SASAMI (Sasami Ashworth) has been making music in the Los Angeles area, in almost every way you can, for the last decade. From playing French horn in orchestras and studios and playing keys, bass, and guitar in local rock bands (Dirt Dress, Cherry Glazerr), to contributing vocals/string/horn arrangements to studio albums (Vagabon, Curtis Harding, Wild Nothing, Hand Habits, etc.) and producing on tracks for other respected artists (Soko), she has gained a reputation as an all-around musical badass.

After graduating from the Eastman School of Music in 2012, SASAMI spent her time scoring and making orchestral arrangements for films, commercials and studio albums, as well as being a deeply committed music teacher in Los Angeles. She spent the previous two and a half years touring the world non-stop playing synths in the band Cherry Glazerr and is now taking a turn to focus on her own music. SASAMI's first ever self-released single "Callous" was given Pitchfork's "Best New Track," and this year she has already shared bills with the likes of Japanese Breakfast, Liz Phair, The Breeders, and Blondie.

La gran melancolía de mi destino terrenal.

Technological fatigue. Narcissism anxiety. A galaxy of isolation. These are the new norms keeping Weyes Blood (aka Natalie Mering) up at night and the themes at the heart of her latest release, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow (Sub Pop Records). 

The album is her follow-up to the acclaimed Titanic Rising. (Pitchfork, NPR, The Guardian admiringly named it one of 2019’s best.)  Where Titanic was an observation of doom to come, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow is about being in the thick of it: a search for an escape hatch to liberate us from algorithms and ideological chaos. “We’re in a fully functional shit show,” Mering says. “My heart is a glow stick that’s been cracked, lighting up my chest in an explosion of earnestness.”

And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow opens with the wistful, winsome “It's Not Just Me, It's Everybody” — about the interconnectivity of all beings, but also the fraying of society around us. “I was asking a lot of questions while writing these songs. Hyper isolation kept coming up,” Mering says. “Our culture relies less and less on people. Something is off, and even though the feeling appears differently for each individual, it is universal.”

Other tracks follow in kind. The lullaby-like “Grapevine” chronicles the splintering of a human connection. The otherworldly dirge “God Turn Me into a Flower” serves as an allegory about our collective hubris. “The Worst Is Done” is an ominous warning, set against a deceivingly breezy pop melody. 

“Chaos is natural. But so is negentropy, or the tendency for things to fall into order,” she says. “These songs may not be manifestos or solutions, but I know they shed light on the meaning of our contemporary disillusionment.”

http://eagledeer.bandcamp.com/ Eagle/Deer is the music of 26 year old singer-song writer Sara Barrett. A trained visual artist; she traded her eyes for her ears to focus on creating music and explore the art of sound. She had released her full length album "Summer of Sepia" in early 2011 and has started on "Cataracts," her second release, due this winter. 

Nothing's Free Out Now: https://angelolsen.jagjag.co/nothings-free

Words of the Witches
Houston-based DIY artist.
Exploring liminal spaces through ambient, rock, indie, electronic, and acoustic textures.
Chasing whatever makes a song feel like a spell.

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