Ora - The Toper (Gnome, 1994 (1999 reissue))

1 Arkose 12:09
2 Knapton 5:53
3 The Toper 18:29

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Ora and Lol Coxhill - Live (Gnome, 1998)

1 Untitled 24:50
2 Untitled 12:46
3 Untitled 16:19

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Ora - Rosea (Hic Sunt Leones, 1996)

1 Golden Hemisphere (12:37)
2 Sadness Of Beauty (11:11)
3 The Forgotten Well (10:38)
4 Rosea (8:49)
5 Flowers Of Tan (16:05)

The inscription for Ora's "Rosea" states that this music is "full of Elves and Gnomes" and those of you familiar with the little things in life that we here at Aquarius love, you know that gnomes and elves fit right in (last list's "Ancient Forest of Elves" anyone?). Although the notes on the back, provided by the ususally tight lipped recluses Andrew Chalk and Jonathan Coleclough, share none of the valuable insight into the music of gnome and elves that the inscription implied. Anyway, Ora is the textural drone collective that features Darren Tate, Lol Coxhill, Colin Potter (Nurse With Wound), as well as the aforementioned Chalk & Coleclough. This 94-95 record's loosely structured field recordings of geese and what Byram thinks sounds like someone rolling around on a couch with contact mics taped to their latex t-shirt coalesce into signature patterns of sound that fade in and out of delicate drones. Texturally, Ora has always been quite adventurous, and "Rosea" is no exception.
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Ora - Final (ICR, 2002)

1 Distances (7:55)
2 New Movements In G (12:45)
3 Things Shall Fall (9:45)
4 Gamela (11:23)
5 Inkwell (8:30)
6 Abstraction (9:34)
7 Roses? (8:06)
8 Across (4:48)

Disque composé de morceaux rares et de trois inédits, devant au départ être un double album... les morceaux manquants formeront en fait After Rainfall... Drones à base de field recordings, d'effets électroniques divers, saxophone, flûtes, sitar, etc...

Many moons ago, Darren Tate and Andrew Chalk found their way to Colin Potter's IC Studios, where the three initiated the humble yet eccentric drone project Ora, with occasional help from the likes of Jonathan Coleclough, Daisuke Suzuki, MNortham, and Lol Coxhill. The majority of the Ora releases have been small editions of CD-Rs following in the tradition of the UK underground cassette culture, where artists would simply release things themselves whenever the albums were finished and without having to adhere to the timetable of a record label. The obvious disadvantage in Ora's case is that their limited nature discouraged many from ever discovering the beautiful sounds found on Ora's odd CD-Rs. Fortunately, Ora has compiled several anthologies from those CD-Rs, the first being the Streamline 2LP "Aureum" (which has unfortunately received the same fate of the CD-Rs and has gone out of print), and more recently, the "Final" CD released on Colin Potter's ICR label.
With Darren continuing on as Monos, Andrew working in Mirror, and Colin busy engineering / collaborating with Nurse With Wound, Current 93, Monos, and dozens of other projects, Ora has ceased to be, and "Final" is probably the last Ora document to be released. Culled mostly from the CD-Rs "Live," "Distances," and "New Movements In G," this anthology does also include a couple of unreleased tracks. As the more recent Monos and Mirror recordings reflect, Ora's specialty has been the construction of the opiated drone that implores a sort-of calmness but at the same time actively confronts the listener with its sound rather than floating to the back as aural wallpaper. Built from field recordings, bowed metals, and various electronics, Ora situates their drones within a wide spectrum of textures -- ranging from the sporadic use of angular blurts from Lol Coxhill's sax and accompanying dense scrapes like a huge boulder getting pushed across a concrete floor, to tiny fluctuations from flutes and sitars. "Final" stands as yet another exceptional record from this small aesthetic circle of UK drone artists.
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Ora - After Rainfall (Fungal / ICR, 2003)

1 Gnome Culture (9:14)
2 The Slope (12:24)
3 Darkness (11:35)
4 Attribution To Memory (12:52)
5 After Rainfall (21:25)

These are the Ora tracks that should have formed a double album with "Final" but were thought to be lost.
Thankfully, they were found.

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Alio Die & Ora - The Door Of Possibilities (Hic Sunt Leones, 1994)

1 Alio Die Looking Towards (7:34)
2 Ora Approach To Zero (17:46)
3 Alio Die Bestiole Nascoste Tra Il Muschio E Le Alghe (4:52)
4 Alio Die The Door Of Possibilities (7:09)
5 Alio Die & Ora In Shore / Purl (22:05)
6 Alio Die Stonevoice (2:45)
7 Ora Autumn Cove (11:45)

"The Doors of Possibilities" est la première collaboration sur CD pour l'italien Alio Die, et en ce qui concerne les anglais de Ora, il s'agit là tout simplement de leur première production CD, retravaillant des morceaux parus uniquement sur cassette.

Même si un seul titre sur sept a véritablement résulté d'une collaboration, les autres ayant été composés chacun de leur côté, "The Door Of Possibilities" est un voyage homogène d'un mystérieux rare. Ora surtout apporte une touche mystique à l'aspect new age ambient de Alio Die, n'utilisant pas la musique comme un moyen de relaxation mais comme une vague hypnotique propice au rêve et aux hallucinations.
Ainsi, après "Looking Forwards", l'introduction sobre mais superbe de l'italien, les anglais nous plongent au coeur de leur univers. Un univers décalé et un peu dérangeant de par le mystère qu'il dégage. Les nappes tournoyantes nous font perdre tout sens de l'orientation, pendant que des vagues nous bercent. Tout est réuni pour envoûter l'auditeur, qui pénètre dans une dimension inconnue, fascinante mais inquiétante.
Alio Die de son côté est plus directif, mais contribue tout de même à alimenter nos interrogations au sujet de ce passage étrange : ses arrangements sont superbes, ses mélodies très efficaces, et il n'abuse pas des synthés comme il aura parfois coutume de le faire dans des albums postérieurs. Les percussions et/ou les instruments traditionnels sont donc au premier plan, enrichis par les classiques samples naturels (eau et vagues dans ce disque essentiellement).
"In Shore-Purl", pièce centrale de 22 minutes du disque, nous accompagne au point de non retour : plus de mélodies, plus de repères, des drones légers font même leur apparition. Tout à coup une flûte fantaisiste s'anime alors, agitée d'une folie indéfinissable, à laquelle s'ajoutent divers éléments histoire de nous perdre un peu plus : cris déchirants, bruissements dans la végétation, etc... "The Door Of Possibilities", sous ses dehors charmeurs, cache une profondeur insondable, qu'il vous faudra explorer pas à pas, durant 74 minutes passionnantes.

Ce disque est sans aucun doute le plus sombre auquel ait participé Alio Die : l'univers qui y est dépeint est fascinant, riche, et diablement énigmatique. Un disque subtil qui vous charme avant de vous attirer dans son antre, indispensable à tout amateur d'ambient, et qui n'a rien perdu de sa splendeur treize ans après sa sortie.
Broken Dolls

this collaboration between Alio Die and Ora (here Andrew Chalk and Darren Tate) is a beautiful shimmering synthesis of dark ambience and organic droning. Recommended as with all of the Andrew Chalk releases we have heard to date!
Aquarius Records

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