Rome-based The Oddroots revisit “Awareness” in a studio live session, following the 2024 dub version by Paolo Baldini DubFiles. Recorded at Studio Miriam in Rome with fifteen musicians gathered around the band, the song was first released on the 2024 self-titled EP The Oddroots on Surna Records and returns here as a live session that links roots reggae and soul with Afro-influenced rhythms and a horn section written for a full ensemble.

Formed in Rome in 2020, the band have built an eight-to-fifteen-piece line-up that combines ska and roots reggae with soul, jazz, funk and hip-hop, and the Awareness Live Session brings that expanded set-up into one room, with players from Senegal, Colombia, Germany and Italy. Drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, trombone, tenor and alto saxophones, trumpet, cornet, percussion and choir sit around vocalist Ibrahima N’Diaye, giving the arrangement a detailed, full-band sound that already defines The Oddroots on stage and in the studio.

As noted by the band, the lyrics to “Awareness” address the need to find a personal path and stay with it despite social pressure. Across this live session release, that message is carried by a multinational ensemble whose roots reggae base and horn-centred writing point back to the group’s growth from early singles and Oxygen Session recordings to the 2024 EP on Surna Records and the 2025 live session release.

Listen and stream the live session version of “Awareness” HERE