Deep House Don Osunlade surely needs no introduction to most readers of jazz-not-jazz. Although there has been quite a few house producers/DJs/remixer who released full length albums, the main oeuvre can still be found on various 12″es. And if you have a look at Osunlade’s discography on his Yoruba Records site or on the discogs site you’ll see that this is still true. After his Paradigm release on Soul Jazz Records in 2001 his new album released by BBE Records in Europe is only his second album (if you don’t count the best of album Yoruba Records: El Primer Ano).
Quite a few things have changed since Paradigm , musically and in Osunlade’s life. He now lives on the Greek island of Santorini and Aquarian Moon pays homage to its rich culture. Musically this is a little bit different from his previous stuff. Albeit not too different, the trained listener will still recognize it’s Osunlade. Listening to this album sometimes reminded me of Larry Heard records like Sceneries Not Songs.
While there are still songs with a great dancefloor potential like the first single SokinSikartep (btw here’s a video of this song…although you might need quicktime to view it…or just use vlc) or the percussive ridden deep house title track Aquarian Moon, the overall concept of this album is creating a tapestry of richly orchestrated instrumentals and at its best spiritual moving soundscapes that take you on a musical journey. The Day We Met For Coffee with its lush strings is a good example.
On TwoPhish Osunlade digs into Down To The Bone territory with a damn funky uptempo groove. Fingerblood is an interesting downtempo track with piano sprinkles and cow bells!
One of my favourite cuts on this album is Circles, a fine late night electro jazz song. Other highlights includes the uplifitng groove of Casablanca Soul with its horn solo and the deep In Flight with lots of percussion.
Aquarian Moon shows a stimulating development of Osunlade as a musician who eventually have reached a state of being musically without boundaries or as he puts it “[Aquarian Moon] is not a house album, it is music, all styles are in there: jazz, funk, etc.”

Tracklisting of Aquarian Moon: 1. Thira/ 2. Aquarian Moon/ 3. The Day We Met For Coffee/ 4. Flow/ 5. TwoFish/ 6. Fingerblood/ 7. Circles/ 8. Oia In Winter/ 9. SokinSikartep/ 10. Casablanca Soul/ 11. Music For The Gods/ 12. Inspiriation/ 13. In Flight (Hidden Track)| released May, 26th 2006 by Yoruba Records/BBE

For more infos visit yorubarecords.com, bbemusic.com and myspace.com/yorubarecords.

[If you want to discuss Osunlade’s music, you can leave your comment below and also use the forum]