O-SHiN

“I’ve spent a lot of time with this record and I can’t wait to hear more” 
Lauren Laverne, BBC R6 Music

“A beautiful experience, reminiscent of Four Tet or Gold Panda in the way it utilises melody” 
Clash Magazine

“It is impossible to not be entranced by the track's magic” 
The Line Of Best Fit 

"A slice of epic leftfield pop” 
DIY Magazine

Ahead of the release of her highly anticipated debut album II / ∞ (pronounced: Second of Infinity, today Berlin-based electronic artist Stefanie de Beurs, aka O-SHiN, has shared two brand new tracks. 'Future Me’ is a song about the inner conflict between striving for success and being happy in the present moment and ‘Beat That My Heart Plays’ was written for a friend of O-SHiN’s who suffers with bipolar disorder. 

Written over a period of five years, II / ∞ is a technicolour collage of electronica, experimental pop and field recordings. Following on from her debut EP, I / ∞, which was released back in 2018, the album’s name refers to the nature of Stefanie’s infinite relationship with making music and how she will never stop exploring it as well, as being symbolic of how short life is (a mere second) in relation to the eternity of the Earth.

Stefanie describes herself as being at a very different place personally from when she began writing her debut album. In 2016, she was travelling from Rome to Amsterdam when she found herself on board an aeroplane with a terrorist. The harrowing experience had a profound effect on the artist. “For the first time in my life, I experienced the fierce feeling of death being really close, not knowing I would survive or if those would be my last seconds on earth,” she says. “It was an intense experience and this album helped me cope with the emotions I was feeling at the time.”

Despite this, the songs that make up II / ∞  are largely filled with positivity, covering themes of growth, transformation and love. The album itself is almost unrecognisable compared to its first incarnation. “Everytime I met a new musician or producer that I liked, we reformatted the songs, re-recording and adding parts like a collage,” she explains. The lyrics themselves have been rewritten countless times, with new experiences informing and shaping the narrative with each pass.

This evolutionary songwriting process could easily have resulted in an album that sounds transitory, but Stefanie’s skilful use of field recordings anchors the songs in particular moments in time. “I think my work as a photographer has had an impact on the way I write music,” she explains. “I like to collect field recordings like audio snapshots of the everyday and use them in my songs.” 

Stefanie worked with a number of producers over the album’s recording process and most of the time she found that the songs they were producing were sounding too polished. “It was a long journey to find someone who understood what I was hearing in my head,” she says. “Vincent Kahler and Alex Hauer, who co-produced the album with me, were the ones who finally got it and helped me achieve the sound I wanted. I don’t like it when things sound too perfect, that’s boring to me,” she continues. “I am always searching for sounds that make me hear the world in a way I haven’t heard before.”

Born in Germany after her parents returned home from the Soviet Union in the 1970s, O-SHiN found her voice through experimentation, and an inner journey that continues today. The name O-SHiN, meaning “time for a good cry” in Japanese, is symbolic of her relationship with existence. Moving from Germany to the Netherlands, spending a lot of time in Sweden and the States, she finally settled in Berlin, a fertile breeding ground for her artistic outlets.

‘Future Me / Beat That My Heart Plays’ is out now, with II / ∞  to follow on August 19th via Galaxy Cat.