and a delicate balance between human touch and spiritual detachment.

Opening with title piece “The Awakening,” bright piano notes dance gently on a composition that thematically follows a soul’s journey between consciousness and unconsciousness. Gathering pace, fluttering runs and forceful performance bring moments of surging energy before slipping back into passages of dreamy, delicate bliss.

On “Beyond the Cycle,” OHNomad explores the Buddhist idea of creation and dissolution, using fluid harmonies to trace a metaphorical stone’s passage through earth, fire, water and sky. It’s an ode to impermanence, a reminder that transformation is both inevitable and divine, capturing in a spectacular composition that flickers between bouncy playfulness and grand, melancholic aesthetic.

“River Lethe” draws from Greek mythology, its flowing, meditative piano lines tracing the slow drift between memory and oblivion, the eternal forgetting that precedes rebirth. Finally, “The Awakening II” continues the journey through dreamlike repetition, a thematic variation that circles back to the soul’s first breath of awareness. Through The Awakening, OHNomad and Chi-Jo Lee deliver a musical work that reaches beyond time, beyond self and into the infinite.

Listen to The Awakening below