After the release of Redox, which focused on the Open Music Lab’s 5-month music production course, Berlin’s Open Music Lab is back with a second release, Quanta. The OML label was born out of a supportive community of creatives from various backgrounds and abilities. It offers an opportunity for people to engage with unique blends of musical sounds that are enriched by different cultures and lived experiences.

Quanta showcases the music and work of some of OML’s most committed students and mentors. This unique release shows the range of talent at OML and the musical bond and creative collaboration that comes out of the community. Each track on the release is produced by an OML student and is accompanied by a remixed version from their mentors.

The first mentor and student pairs include Syria-born Fahd aka Tarabalsi, one of OML’s first students, and African Acid’s cofounder Dauwd. Fahd came to Germany as a young unaccompanied minor from Syria and has been a driving force between the school's growth. They worked on a track a few years back at Dauwd’s studio and recently re-visited it as a collaboration for this release. This is a deeply personal track, with lyrics recorded by Fahd singing “mum, where are we going”. In Fahd’s own words, the track is an “afro/oriental mix”, taking influences from both of their backgrounds, and playing around with African and Eastern instruments.

For the second duo, we have morphena and Leibniz. Argentinian-born emerging DJ and producer morphena has been a long-time student of OML and recently started becoming a mentor herself for new students. While studying at OML, she developed a strong musical connection with German DJ and producer Leibniz, who’s been a mentor in the OML community since the beginning. They teamed up on an acid, d&b, trance track for the release. Morphena describes the track as her first production where she can “imprint a hybrid between a club track and a song”. While keeping the lyrics as the main focus of the track, Leibniz gave more of a UK garage vibe to his remix.

The last duo is made of Abed Alfakir, another former OML student and new mentor from Syria, and renowned techno producer UVB. Abed was on the 5-month music production course and had UVB as a mentor and teacher. Abed always looked up to Sebastian and is a huge fan of the techno music he is producing. Abed’s track is a dark and driving techno track, into which he instilled a compelling melody, giving it a very catchy feel. For his remix, UVB played around with as many elements of the original track as possible while adding some of his own drums to give it a unique flair.