Jeju Afrobeat band Omar and the Eastern Power transcends boundaries

The four members of Omar and the Eastern Power / Courtesy of Eastern Standard Sounds, Abi Raymaker

By Jon Dunbar

Omar Benassila doesn't care much for boundaries, either in music or nations.

If he did, he might not have left his home country of Morocco and settled in Korea, where he started Omar and the Eastern Power. It's an ever-evolving African-Korean four-piece band most simply described as Afrobeat, with influences from dub, funk, folk and sufi music among others. It's an accumulation of the life experiences of Omar, drummer Zaky Wael from Egypt, and Korean members, Tehiun on bass, and Oh Jin-woo playing guitar.

"We believe music is one," Omar told The Korea Times. "And genres and styles are a little bit like borders to countries. So we try to go beyond them."

The band has just released the digital single "Sunshine," a happy-sounding, groovy song with a bit of funk that "holds an electric-psychedelic memory to it," plus a music video.

It sounds like it could have come from any other part of the world but Korea, but Omar stresses that "Sunshine" was written near Hallim on Jeju Island, after he moved there in 2015.

"When I just moved to Jeju, I had a little place near Hallim where we used to jam and hang out," Omar said. "The drummer and I stayed there for a whole year. It made our bond stronger and deeper. After that, Jin-woo and Tehiun joined our band. Soon afterwards we were playing in the mainland and on Jeju in festivals. We had good memories in that house. As a matter of fact, many songs were born there."

Along with "Sunshine," the band has also released the more somber "Htalen," a Moroccan word meaning "until where," which is played with "roots and desert blues feelings."

"We take our time making each song," Omar said. "And they also evolve with time. Sometimes we change the songs into different versions because we want to keep them fresh and new for us to enjoy playing them. It's hard to play the same song all the time. All the songs that we made so far are different in styles and grooves. Each one of them is unique in a way. Some are exciting, some are slow and heavy. Some songs are very easy to understand, some songs have hidden messages. And some of them have layered meanings."

The songs were recorded at Bongo Studio on Jeju, mixed by Naoyuki Uchida in Kanagawa, Japan, mastered for vinyl by Greg Calbi and Steve Fallone at Sterling Sound in the U.S., and distributed by Eastern Standard Sounds, the label that works with other great world music acts such as pansori-reggae group NST & the Soul Sauce Meets Kim Yulhee, traditional ska band Kingston Rudieska, reggae band Shin Hantae & Reggae Soul and gugak-rock fusion band Chudahye Chagis. Omar and the Eastern power is a good fit among them, and not just because of the similar band name structure.

Omar came to Korea 15 years ago, at first living in Seoul, where he was part of the live music community that was active near Hongik University, as well as taking part as a session musician in various bands, ranging from classical and jazz to rock, performing and recording with musicians such as pianist Noh Young-shim, jazz pianist Lee Gun-min and singer Yi Sung-yeol. He also took up art residencies in Korea, such as at the Hwaeomsa Spiritual Festival and Music Sans Frontiers back in Morocco. A multi-instrumentalist performer and songwriter with a tendency for improvisation, Omar's range goes from acoustic to electronic.

In 2010, he started performing with the band Surisuri Mahasuri, followed by the White Reed Caravan Band in 2013, and Majdub in 2015, before starting Omar and the Eastern Power in 2016. He also has his solo act, Seed le Moor, an electronic project mixing analogue drum machines and synths with electric guitar and vocals.

All members of the Eastern Power got to know each other in the Hongdae scene while playing in different bands or solo. Wael, the son of a well-known drummer back in Egypt, was involved with many bands, while Tehiun had his own solo reggae project and Jin-woo, a Jeju Islander living in Seoul, was part of the renowned reggae band Windy City. But gradually, they all ended up on Jeju after a few years.

"I think it all started when Surisuri Mahasuri was invited to play in Jeju a couple times," Omar said. "Since then, I had this nice memory lingering in my head about how beautiful and calm and empty Jeju was. Soon after that, a lot of our close friends from the Hongdae community started to move to the island. At some point, I was going through some hard times in Seoul. Feeling a bit pressured by busy life in the big city, I decided to move to Jeju. And that was a good decision for me. It was a fresh new breath in my life."

It wasn't the first time he had uprooted his life and settled somewhere new. He grew up listening to Morocco's multicultural music, finding inspiration in various types of African music as well as the spirituality of sufi music, and this gave him the thirst to travel the world, seeking out a wider range of musical ethnicities. He first left Morocco at age 20, living in Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, India and Turkey, where he learned how to play different kinds of instruments, before ending up in Korea.

"There is a long and complex story behind the reason for which I'm here," Omar said. "But let's just say that I love Korea and it made it easy for me to make my dreams come true. And I grew up here with a lot of friends that I consider now as family."

He's happy with where he's found himself, and confident that Eastern Power will have the intended effect of its namesake, rippling across Korea's musical landscape.

"Since we bring in new feelings, colors and inspirations to the music here in Korea, we feel respected by many artists and fans here," he said. "Our music is like music for musicians: A bit not mainstream, and very new for the people. Still, music is changing a lot in Korea especially these recent years; there are many styles from abroad, and many Koreans are trying out new styles from abroad or fusions with local music. So we feel that we have added our part to the culture."

This last year has been tough for Omar and the Eastern Power, keeping them off stages.

"The pandemic changed people's lives," Omar said. "Musicians especially had it really hard, since we haven't really been able to play in front of an audience, which I think is necessary to the growth of an artist, since there is direct feedback from the audience when we play live. It has been difficult without it. Also, financially it hasn't been easy. So many of us had to do other jobs to keep things going, but we survive I guess. And this has also been a strong experience for everyone to get through. I guess everyone is missing the feelings of getting together and enjoying music. But for now, we will focus on making some new tunes. And try slowly to play live, hopefully very soon."

Visit omarandtheeasternpower.bandcamp.com to listen to the band and preorder the new songs.