Singer-songwriter Oliver Downes blends instantly hummable melodies with intricate, percussive piano playing and thought-provoking lyrics. Exploring territory gestured at by artists such as Nick Cave, Kate Bush, Nils Frahm or Rufus Wainwright, his songs take listeners on a rich musical journey through the darkness into the light.
Based in Melbourne, Australia, for his debut album Ultraviolet (2016) Oliver teamed up with New Acoustic trio The String Contingent to create a lush slice of opulently orchestrated indie finesse. Hailed as ‘an impressive and eccentric work of baroque pop’ (Tone Deaf), Ultraviolet is a high-fidelity head-trip.
His second album The Wheel (2019) builds on this pedigree with a richly cinematic journey through dreamy ballads and effusive saxophone-fuelled pop. Largely written during a creative residency at the Banff Centre for Creativity and the Arts and featuring some of Melbourne's finest emerging jazz instrumentalists, The Wheel offers an immediately satisfying meditation of the cycles, both human and cosmic, that shape everyday life.
Based in Melbourne, Australia, for his debut album Ultraviolet (2016) Oliver teamed up with New Acoustic trio The String Contingent to create a lush slice of opulently orchestrated indie finesse. Hailed as ‘an impressive and eccentric work of baroque pop’ (Tone Deaf), Ultraviolet is a high-fidelity head-trip.
His second album The Wheel (2019) builds on this pedigree with a richly cinematic journey through dreamy ballads and effusive saxophone-fuelled pop. Largely written during a creative residency at the Banff Centre for Creativity and the Arts and featuring some of Melbourne's finest emerging jazz instrumentalists, The Wheel offers an immediately satisfying meditation of the cycles, both human and cosmic, that shape everyday life.
[Downes’] compositions and arrangements create nebulous, ethereal soundscapes, deftly woven by the tensile orchestration… Give your mind permission to wander.
- The Music
[‘Ultraviolet’ offers] twinkling piano melodies, subtle percussion work and on-point lyrics [brought] together in a well thought-out, deliberate piece of downtempo pop.
- Hhhhappy