MMOONN, the collaborative project of Los Angeles-based composer and producer Nicolas Snyder and interdisciplinary vocalist and sound practitioner Odeya Nini, announces their self-titled debut album, out April 10th, 2026.
Defying any singular genre label, the record unfolds as a deeply textural and cosmic work that merges improvisation, composition, and embodied vocal performance into a unified sonic language.
Built from years of individual artistic practice and a shared instinct for real-time creation, MMOONN moves fluidly between grounded intimacy and expansive abstraction.
Across the album, Nini’s dynamic vocal range, spanning guttural, animalistic lows to crystalline harmonics, intertwines with Snyder’s lush electronic environments shaped through the Soma Terra synth, a tactile instrument whose organic, almost living interface became central to the record’s identity.
First meeting in 2021 during a performance in a cavernous tunnel in the San Gabriel Mountains as part of the “Floating” series, the pair quickly discovered a shared frequency in their approaches to sound. What began as vocal embodiment sessions in Los Angeles’ Elysian Park soon evolved into collaborative experimentation, soundtrack work, and ultimately the formation of MMOONN. Their debut track “Blizzard” emerged during the first night of recording, setting the tone for a process rooted in intuition, deep listening, and sonic discovery without a fixed concept.
MMOONN expands the spatial possibilities of sound, inviting listeners into a realm that feels both grounded and otherworldly, where outer space, deep time, and unified consciousness converge. The album also features contributions from drummer Max Jaffe and saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi, further extending its improvisational and textural reach.
The result is a record that resists definition while remaining deeply intentional, reflecting two artists who have built distinct practices over years of exploration, now converging into a shared world of sound.
Nicolas, your first encounter with Odeya was in a cavernous tunnel in the San Gabriel Mountains — a performance that felt “ancient and primal.” Odeya, what drew you to that collaboration when you first met, and how did you sense a musical connection forming?
Odeya: Nic came to see a solo vocal performance of mine in a tunnel as part of a series called Floating at the time. After the performance, he reached out and wanted to explore vocal embodiment sessions, which is a practice that I have been teaching for many years. Once we started working together, we pretty quickly felt a musical kinship, specifically around our voices. Although our vocal tones are quite different on their own, somehow in harmony, our voices blended in a unique way that led us to want to explore making music together.
Odeya, your vocals range from deep, guttural timbres to ethereal harmonics. Nicolas, how do you integrate this wide vocal palette with your lush, textural soundscapes?
Nic: It's all a fairly easy process. I'd just play a little idea on my Soma Terra, and Odeya would improvise over it. Sometimes it would just be IT, and sometimes she gives me little swaths of texture that I can stitch together, other times we'd just want to make a songy song. But we were always making things that sounded like they were floating in the celestial. That just happened that way naturally.
The Soma Terra synth plays a big role in the album’s sonic identity. Nicolas, how did its alien yet terrestrial sound inspire your compositions? Odeya, how did it shape the way you approached your vocal performance?
Nic: I was looking for an instrument that would be easy to play live with Odeya. I saw it floating around my algos and liked the presets I was hearing. I went to Perfect Circuit in Burbank and gave it a try, and just fell in love. Every time I touched it, a song came out. Odeya wouldn't let me write with any other instrument during that process. I'd come in with a guitar song, and she'd just look at the Terra and say: "Yeah, but what would it sound like on that?" It acted as a nice limitation for us. It was like Odeya's voice and the Soma Terra, that's the sound of this project. For me, they were two unexplored worlds. So everything that happened felt fresh.
Odeya: The element of touch is so central to playing the Soma Terra, which makes it so incredibly dynamic. The way Nic played the instrument felt lush and dynamic, with the ability to create sensitive and emotional landscapes, but with a synthesized, non-human sound. To me, the Soma Terra feels alive and breathing, like a rainforest. I was easily able to get lost in the sound and be inside of it, swirling in a nebula or lurking under a canopy of trees.
MMOONN merges improvisation with structured composition. How do you balance freedom and form in the studio, and how does each of your artistic approaches feed into that balance?
Nic: Improvisation is Odeya's world, and composition is mine. So I think we just kind of met in the middle. In my mind, we were going to lean more in the improv direction, but then I couldn't help myself from hearing some structure in there or a refrain. And then sometimes I would just write a song with Odeya in mind. But when we first got together, I would have one small idea on the Terra, and Odeya would just find a vocal landscape to explore. We'd do a couple of takes, and I would edit the coolest bits.
Odeya: There is always form in improvisation, but it is constructed in real time. It was a fun challenge for us to rehearse the form and learn this music after recording it mostly as an improvisation. Personally, I felt a different kind of satisfaction in this process – it felt like capturing a fleeting moment and getting to experience it again and again.
Nicolas, you’ve worked across film, animation, and experimental projects. Odeya, you bring experience in sound healing and vocal embodiment. How do your different practices converge to create MMOONN’s cosmic, immersive sound?
Nic: I originally had Odeya sing on some soundtrack work for me. Her voice has a very epic, cinematic quality. I didn't know exactly what our music was going to sound like when I first asked her if she wanted to make an album, but I'm not surprised it turned out the way it did. She's not afraid to reach for the really big emotions with her voice, and I'm not afraid to go there with the music.
Odeya: This project feels like an organic limb branching out from the work I mainly do. When I began my journey as a vocalist, I was working with song form, lyrics, and also improvising texturally with a loop pedal. I have not been working in that way for many years and intentionally choose to work abstractly and acoustically, but this project feels like a return to the roots of my practice. The big dynamic sound of the Soma Terra, our harmonizing voices, the sound of drums, and the microphone literally amplifying all of the energy I feel in my other work.
Odeya, your voice has been described as “reinventing music note by note.” Nicolas, when composing alongside such a dynamic vocal presence, how do you challenge or adapt your own musical instincts?
Nic: Sometimes it was really just about getting out of the way, and other times I felt the need to reel Odeya in a bit and try to find some structure. At first, we didn't even know if we were going to have lyrics or anything, but we just had to allow for what each piece needed. Many of them came together very quickly. We walked away from nearly every session with a mostly finished song. It was very intuitive.
Odeya: The range of sound, texture, and tonality is what takes people out of their heads and into their bodies. I access parts of my voice that are extreme lows and highs, and animal calls and sounds that cannot be sung back because they are more about the feeling of the sound rather than the sound itself. From my experience, it's the approach, intention, and desire to work more physically with sound rather than musically that connects us all on the frequency of shared vibration.
The album invites listeners into a realm of “outer space, deep time, and unified consciousness.” How do each of you think about creating music that transports people to such a vast, meditative space?
Nic: I think we both have just spent many years on separate spiritual journeys, and so when our paths crossed, it felt natural. Honestly, it's hard to hang out with Odeya and not be frequently reminded of the celestial. She just lives that consciousness, and for me, it's always been an easy place to go musically. The cosmos is quite literally music, or sound at the very least.
Odeya: The range of sound, texture, and tonality is what takes people out of their heads and into their bodies. I access parts of my voice that are extreme lows and highs, and animal calls and sounds that cannot be sung back because they are more about the feeling of the sound rather than the sound itself. From my experience, it's the approach, intention, and desire to work more physically with sound rather than musically that connects us all on the frequency of shared vibration.
You both began making tracks without any set concept, just seeing what happened. Can you share a moment in the studio where an unexpected collaboration led to a breakthrough?
Nic: The track Blizzard was the first thing we made on the very first night of recording. It just happened, and we were like, "Ok, I guess this is kind of what we sound like." So I always think of that song as the opening portal to our music, where the door isn't cracked enough that you can make out clearly all of the sounds on the other side, but you get a sense of what it might sound like when the door flies fully open.
Odeya: Our unexpected collaboration really started when we improvised together with our shruti boxes and our voices. It became clear that our sounds blended in a unique way and that our sonic choices came from a place of deep listening, which is the foundation of being able to create music with another person.
The live shows are highly immersive, from the Warehouse at MOCA to 2220 Art & Archives. Odeya, how do you embody the music physically in performance? Nicolas, how do you shape the sound to complement that energy?
Nic: We rehearse a few times. Frankly, I'm not a super comfortable performer (at least leading up to a gig), but once we're on stage, I just kind of get into a mode, a trance to a degree. I watch Odeya and feed off of her. We try to build in space for some exploration.
Odeya: My solo vocal work is very much an interdisciplinary practice with a lot of physical movement of my body. It has been an adjustment to shift to being behind a mic stand, but I do feel that the density and boldness of our sound as a group, and the help of the microphone, allow me to feel the movement more dramatically internally. I feel that my voice and body are moving inside of and together with the music. It all feels like a big cosmic dance of sound.
Looking forward, MMOONN seems to thrive on experimentation and improvisation. What directions or new sonic territories are you excited to explore as a duo next?
Odeya: We are just really excited to share this album and are not sure where the path will take us. It feels like we are still deeply exploring this phase of MMOONN and staying open to how things desire to evolve.
Nic: We both have very full lives outside of this project, so I think to a degree we wait and see when the clouds part and the moon shines through, and it feels right to get together and grow some new tunes.
Connect with MMOONN: INSTAGRAM (NICOLAS) // INSTAGRAM (ODEYA)// WEBSITE (ODEYA) // WEBSITE (NICOLAS)
