O.P.A.L. celebrates its 20th anniversary and releases two brand new albums and an EP
O.P.A.L., the brainchild of Puerto Rican ‘non-musician’ Jose E. Roman Garcia, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year with the release of “Pacific” and “Beatless”, two albums that celebrate the different sides of this project: ambient, dream pop, electronic, experimental, shoegaze, soundtrack, and other musical idioms. You might remember the band from its contribution to our free charity compilation “Face The Beat 6” with the track “Christin’s Song”.
“Pacific” was inspired by the ocean, several locations on the west coast of the United States, and several phenomena. It builds upon the dream pop and shoegaze sound started on the earlier “Seu Et Fang” and “Sleep Demon” EP’s, “Sleepless”, and “Insomniac” albums spread across 10 tracks.
“Beatless” is a return to O.P.A.L.’s sonic origins. A more experimental album that ventures into the ambient and soundtrack territories among five tracks averaging 8 or more minutes per track. In “Beatless”, tracks names are just numbers, placeholders for each piece. Finally “Sedative” is the project’s most recent release. Four songs showcasing the further explorations into dream pop, post-rock, and shoegaze.
Both albums and the EP are available for listening and purchase at Bandcamp as well as Spotify, Apple Music, and other streaming services.
Jose E Roman Garcia hails from Puerto Rico has not been doing music since 1991 on his label Rojo y Negro Records under his bands D35C0JóN UR84N0 (Industrial Rock), Antártica (techno), Música Casual (experimental), and O.P.A.L (ambient, dreampop, experimental, shoegaze). He recently collaborated with fellow Puerto Rican Federico Balducci for the project BR35.
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