Over the course of his three decade long career, Moby has worked with all sorts of musicians, including some genuine legends: David Bowie, Michael Jackson and Ozzy Osbourne, to name but three. But his latest collaborator couldn’t have been predicted – a Russian teenager who was born seven years after the release of Moby's multi-platinum album, Play.
That teenager is Dmitry Volynkin, aka Øneheart, and the unlikely pairing have a single, Lagrange Point, out today (25 July). In astrophysics, a ‘lagrange point’ is where the gravitational forces of two massive celestial bodies cancel out the pull on a smaller object, creating a space of perfect balance. So now you know.
In a joint interview with The Times, Moby and Volynkin have explained the hows and whys of their unlikely collab. It’s unlikely for a whole host of reasons, not least because, since the Ukraine war started in 2022, there has been a widespread boycott of Russian culture in the west.
“Politics are not people,” Moby explained. “I have toured for years, going from Lebanon to Israel, and guess what? The people generally do the same thing. They’re having meals, going to work and sleeping and stressing about their health. They don’t have the time to hate. Geopolitical divisions in no way reflect the reality of most lives.
“And for the most part, politicians just make things worse. In terms of AI, looking at the current state of politics, I almost feel we’d be better off with robot politicians, especially in the United States. So Americans are not Trump, Russians are not Putin, Israelis are not Netanyahu. Politicians are not people - they are pernicious, corrupting anomalies, and music reminds people globally that we are not reflected by them.”
The team up came about after Volynkin released an ambient track, Snowfall, which became an unexpected international hit. When the producer reached out to suggest a collab, Moby said yes - he’d heard Snowfall being played on LA radio station KCRW.
“It took me aback," says Moby. "Where are the drums? Where are the vocals? But, clearly, it’s a beautiful piece of music, and afterwards the DJ talked about the phenomenon, and how it found this bafflingly huge audience. It’s probably the only time in the history of KCRW that they have played quiet, ambient music at two in the afternoon.”
Lagrange Point is the single from an upcoming album, Samsara Passengers, which comes out on 22 August 22. Working with Moby is an “honour” for him, Volynkin explains: “His sound shaped the way I understand music, not just as rhythm or melody, but as something deeply spiritual.”
The 19 year old does have eyes on other potential collaborators though: “Charli XCX,” he says. “I fell in love with Brat and her discography is amazing.”
