Artist of the Day: Onra

Onra is a French beatmaker currently residing in Paris.

He released his first album with other french producer and friend Quetzal (Al Quetz) in 2006. A hip-hop tribute to soul music which was played several times by Gilles Peterson, Benji B, and covered on Okayplayer.com.

At the same time, he started collaborating with American keyboard player called Byron The Aquarius and released an album under the name of The Big Payback in 2007 on Japanese label Circulations. A project full of different influences such as futuristic hip-hop, spaced out and jazzy broken beats. They also appeared on highly praised compilations such as Beat Dimensions and New Worlds.

In 2006, he went to Vietnam for the first time, the land of his grand-parents, and managed to bring back some 30 Chinese and Vietnamese old vinyls. He then made a full album with this material called Chinoiseries. Currently his most critically acclaimed album, “Chinoiseries” became the trademark sound of Onra since the song "The Anthem" has been chosen to illustrate a Coca-Cola TV commercial for Beijing Olympics.

In 2008, he has been selected to attend the prestigious Red Bull Music Academy in Barcelona.

He is also part of the 7x7 series by Irish label All City.

His latest project called 1.0.8 was inspired by bollywood music and had been elected as album of the week by many different shops across Europe.

He recently started touring with his two mpc1000’s to play some beats live, and has already been performing in Japan, China, Spain, Scotland, Ireland, Lithuania, Poland, England, Austria, New Zealand, Vietnam, Switzerland, Netherlands, and France (Last.fm, 2010).

You can listen to Onra's music at:
http://www.last.fm/music/Onra



Released Albums:
Onra - Chinoiseries
Onra - 1.0.8
Onra - Byron and Onra
Onra - Present Tribute
Onra - Tribute Ep
Onra - Long Distance

Reference:
(2010). Onra. Last.fm. Retrieved from http://www.last.fm/music/Onra

please follow me or subscribe to www.the13thplate.blogspot.com