Unna

The inaugural release for Ojas Music / The Vinyl Factory

Mar 07, 2026

Unna
Michael A. Muller & Otto A. Totland
Released by Ojas Music / The Vinyl Factory
27 February 2026

Produced, Recorded & Mixed by Michael A. Muller—Los Angeles
Piano Performed & Recorded by Otto A. Totland—Brevik
Analog Mastering & Lacquer Cut by Frederic Stader—Köln
Cover Art: If Not Winter Composite #3 by Case Simmons

Introducing Michael A. Muller & Otto A. Totland’s Unna, an invigorating synthesis of dark, ambient atmospheres and intimate, minimal piano. The album marks the inaugural release for Ojas Music, a new imprint from Ojas, the NY-based audio, hi-fi, and design company known for its devotion to analog sound and deep listening. The project is partnered with The Vinyl Factory for a worldwide, deluxe run of the vinyl pressing of the release.

With Unna, Muller draws on over two decades of work spanning his role as co-founder of Balmorhea, solo recordings, and film scoring—approached through the sensibility of an intentional listener, audiophile, and hi-fi enthusiast. Muller’s early solo catalog was released on Deutsche Grammophon, and his collaborations include Hania Rani, Alva Noto, Víkingur Ólafsson, The Album Leaf, and Douglas McCombs of Tortoise.

Totland is one half of the Norwegian experimental/ambient duo Deaf Center, whose seminal releases on Type Records and Sonic Pieces helped shape a generation of minimalist and ambient music. His solo piano trilogy, produced by Nils Frahm, received wide acclaim. Unna is Totland’s first solo output since Exin, released on Leiter.

Muller and Totland first met in 2008 at the Decibel Festival in Seattle, WA. That weekend, spent kayaking on Lake Union and wandering the forests near Snoqualmie Falls (famously featured in Twin Peaks), sparked a creative bond grounded in shared listening and field recordings. Fifteen years later, ideas began moving back and forth between Oslo and Los Angeles, originating from a single rework idea and gradually unfolding into a brief yet resonant study in spacious dynamism and elegant restraint.

Unna (Norwegian for “away”) operates as a double entendre: gesturing both to the physical distance between the two artists and to the inward pull of the creative flow state, where time recedes and attention deepens. The music pairs Totland’s close-miked, delicate piano with Muller’s contributions on double bass, glockenspiel, Mellotron, and Rhodes as a textural counterpoint.

The album’s cover art is by Case Simmons, whose large-scale digital collages have been exhibited at institutions including LACMA and the Guggenheim. The image, a suspended, inverted wave marked by subtle aberrations, mirrors the music’s placid but mysterious atmosphere.

Unna was mastered and cut fully-analog in Köln by Frederic Stader, then plated and pressed at the iconic Vinyl Factory (formerly EMI) on the outskirts of London. The project is co-operated by Muller and Devon Turnbull in collaboration with the Vinyl Factory. Reel-to-reel tapes are produced by Neal Birnie of RTM and Night Dreamer.

The world premiere of Unna will be presented as a listening event via 1/4” 2-track tape and deluxe vinyl on March 19, 2026, at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City. Tickets are available here.

Vinyl

Limited to 500, hand-numbered copies worldwide
45rpm on 180g heavyweight virgin black vinyl
Lacquer cut from original master tape on a Neumann VMS80 lathe
Pressed on the EMI1400 at The Vinyl Factory
Order (Ships worldwide from London)

Reel-To-Reel

Made to order, 1:1 Master Tape Copy
1/4” 2-track RTM LPR90 Reel, 15 IPS, CCIR or NAB
Housed in a custom, hand-made box
Order (Ships worldwide from London)