Ashinoa

Lyon, France-based four-piece Ashinoa has released their second album ‘L’Orée’ on March 25th via UK independent label Fuzz Club Records. At times percussive and dancey, at others hypnotic and cinematic, the largely synthesiser-driven soundscapes of 'L’Orée' feel both of the past and the future. It’s the sound of two different worlds – a record capable of being as primal and ritualistic as it is synthesised and digitally manipulated. Where the band’s prior minimal Krautrock (see their 2019 ‘Sinie Sinie’ LP) might have brought to mind cold, dark post-industrial cities, ‘L’Orée’s kosmische experimentalism takes you instead on an instrumental journey through the the natural wilderness via the medium of shape-shifting psychedelic electronics.

That ‘L’Orée’ explores a more natural and organic sound than heard on their previous releases owes largely to the environment it was made in. Recorded in a tucked-away house in the French countryside that bordered on a surrounding forest, Ashinoa recall sessions spent soaking up their surroundings with a number of collaborators coming in and out to perform on the record: “The house we recorded the album in was kind of in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by douglas pine trees. From this proximity to the forest, we wanted to take our soundscapes to a place we’ve never been before. Before we were surrounded by concrete, and then far from it. We were looking for a new listening place, to discover new intriguing sounds."