Colloboh - Saana Sahel
Colloboh (a portmanteau of Collins Oboh) is a Nigerian-born, Los Angeles-based experimental producer and composer who has spent
the past several years cultivating genre-spanning modular wizardry. A self-taught synthesist, Colloboh’s DIY recording diaries (still
archived on Instagram) quickly amassed a dedicated online following, eventually catching the eye of Leaving Records founder,
MatthewDavid, who wasted no time tapping the then-twenty-six-year-old to perform at the monthly Leaving showcase, Listen to Music
Outside In The Daylight Under a Tree. In 2021, Colloboh permanently relocated to Los Angeles from Baltimore, dedicating himself to
music full-time, and quickly becoming a fixture of the city’s vibrant experimental scene. Whereas Colloboh’s debut EP Entity Relation
(released that same year) dove headlong into club beats, Saana Sahel, out May 5th 2023 on Leaving Records, showcases the breadth
of the fledgeling composer’s ambitions. The EP’s title, Saana Sahel, refers to a land of Colloboh’s pure imagining—an untouched
utopia spanning lush coastlines and sweeping deserts. Beginning with the stately “Acid Sunrise” (like a Phillip Glass rave comedown),
the EP functions as an atlas of sorts, mapping the region’s varied environments and moods. And varied indeed—across these six
tracks there lie ecstatic jazz freakouts, samba shuffles, guest vocals from (seemingly) the very Seraphim, and interpolations of
Debussy and Gabriel Faure. The breadth of sounds conjured here is a testament not only to Colloboh’s eclectic roster of influences, but
also the period of deep and challenging personal growth that immediately preceded the EP’s composition. The construction of Saana
Sahel (both the imagined locale and the release) served as a spiritual lode star, a place to which Colloboh could retreat for energetic
restoration. Ever-generous, Colloboh has charted these expeditions for us in song, and now we may all draw sustenance and
inspiration from the wellsprings of this rich land. TRACKLIST: 1. Acid Sunrise 2. Mystic You 3. Higher Ground 4. Pavane, Op. 50 5.
Full Embrace 6. Arabesque No. 1