Information/Write-up
Released in 1986, Love Only Lasts Awhile (often referred to as LOLA) documents a brief but striking collaboration between Tona Walt Ohama and vocalist–composer Dania, whose cool, European-leaning melodies helped shape one of the most unusual entries in Ohama’s catalogue. Half of the album features Dania’s songs, wrapped in Ohama’s atmospheric synth arrangements; the other half revisits and reinterprets earlier Ohama material, including “The Drum,” “My Time,” and “Take Me Dancing.”
Dania’s vocals — sometimes fragile, sometimes starkly detached — lend the record an unexpected art-pop aesthetic. While Ohama himself later expressed dissatisfaction with the studio performances, many listeners have drawn comparisons to Nico’s cool, understated delivery, finding in Dania’s voice a sense of distance that suits the album’s minimal, late-night electronic mood.
The five Dania-fronted tracks on Side A (“Gaslit Squares,” “Don’t Be Afraid,” “Your Face,” “Lola,” and “Lonely Heart Dance”) form the emotional core of the project, combining simple melodic lines with Ohama’s warm synth beds, drum programming, and sparse bass contributions (including Rhona Thomas on “Lola”). Side B shifts toward Ohama’s own writing, tying the collaboration back to the broader arc of his 1980s work.
Recorded and programmed at the family “Potato Farm” studio and issued through Ohama Records with distribution by World Records, Love Only Lasts Awhile remains a one-off partnership that never developed into a full album’s worth of material. Its modest scale has only added to its mystique — a small, self-released LP bridging synth-pop, art-song, and Ohama’s evolving electronic vocabulary.
“I just felt it could have been done better.”— Ohama
Despite his reservations, LOLA stands as a rare and compelling glimpse into a direction Ohama explored only once: a collaboration built around another composer’s voice, mood, and melodic sensibility, interpreted through his own unique production lens.
-Robert Williston
Ohama: all music and programming
Dania: vocals, composition
Rhona Thomas: bass on "Lola"
Cover Art by Ulrike Voll
Thanks to: Marcel Dion, Eva Everything, Ray Walker, Alex Douglas, Ten Foot Henry's, Richard Patterson, Richard Motokado, Richard Sweret, Heather Elton, Peter Goodwin, Avery Tanner, Dave Albiston, Liz Janek, Jamie Cleaver, Ellen Gonda, James Muretich, Susan Francis, Helen Matella, Dave Holden, Daniel Bernier, Kim Deschamps, Dave Smeltzer, Daniel Richler, Heather Malek, Gregg Thurlbeck, Valerie Gregory, Bruce Toll, Bob Weber, CJSR Edmonton, Lenny Stoute, CJSW Calgary, Ben Pettit, Christine de la Celle, Philippe Soussens, Ron Robinson, Pollution Control, Neil Phillips, Angela Whelock, World Records, Campus Radio, Dave Degrood, Rob Bye, Richard McDowell, Tamara Smrdely, Grant Burns, Kevin Brooker, David Cassels, Dennis Smrdely, Leonard, Chris Turney, Roy Warhurst, Grant Sim and all those too numerous to mention who helped out, especially those who sent the wonderful fan mail!
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