O.M.F.O

In the music of Herman Popov – our man from Odessa - there is an abundance of Moldavian gypsies, a lot of Kusturica and Bregovic, a little Georgian mamaliga and Azerbaijani brawn, a pinch of Gogol, and a whiff of Kraftwerk. In 1989, Herman emigrated to Amsterdam. There, he established his own label Kidnap and the group Sputnik, which long before the victory of the easy listening style recorded the album 'Favorite Songs Of Soviet Cosmonauts' woven from stardust. In the late 90s - early 2000s, Popov visited 'Djusto' and 'Kult' with a DJ visit, and his bandmate Maxim Shaposhnikov also frequented Russia. The latest works of OMFO have little relation to Moscow. They are released by the German label Essay, founded with Israeli money by our former compatriot musician Shantel – a master of a genre that can be conditionally called gypsytronic. Popov moves gypsy music through the Carpathian mountains towards Rostov and Odessa in an attempt to culturally enrich not only Balkan folklore but also Azerbaijani, Armenian, and Georgian ethnicity and even restaurant brawn. Moreover, the arrangements of OMFO are so close to the originals, performed on synthesizers according to the principle of 'one stick - two strings', that his records appeal to both Tbilisi thieves and graduates of RGGU, dining in 'O.G.I.', and snobbish gourmets. Popov's first record 'Trans-Siberian Express', released on the Frankfurt label Essay a couple of years ago, was widely used for soundtracks and was selected for the design of the Central Asian pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Among OMFO's fans was also Sacha Baron Cohen, who used the song 'Magic Mamaliga' as the title track for the musical arrangement of the film 'Borat'. Herman Popov's second album 'We Are The Shepards' was recorded together with Uwe Schmidt, the Senior Coconut. The cheeky coconut techniques here blend wonderfully with Popov's passion for naive cosmic samples and pan-Asian improvisation. In 'We Are The Shepards', we meet the East again, which OMFO understands as everything to the right of the Pripyat river. The Balkans are pinned here, songs in the Azerbaijani language, a Dagestani jig, a Cossack, and quotes from chanson, as well as cozy reverberations reminiscent of the sound of a spoon in a faceted glass representing the pure Soviet musical past. Notably, 'Unusual Eyes' is reinterpreted in a dub style extremely close to Rashid Beybutov, and the piercing 'Tired Sun'. Live – a DJ against a backdrop of an embroidered carpet, a Kazakh dancer, a dzhigit with a dombra and an Azerbaijani with a bayan – OMFO concerts appear as a reliable stronghold of friendship among nations.