Olivier Cong - “City of Strange”

SXSW 2020 - OEB Score: 7; Popularity Index: 2

Pairs Well With…Mother Falcon, Ben Sollee, Kishi Bashi

Olivier Cong’s music is mysterious and intricate, a chamber rock artist moving from tender indie folk to full, post-rock movements across his ambitious debut A Ghost And His Paintings. Using a sound that glides from hypnotic to pretty to grand often within the same track, Cong is as much a composer as a songwriter, leaning on a variety of string instruments both in minimal and maximalist detail. Olivier Cong recently followed up A Ghost And His Paintings with one his most cerebral and haunting tracks “City of Strange”, a cinematic, avant garde slow-builder with a whispered, speaking vocal well outside of any pop or rock expectations. (Kevin McStravick)