Odesza by Tonje Thilesen
One band, two souls working in euphoric sync, ODESZA have done nothing less than aim to recreate electronic music in their own cinematic image. But to hear it from them in a new documentary, that was never the plan: “We didn’t start making music because we saw ourselves standing on stage. We started making music because of the way we connect.”
Released in July, “The Last Goodbye Cinematic Experience” is a concert film and origin story co-produced by bandmates Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight and described in the trailer as ODESZA’s own truth: “What made our sound our sound, what made us us.”
They met in college in the Pacific Northwest just over a decade ago. Ever since, Mills and Knight — Catacombkid and BeachesBeaches, respectively — have kept the spark of their seemingly instant, electric creative connection very much alive. Indie-electronica experimentalists, translating their exploratory selves into blissful chillwave melodies, they are four albums and numerous world tours (and three Grammy nominations) into their journey.
You’d be forgiven for wondering if they’re done. Just last year ODESZA emerged from an extended touring break — four years — with an album called “The Last Goodbye” and new concert dates. And the retrospective film. It includes clips of home movies and nostalgic family moments. Like its companion album, it’s an intimate contemplation, widely shared — ODESZA baring themselves to fans once more.
There’s no secret ingredient to the duo’s indietronica sound other than its organic authenticity and originality. In past interviews, they have credited their success to a carefree attitude — making their first album, 2012’s “Summer’s Gone,” for example, as a last hurrah in college before life in the real world. But longtime fans know that ODESZA’s durability lies in how they capture and immortalize the warmth of human connection and the primacy of love through music.
An ODESZA concert is an immersive, rapturous experience all its own — and one hopefully available in the future, since the band has publicly stated that this is not literally a last goodbye: “more is still to come … ”
ODESZA perform 6:30pm Saturday, September 9 at iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach. odesza.com ~ Amanda Moore
