Gherman Popov

Born in 1966 in the port city of Odessa, USSR, studied at the Academy of Radio Communication. In 1989 he moved to Amsterdam and started combining traditional sounds from the East with electronic music, working as sound artist, musician and composer.

Throughout his career he collaborated with many musicians and artists mainly from Central Asia (Sainkho, Huun Huur Tuu, Samo, Mezrep, Almagul Menlibayeva and more), has written music for films and theatre plays and participated in ethnographical researches & expeditions.

On the German label Essay Recordings, under the name OMFO, he released several albums incl. the acclaimed 'Trans Balkan Express', 'We are the Shepherds' and 'Omnipresence'. Years of travelling far and wide, making hundreds of recordings, dwelling in ancient musical cultures, learning to play exotic instruments, have culminated in present day electro-acoustic experiments introducing western audiences to what he regards as the 'intrinsic modernism of the Orient.