OTAY:ONII – “Love Is In The Shit” CD (digisleeve)

Description

Lane Shi Otay Onii, known professionally as Otay:Onii, is one of the most inquisitive and genre-defying artists of her generation. A multifaceted creator whose work spans performance art, composition, installation, and avant-garde music practice. Otay:Onii is the first ever artist selected for the three-year Triennium Residency at Roadburn Festival. She was a contributing composer and performer in Florentina Holzinger’s groundbreaking opera production ‘SANCTA‘ and has performed at festivals world-wide such as SXSW, Roadburn, CTM, Fusion, Creepy Teepy, LGW, Fekete Zaj, and Full of Lava. Otay;Onii has already been celebrated with many awards worldwide, included the Global Music Awards ‘Bronze Prize for Best Female Vocalist‘ and ‘Best Sound’ at Audiovisual Arts Industrial Incubator Awards.

Pelagic records are proud to unveil Otay:Onii’s new album ‘Love is in the Shit’, a deeply intimate album that reaches a striking balance between control and chaos. Harnessing her ability to move from serenity to madness, ‘Love is in the Shit’ is an exploration in representing trialing conscious states. Drawing-in and challenging the listener, the songs play with comfort and discomfort, deliciously crafting the sonic arc of the story so that intention is undeniably felt.

“This album speaks to what we cannot escape—the noise, the weight, the mess from the world, from others, from our own minds and bodies, what is damaged is damaged, we cannot change that one bit. Yet within the agony, here comes our process to restore, and hold on to something. The burden becomes alchemy: transformed into passion, into what makes us feel alive, and living. By choosing what ignites us, we do not lose ourselves—and from that grounding, we are able to give more of ourselves to others.“ (Otay:Onii)

There is a continuous theme of the circus, the grotesque, that runs through this record, creating the sense of spectacle and the absurd, embracing unspoken realities, unconscious desires and the brazen authenticity of outsiders and the wounded. The tawdry sideshows give way to the fractured, distorted chaos of brutal internal struggle. Electronic beats give propulsion, fractured time and interruptions signify the cracking of sanity. Throughout are snatches of manic laughter, humour and horror, accompanying sound-effects that feel like the rattling of bones or shattered glass pouring down staircases.

“This album carries a sense of humor. When we can laugh at the many kinds of “shit” in our lives, we are already halfway to letting it go. However, this is not to say that we ignore the “shit” completely, at the end of the day, we still need to deal with it, this time maybe with a clearer conscience or a lighter headspace.“ (Otay:Onii)

Contrasting the nostalgia of the carnival are the sparse ambient spaces that create wastelands as a backdrop, leaving listeners suspended in a sea of static and lostness. As her songs progress, complexity begins to seep in. Rhythms grow more layered, and electronic elements become more assertive, beats fragment and reassemble, often hovering between organic and synthetic. Her vocal approach expands, shifting fluidly between softness and abrasion, clarity and distortion. From starkness toward density, emotions accumulate and intensify, at times lifting the listener into unsettling mania and peaks of hysteria. As this storm of howling madness passes, we are returned to the wearily soft come-downs of a completed the cycle.

“I wrote and produced every song myself—an intensely intimate process. In ‘Have You Ever‘, I returned to my native tongue briefly in the middle of the song , the dialect is called Tu hua, from Haining in China, a language I rarely speak beyond conversations with my parents. Its sound awakens a softness in me, like a murmur from the subconscious—something long forgotten, or gently buried in memory.“ (Otay:Onii)

Low frequencies vibrate with a bodily presence, while sharp, high-frequency textures cut through with urgency. There is a sense of movement embedded in the sound; music that pulses, sways, and surges, never settling into static forms. Even at its most aggressive, there is an undercurrent of precision and intention. Her voice becomes increasingly elastic and versatile through the service of melody, spoken poetry and pain-ridden wails.

“Many songs begin with a need to sing – I sing to summon grace at the peak of anger and tournament, I sing to summon tranquility from a 6 hour panic attack, I sing to get out of my mind which shows mercy for fear. Usually, my fingers follow my throat, they don’t stop till they conjure in one. I will then record those moments, try to remind myself that even though those god awful moments exist, they are not eternal, and can be captured and looked at by me from an outsider’s perspective. When that happens, and from there, I finally start my “production”, which is to put in the flesh for this moment. EVERY DEMON HAS A FACE.“ (Otay:Onii)

Intimate and ritualistic, Otay:Onii’s artistic character emerges through this sonic journey as fiercely independent and uncompromising in her shared vision. Each song is a chapter that builds upon the last, an invitation to explore the heights and depths of mental worlds, while preserving the visceral core. The result is a touchable story; alive, evolving, and deeply nuanced. Embracing this album is like stepping into another’s mind; it is fiercely sincere, shamelessly vulnerable and through the alchemy of sound felt and understood. 

“I don’t impose form on the songs—they go where they need to in the moment. The real challenge continues on stage, where I build specific installations or machines to carry the feeling of the album in another dimension. For ‘Love Is in the Shit‘, I created—and am still shaping—a sound-distortion device that resembles a pile of turd rising from a lotus. As I twist it, the sound transforms, revealing the essence of the “shit” we receive—and how, through our own perspective, we can change it. To me the album is half tale told, the live performances are the 2nd half that truly deliver it as a whole.“ (Otay:Onii)