The Awakening arrives as OHNomadโs most ambitious statement to date, a ten-movement suite shaped in the spirit of Mussorgskyโs Pictures at an Exhibition but filtered through Eastern philosophy, myth, and modern introspection. Performed by longtime collaborator Chi-Jo Lee and recorded with Grammy-winning engineer Matthew Snyder, this piano EP is more like a series of dimensional doorways, with each track a world unto itself, each theme a reflection of a mind that refuses to stay in one realm for long.
Right from the opening movement, โThe Awakening,โ the suite eases you into a hypnotic drift. The piano ripples gently, sprightly, like a ribbon twisting in a breeze, as a deeper undercurrent hums beneath it, giving the piece a grounding depth. Itโs the moment when consciousness meets its own shadow and recognizes a familiar face wearing a different lifetime.
Then โBeyond the Cycleโ slips in with thicker tones, a deeper musicality that mirrors the philosophy behind it. You can hear the weight of those Buddhist ideas in the grounded lower notes, while the lighter glimmers dance above like illusions flickering in and out of view. The melody feels conversational with a stone whispering its story as it shifts from earth to fire to ocean to mountaintop, reminding you that all those transformations are just different masks of the same thing.
โRiver Letheโ drifts darker and more introspective. The piano strokes fall with thoughtful heaviness before climbing upward in fragile, searching phrases. It feels like memory gathering itself, only to dissolve again as another motif interrupts. The whole-tone harmonies washing meaning away, the pentatonic lines grasping at tenderness that cannot fully remain.
By the time โThe Awakening IIโ arrives, the suite circles back inward, slower and more meditative. Its soft, glimmering tones move with a hypnotic calm, as if the soul that began the journey is finally breathing, finally settling into the shifting spaces between conscious and unconscious.
Across all four movements, OHNomad traces a spiritual odyssey shaped by travel, philosophy, and a life lived between finance, art, and global storytelling.
Listen to The Awakening by OHNomad to find your mind opening its eyes.
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Review by: Naomi Joan