interview by : Jessica Jewell
Let me introduce you to OOFJ, and if you’ve already had the pleasure, it’s time for a second introduction. OOFJ is the missing piece. Incredibly refreshing and perfectly innovative, Katherine Mills Rymer and Jenno Bjørnkjær do an excellent job of creating something fresh, while still capturing a sense of melancholy, nostalgic wonder. The couple bring together the technical finesse of a classically-trained orchestra with the honesty and vulnerability that comes with Mills Rymer’s “newness” to music. The result is something undefined but gripping and familiar. Listening to OOFJ is like revisiting a secret dream swathed in strings and a subtle electronic lullaby. OOFJ’s debut album, which aims to blend downtempo pop noir, Nico’s hypnotic gloomy 60s folk, techno’s minimalism and subtleties, Twin Peaks, the majestic symphonies of 20th century composers, and the rhythms and structures of jazz and trip hop, Disco To Die To is out now. For a bit more insight and a more formal introduction, check out what this haunting duo had to share with Auxiliary.
What lead you two to create such an effortless, elegant fusion of musical styles?
Katherine Mills Rymer : Well that’s a compliment if we ever heard one. Wow, thanks. I think in answer to your question, as with most things fusion, it comes with background prep and obscure accident. We never really set out to fuse things in a really obvious way. I think the only really coherent direct “fusing” was in regards to the Symphony Orchestra scoring joined with a thuddy yet restrained modern pop music (but not in that weird Ibiza DJ way). It’s about doing something then discussing how it sounds or feels. Jens talks about sound. I talk about how it feels.
read the full interview in the June/July 2013 Issue
