Or Kantor Unveils Snake Island, a Cinematic and Imagistic Second Album

Or Kantor returns with Snake Island, a vivid and atmospheric sophomore album shaped by imagined landscapes, vanished memories, and the emotional residue of lost love. Building on the instrumental storytelling of his acclaimed 2024 debut Sarda Sarda—which drew praise from BBC Radio 6 Music, FIP, KCRW, and Songlines—Kantor deepens his sonic world with a richer, more cinematic vision. Conceived as the soundtrack to a fictional film that no one has ever seen, Snake Island channels the haunting beauty of a remote Cycladic island into a mythic narrative woven from mood, memory, and imagination.

Kantor’s artistic path has always been unconventional. A respected tattoo artist and founder of the Love Light studio, he entered the music world unexpectedly when Johnny Sharoni of Garden City Movement—now A&R at Anova Records—heard Kantor’s demos during a tattoo session. Struck by their raw, evocative sound, Sharoni signed him on the spot. That serendipitous moment led to Sarda Sarda, and now, to the expansive universe of Snake Island.

Describing his evolving style as “Subterranean music,” Kantor blends Mediterranean ballads, spiritual jazz, desert blues, and psychedelic textures into something wholly his own. Influences like Gábor Szabó, Omar Khorshid, Dorothy Ashby, The Budos Band, and Tommy Guerrero echo throughout the record, but the atmosphere is unmistakably Kantor’s: timeless, dreamlike, and cinematic.

“Snake Island was written as a soundtrack to a fictional film that disappeared from the world—one that, most likely, no one has ever seen,” Kantor explains. “It began as a tragic love story imagined during my time on a remote island in the Cyclades. Every landscape felt like a scene waiting for music. Eventually, the story gave way to sound.”

Snake Island marks a confident leap forward—a mythic, imagined film score rendered in music that shimmers like heat over stone. With its blend of nostalgic coastal moods, vintage cinematic color, and sweeping instrumental emotion, the album stands as a bold new step in Kantor’s creative evolution.