Describing The Thing comes as a precursor to the forthcoming album Emblems of Transmuting Heat, which was finished a few months prior to the conceptualization of this four-track EP. The music from both originates from the same transitional period, during which Shane Aspegren relocated from Hong Kong to Los Angeles. It is the first recorded music that Aspegren has released in some time, and the first solo music ever released under his own name.
Though he has an extensive history playing (drums/synths/machines/vx) with electronic/indie/experimental music projects, in the past decade Aspegren has moved back towards interdisciplinary art-making, in addition to taking a deep plunge into the physical and healing aspects of sound. These latter influences are largely present in this new recorded music: two of the four tracks from the EP (as well as part of the forthcoming album) are reshaped iterations from Aspegren’s installations or artworks. Certain tracks on the forthcoming album also integrate binaural beats (or other meditative experiments) and take their shape through a much more free-tempo and ambient-leaning journey. Describing The Thing on the other hand, also evokes some of these elements of trance-like induction, though here it’s more through steady BPMs and repetition — somehow feeling like a closer connection to his earlier project The Berg Sans Nipple (his duo with Lori Sean Berg, a current member of Zombie Zombie.) In this sense, Describing The Thing feels a bit more direct than the impending album, which is largely about subtle synthesis, drone, and texture.
In addition to band projects (including The BSN, Ça Va Chéri, and the first trio formation of Blood Wine Or Honey, a group he left in early 2019) Aspegren has recorded, toured, or otherwise collaborated with a long list of artists including (alphabetical):
Arto Lindsay, Bright Eyes, DJ Sniff, Dominique A, Don Niño, F/Lor, Françoiz Breut, Ikue Mori, Jerome Lorichon, Ken Ueno, Kung Chi Shing, Lullaby For The Working Class, Mike Ladd, Nerve, Nicolas Laureau, Preservation, Quentin Rollet, Samson Young, Simeon Coxe (Silver Apples), Songs: Ohia, Tarek Atoui, Todd Fink, Woodkid & others.
credits
released October 27, 2023
Composed, played, recorded, & mixed by Shane Aspegren
DESCRIBING THE THING comes as a precursor to the album EMBLEMS OF TRANSMUTING HEAT. Both originate from the same
transitional period, when Shane Aspegren relocated from Hong Kong to L.A.
His interdisciplinary work and meditative sound practices have influenced this new music via synthesis/drone/texture — more free-tempo/ambient than his previous work with projects such as The Berg Sans Nipple....more
This brilliant compilation from UK label Under My Feet offers scorching songs from a who’s who of experimental electronic music. Bandcamp New & Notable Jul 2, 2023
On vinyl for the first time courtesy of Geometric Lullaby, this dream synth epic spans moods and textures to create a soundworld all its own Bandcamp New & Notable Dec 2, 2022