This is no time for boundaries. We are all in this together; a shared global experience the likes of which none of us have ever felt before. We feel tense and search for hope in everything we read, see, hear. Feeling so many emotions all at once… ‘International Waters’ captures this intensity perfectly.

A year in the making, comprising deep, emotional, heavy and sexy dark wave sounds from exciting artists from every corner of the world, the seeds for Ombra International’s largest project so far were sown long before the pandemic. But Ombra bossman Curses – like most of us – could sense something coming. For now, it’s biological. But the political and ecological landscapes have been just as tense and volatile. Hence the album’s release on May 1st – a universally recognised day for independence and revolution.

We have no idea what the future of this new normal will be. But we know what we’ll be listening to; the sound Curses and many others have been championing in recent years is real, it’s honest, it’s raw, it unites people from all musical fields and camps, it comes with a natural high, it’s ‘International Waters’; an album ranging from the psychedelic rolling technoid stomps of Adame Princess to smouldering shoegazing cosmosis of Dame Bonnet and so many talented individuals in between… Mufti, Roe Deers, Montessori, Alejandro Paz & Local Suicide and many more. It also comes with a personal handwritten message from the label curator and founder Curses himself…

“We are living in a transitional time of political and pandemic change, amongst environmental unrest. In these times of change, people’s true shadows emerge. The light, and the dark, surfaces through the blood and dust. The selfish and the kind. The greedy and the generous.
If some of us solely aren’t affected by this change, we need to respect our elders, the sick and vulnerable. Unite, embrace and confront this global transition. International Waters Volume 1 is a compilation I have been building for over a year. Listening to it now, the messages in these songs feel more relevant than ever. You can feel the tension. Human unrest rising to a better tomorrow, to a better today within all of these songs. Ombra International is a label focused on bringing different artists from their respective countries together, and now more than ever is a crucial time to be united worldwide. .”

Stay united, stay inspired, stay global… We will be stronger once we’ve come through this and art like this gives us moments of hope. Take care.