On the 24th of September Magnolia Garden in Batumi will host a great performance of Raz Ohara and the odd orchestra! It was in 1994, when Raz Ohara had just moved to Berlin. Raz was 18 at the time. He soon found a room to rent above a jazz club. He sat there every night, listening to the music. Soon Raz bonded with the club’s resident DJ, and together they founded a hip-hop crew. Raz, however, had a lingering and persistent

At around the same time Raz started to make his first live appearances. He got to know Dr. Phelbs and Robert Defcon (No Underground) and a Canadian guy called Wolf (aka Chilly Gonzalez). Every Wednesday night for almost 2 years, they, The Nightline City Cruisers, would sit on leather couches at the Maria club, playing improvised sets – drawing on break-beat, soul, and electro - that lasted several hours. Robert supplied the beats, Phelbs played bass, Wolf took care of keys and Raz sang. “We jammed on and on… People dancing round and round… We smoked and drank into the early mornings. I had just entered my twenties. This was my swinging Berlin, 1998.”

Then one day Raz’s publisher phoned him, asking if he would be interested in doing a track with a young, up-and-coming techno producer, Alexander Kowalski. Raz recorded his vocals, but his interest didn’t end there. He wanted to get involved with the club scene, and people in general, again. So he asked Alexander if he could play along with him on his live sets. They had their first gig at the legendary Berlin club Ostgut (Berghain). Raz began to record song sketches, giving them to Oliver Doerell. Oliver would take the sketches and add his own thoughts, collaborations and embellishments. Raz and he continued to hand sketches back and forth; the resulting album is “RazOhara and the Odd Orchestra”.