More artists join Opus!

An increasing number of artists is interested in joining Opus and we are proud to announce four more musicians and bands: Sinith, Seine, Alex Calò De Santis and Umair Nadeem, and Softly Jazz. If you’re an artist interested in coming on board, don’t forget to fill in this form or email us at info@opus-foundation.org.

Sinith

Sinith is a duo hailing from St. Louis and Boulder, comprised of Eric Wiesler and Nick Rose, who have both been in the music industry for over 10 years. Friends since high school and sharing a passion for orchestral music, the duo joined as guitarists in a local metal band for a few years before deciding to branch out from the live scene and forming a music production company. Ever since then, Sinith is mostly focused on creating music for movie trailers and TV shows.

Their many influences include Thomas Bergersen (Two Steps from Hell), Hans Zimmer, Devin Townsend, and Opeth. Some of their more prominent work includes trailers for War of the Planet of the Apes, Blade Runner 2049, Assassin’s Creed, Wonder Woman, and Captain America: Civil War.

You can listen to more of Sinith’s music on Soundcloud.

Seine

The band Seine was started in 2007 by Ivan Ščapec but it only got its well-deserved spotlight after the hiatus of Ivan’s former band Vlasta Popić in 2015. Beginning as a singer-songwriter project, Seine later developed into a full-fledged band with Dimitrij Mekotanović Petrović (from Vlasta Popić and Radost) on drums, percussions and back vocals; and Boško Mijušković (from Straight Mickey and the Boyz, and Škrtice) on the bass, who is replaced by Ivan Grobenski (Moskau) for live performances.

After several successful solo releases, which included an EP and a live album, the newly formed trio released the single Kritika čistog razuma and began touring the Balkans. In 2016 they played at Demo Fest in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and won the most acclaimed band competition in the region, providing them with the opportunity to record their debut. After playing MENT Ljubljana 2017, Seine joined forces with Moonlee Records and the result is their debut full length album, Sno Sna (which translates into The Dream of a Dream), which was released on September 14th, 2017, by Moonlee Records. The album was followed by a European tour.

Sno sna is a showcase of dreamy acoustic strumming, psychedelic bass lines and minimalistic though hearty drum patterns interwoven into a tale of love and longing. Half a minute into the record, you’re immediately transfixed by Ščapec’s idiosyncratic vocal timbre with a quaint feminine character in the vein of Cigarettes After Sex. The pathos of his delivery also reminds us of the emo mavericks Sunny Day Real Estate, but the gist of Seine’s musical expression lies in the prominent acoustic guitar.

While songs like Privatno tijelo (Private Body), the pseudo nursery rhyme Bubamara (Ladybug), and centerpiece Ljubav (Love) might recall the work of Sufjan Stevens, and while the track Janko is an obvious nod to Serbo-Croatian folk songs, most of the tracks possess a more introspective, oftentimes melancholic mid-nineties character not far from the likes of Smashing Pumpkins. Sno Sna may be listened to as a punk’s tale in the disguise of a folk record, or vice versa, a heartfelt folk album gone punk.

We are eager to enjoy Seine’s unique style on the Opus platform. Check out more of their music on Bandcamp and Facebook.

Alex Calò De Santis and Umair Nadeem

Alex Calò De Santis — Creator, Composer, Performer, and Producer

Alex has a background in composition, sound engineering, and music production, which he built up since his teens. In those years, he extensively studied Electronics and played drums, guitars, and keyboards in several bands, while being strongly influenced by NWOBHM and Rock culture. Later in his life, he decided to explore the refined aesthetics of classical composers at the Conservatory of Music V. Bellini in Palermo, Italy, and then moved to Canada where he composes, arranges, and produces his own music.

Umair Nadeem — Composer, Lead Guitar, and Producer

Since his early years, Umair’s life began to revolve around his passion for guitar playing, and so music became an integral part of his personal development. In 2012, he moved to Toronto to study audio engineering. However, in accordance with his family’s wishes, he shortly dropped out to complete a degree in Finance. After ensuring that working in a cubicle is not his calling, in 2017 he decided to pursue a career in music and is finally ready to share what he’s been chasing all his life.

Inner Space

Together, Alex and Umair created Inner Space, a nine-songs-album meticulously crafted around Ambient, Progressive Metal and Jazz-Fusion influences. Its themes aim to complement our understanding of abstract territories through a fascinating music journey.

The idea of the album took shape in early 2015 from the mind of Alex Calo’ De Santis. Coming from the previous release of V (Five) — an Ambient-Drone experience — Alex decided to shift towards a more virtuoso music style by approaching atmospheric metal music, and combining his previous experience as drummer, guitarist, and lead singer in several progressive rock bands.

Together with Umair Nadeem, and the support of San Francisco based artist Deb Lou (creator of the album cover), Alex traced le fil rouge of the project thanks to a creative work of picture-to-sound association that eventually defined the conceptual design of the whole album.

Ever since then, Alex and Umair worked with a detail-oriented mindset to add value to the project, and to make it extremely satisfactory for the expectations of their audience and, more generally, for any music lover out there.

Inner Space will be available on Opus. You can read more about the project here and on Facebook and Instagram.

Softly Jazz

The Softly Jazz Group was born in 2008. It is a multinational group of latin jazz, based in Madrid, featuring the voice of Conchita Castle, piano of Marina Fainytska, bass of Andriy Malyarenko (who is also the composer and arranger), trumpet of Yevhen Riechkalov, and drums of Daniel Enríquez.

Softly brings jazz to the public, performing in a large range of events of all kinds throughout Spain, offering a stunning journey through the classics of jazz, swing, blues, bossa nova and French song. The band offers unforgettable melodies that create the perfect setting for any occasion, whether during live concert or at all kinds of parties and celebrations. They offer a show of quality live music to listen to, enjoy, and even dance to.

In their repertoire they also have their own songs, composed by Andriy Malyarenko, and they have launched a new album Acuarela with lyrics in Spanish and a fusion of jazz, pop and Latin music.

Be sure to look out for Softly Jazz on the Opus player, and check them out on their website.

More artists coming soon…

We’ll be announcing more artists soon. Don’t forget to look out for our next Q&A on Monday and our next development update on the Monday after that. In the meantime, be sure to join us on Discord and Telegram, and follow our progress on Facebook and Twitter.