AWAL, Ourness Complete Expanded Deal Ahead of New Genesis Owusu Album (EXCLUSIVE)

AWAL, the music distribution specialist, has renewed terms with Ourness in a fresh deal that covers the release of the next Genesis Owusu album.

Through this expanded partnership with local indie Ourness, AWAL now has global release rights to Owusu’s follow-up to the all-conquering “Smiling With No Teeth”, TMN can exclusively reveal.

Owned by Sony Music Entertainment, AWAL has reached agreement on a full range of services including global marketing and promotion, digital and physical distribution, creative, sync licensing, and brand partnerships for Owusu.

“My ambitions for both Ourness as a label and Genesis Owusu are that we continue on our path to creative freedom through independence and agility,” comments Andrew Klippel, co-founder and director of Ourness and Owusu’s manager.

“The global AWAL family is the perfect partner to assist in achieving those goals. We’re thrilled to see the passion that the Australian company showed for Smiling with No Teeth now transpires to a worldwide team for Genesis’s second album.”

U.K.-based AWAL has been operating in Australia since 2012, led by Ben Godding, senior director marketing for ANZ.

“Having worked so successfully with the Ourness team on Genesis Owusu’s first set of singles and full-length album, the whole AWAL team is very excited to be working together as part of a new, upscaled and global deal,” Godding comments in a statement.

“With his debut album proving such a massive success, AWAL couldn’t be prouder to collaborate with Ourness to help Genesis Owusu take his next steps towards global domination.”

While the new alliance matters to all the players involved and the Australian music industry at large, the deeper meaning in all this is easy to spot: Owusu has a new album on the way.

The Ghana-born, Canberra-raised funkster entered the big league with Smiling With No Teeth, an album that connected with music lovers from every nook and scooped almost every trophy going.

In a gloriously year-long run, Owusu has collected ARIA and APRA Awards, the J Award for Australian Album of the year, the Australian Music Prize, and first ranking in the Vanda & Young Global Songwriting Competition.

Just last week, Osuwu pulled a hattrick at the 2022 AIR Awards, including independent album of the year.

Though little is known of Owusu’s next project, hungry fans got a taste of things to come with “GTFO,” which dropped last month via a global First Play on triple j station.

After a lengthy stint on the road, Owusu will return to Australia for arena dates in support of Tame Impala throughout October, then hit the main stages at Spilt Milk, Lost Paradise and Falls Festival.

Since its launch Down Under, AWAL Australia has partnered on releases for the likes of Angie McMahon, Spacey Jane, Tasman Keith, and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, whose 2013 album Push the Sky Away (through AWAL) became the alternative rock legends first ARIA No. 1.

Sony Music’s US$430 million acquisition of AWAL from Kobalt Music Group was cleared by U.K. competition authorities earlier this year.