Danish modernists Philip Owusu and Robin Hannibal number among a small circle of musicians—including Jamie Lidell, Eric Lau, Sa-Ra Creative Partners, and Henrik Schwarz—who seek fresh directions for soul and R&B by fusing those traditions with house, broken beat, trip-hop, and additional strands of electronica. Though both hail from Copenhagen, the pair regard themselves first as citizens of the world and only secondarily as Danes. Hannibal, once a member of the jazzy hip-hop collective Nobody Beats the Beats, and Owusu, a Ghanaian-descended singer who briefly belonged to the house duo Owusu & Green and issued a lone 12" on Naked Music, were brought together by a mutual acquaintance in early 2005. Their overlapping passions, above all a shared admiration for Sly Stone, sparked an immediate rapport that led them to begin collaborating at once. The initial result of that partnership, the moody broken-beat track “Delirium,” drew the notice of groove-focused indie Ubiquity Records, which issued the song as a 12" that November. A full-length titled Living With… appeared the following year, comprising twelve original compositions together with a shimmering rendition of the Beach Boys’ “Caroline No.” Produced and performed almost entirely by the duo themselves, the album remains the work of a strictly studio-bound project. Its smooth, largely downtempo yet forward-looking funk conveyed both sophistication and a playful streak, prompting comparisons with J Dilla, D’Angelo, Scritti Politti, and Steely Dan. The record earned the admiration of tastemakers such as Gilles Peterson and Trevor Jackson, while Morgan Geist supplied a remix for the “Delirium” single and subsequently invited Owusu to provide vocals for Metro Area’s first vocal recording, “Read My Mind.”
