ASiH began in 1998 as a solo home-recording effort by Constantine Nakassis. Since then it has grown into a collaborative recording project and a live outfit (currently featuring Magda Nakassis, Lucas Carscadden, and Mike Mikowicz) centered around Nakassis’ song-writing and a shifting cast of musicians. Recordings have featured musicians from various DC-area indie bands—Andrew Black from Georgie James/The Explosion; Justin Moyer from Supersystem/Antelope/Edie Sedgwick; Lucas Carscadden from Dead Mechanical/Charlie Brown Gets a Valentine; Michael Mikowicz; Alex Hedstrom—as well as collaborators from the Philadelphia R&B music scene—Elsie Muñiz—and even the South Indian film industry—Shakthisree Gopalan.
Since its first full-length, Dialogic, ASiH has seamlessly blended live instrumentation and programmed music across mul
tiple genres: from angular DC post-punk to electronica, from alt-country to R&B. Later albums like Autoamputation, Peripheries of Hollywood, and Another Year in Philadelphia have perfected this blend of styles, increasingly crisscrossing genres, presenting eclectic, almost mixtape-esque collections of songs which find their coherence not in established styles of music or instrumentation, but in their approach to song-writing. The albums don’t play like typical records of the past. But neither is the writing process of ASiH typical. Each album presents songs collected over years, like a scrapbook, disparate in their individual origins but coherent in their total composition.
Their fifth full-length release, the double album In, Out, About, continues this approach to music-making. It arrives more than two years since the release of their last album Another Year in Philadelphia (2007), drawing on material written and recorded over the two years Nakassis spent living in South India. While the album moves between many themes and moods (largely dependent on the collaborators), it is the movement in and out of India which characterizes the album, providing In, Out, About with a thematic feel
stronger than any of their other previous ventures. In, Out, and About continues ASiH’s collaborative, genre-blurring song-writing while expanding the musical range with new instrumentation and styles of music (notably, frenetic percussion from Tamil folk music and classical Carnatic-inspired violin), as well as featuring new contributors. In addition to regulars Lucas Carscadden (“Tiny Victories”, “Black in Summer”) and Michael Mikowicz (“Water Wishes”, “Images on Tape”) are two notable new collaborators: Shakthisree Gopalan, an up-and-coming singer in the South Indian film industry (“Days & Nights & Weeks & Months”, “Painted with the Lights”), and Elsie Muñiz, a Philadelphia-native R&B singer (“Waiting”). Documenting the dialogue between different musicians from diverse musical backgrounds and cultures, In, Out, and About presents ASiH at their finest, pushing the boundaries of their craft in surprising and refreshing directions.
The album can be downloaded at http://www.electroniceel.com/inoutabout.html
The live band has been a shifting cast, but has included Tamara Black (jenhitt), Lucas Carscadden (Dead Mechanical), Andrew Black (The Explosion), Alex Hedstrom (The Axis Set), Justin Moyer (Supersystem/El Guapo, Edie Sedgwick), Jon Moser (AV Club, CBGaV), Phil Apostol (Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start), Mike Mikowicz (the mirror orchid), Julie Cousin, and Magda Nakassis.
Recordings have included Tamara Black, Alex Hedstrom, Lucas Carscadden, Justin Moyer, Andrew Black, Shakthisree Gopalan, Kedharnath Sairam, Fluke Leming, Pavan Segal, Kyung-Nah Koh, Julie Cousin, Judith Kaplan, Mike Mikowicz, and Elsie Muniz.
For more information, shows, MP3s, and other stuff:
www.astudyinher.com
www.myspace.com/astudyinher
www.electroniceel.com/astudyinher.html
www.soundclick.com/astudyinher
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