Onra

instrumental hip-hop

Onra (real name: Arnaud Bernard) is a French beatmaker currently residing in Paris. He released his first album with other French producer and friend Quetzal (Al Quetz) in 2006. A Hip-Hop tribute to Soul music which was played several times by Gilles Peterson, Benji B, and covered on Okayplayer.com. At the same time, he started collaborating with American keyboard player called Byron The Aquarius and released an album under the name of The Big Payback in 2007 on Japanese label Circulations. A project full of different influences such as futuristic hip-hop, spaced out and jazzy broken beats. They also appeared on highly praised compilations such as Beat Dimensions and New Worlds. In 2006, he went to Vietnam for the first time, the land of his grand-parents, and managed to bring back some 30 old records of Chinese and Vietnamese origin. He then made a full album with this material called Chinoiseries. Currently his most critically acclaimed album, Chinoiseries became the trademark sound of Onra since the song The Anthem has been chosen to illustrate a Coca-Cola TV commercial for Beijing Olympics. He is also part of the 7x7 series by Irish label All City. His 2008 project 1.0.8 was inspired by Bollywood music and had been elected as album of the week by many different shops across Europe. He recently started touring with his two MPC1000's to play some beats live, and has already been performing in Japan, China, Spain, Scotland, Ireland, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, England, ...