[Cover photo art from album cover, credit to Lily McLaughlin]
Indie artist Oslo has announce their debut album, Great Places, set to be released on May 20th via their label Christmas Records. Self-produced and mixed by Oslo and mastered by Paul Leavitt (The Dangerous Summer, The Used, Turnstile), Great Places is an album “born in isolation”. The first single and video, “Loma Prieta”, are out now.
Speaking of the new album, Oslo shares:
Great Places was written and recorded during a time of great anxiety, doubt and confusion for myself and the world in general. It’s about confronting the things we can’t control and clutching to the belief that there are better times ahead, especially when it doesn’t feel that way.
They continue about the first single and video:
‘Loma Prieta’ is about feeling like a disaster, even when you try to do the right thing and be the right person for everyone in your life. The video was filmed by Eric Elkin in the Palmer Square neighborhood of Chicago.
Oslo is the brainchild of musician/songwriter/producer TJ Horansky. After nearly a decade of touring, 2020 forced the Chicago-based songwriter to hit the brakes and “take a good look inward”. Learning how to produce, engineer and mix independently was a byproduct of the Covid-19 quarantine.

Great Places is a collection of intimate songs that were recorded at the multi-instrumentalist’s home studio. The album’s production and lyrical themes “resonate a sense of isolation that often permeates the mind while grappling with things beyond our control”. The album also “begins to find hope in looking ahead”.