Haroula & Oliver bring together dovetailing artistic histories across media - as a filmmaker, Haroula’s feature directorial debut Once Upon a River went to over 40 festivals internationally taking home 19 awards, and her sophomore feature All Happy Families, starring Josh Radnor and executive produced by Michael Shannon, saw a theatrical release in AMC theatersAMCs last fall. Oliver wrote the score and original songs - that soundtrack will be released later this year.
Oliver has written string arrangements for artists such as Magdalena Bay, Dirty Projectors, Helado Negro, and Broken Bells, and has released critically acclaimed records with his bands Pavo Pavo (“quietly poetic … exploring the stuff of life, love, and loss with a clear head,” Pitchfork) and Coco ("bold, striking pop that seems to be filtered in from another dimension," CLASH.)
“Swarm,” the first single from Haroula Rose and Oliver Hill’s upcoming album Cycles is out today, and much like the entire album, out March 7th, it opens a beautiful world of ambiance in miniature. Traipsing piano lines lead into an off-kilter composition with the sounds of bird song, wood burning, flutes, processed vocals, and embryonic musique concrete. It’s a hymnal collage, an intricate piece of the entire Cycles concept..
The video for “Swarm” echoes these ideas. Animated through charcoal and paper drawings, filmmaker Maia Saavedra draws a series of impressionistic scenes, where bodies morph and intermingle, drift through the air, and develop additional appendages. The warmth of the animation mirrors the qualities of the track - serene and inviting. Rose and Hill have a long combined history of film and music work. Rose just debuted All Happy Families, a feature-length film produced by Michael Shannon, and starring Josh Radnor. Hill writes string arrangements for groups like Magdalena Bay, Dirty Projectors, Helado Negro, and Cassandra Jenkins.The world of Cycles is supine and aquatic. Sounds echo within sounds, which encircle melodies like small creatures gathering. As both a record and a series of short films, Haroula Rose & Oliver Hill have created a friendly, multi-faceted planéte sauvage. Written & recorded in one torrentially rainy week at home in Los Angeles, the music explores the acoustics of the tactile world - sounds coarse and smooth, heavy and light, the smell of wet terrain after a long drought, a long deep breath coming up from dark water to the surface. Instruments were splayed on the rug and a set of creative constraints were put into place: no words, no drums, no guitars, yes dynamics, yes field recordings around the house, yes fades and slowly overlapping layers. And of course, bells. The result is a series of mercurial and cinematic scene changes - stepping through doors, popping out windows, crossing into and out of interior and exterior settings. 
“Cycles” will be released on Ba Da Bing Records on March 7th, 2025. More glimpses into this wondrous world to come!