ASIANOVA

Asianova biography
A dark ambient quartet from the United States, Asianova were based in Houston, Texas and originally active from 1991 to 1993. The classic lineup consisted of electronic arist and composer Greg Logsdon (aka Ure Thrall), his then-wife Pamela Passmore, and Voice of Eye's Bonnie McNairn (aka Katkishka) and Jim Wilson (aka Wilhelm). The group sprang from the ashes of experimental ambient act Cruor, which was founded by Logsdon and Wilson in 1988 (later yielding the latter's Esoterica Landscapes 7 project before finally forming Voice of Eye). The four multi-instrumentalists constructed their entirely improvised pieces using processed voices, guitars, flutes, synthesizers and more, studiously recording their jam sessions and ultimately amassing a vast trove of material, all of which was only revealed to the world after the band's initial break-up.

Spectral voices chant, moan and disappear back into the miasmic haze of Asianova's unpredictable psychedelic drone, which drifts between melody and dissonance and sometimes takes percussive detours into so-called tribal ambient. Asianova's discography consisted of eleven full-length albums with a handful of EPs and live documents, mostly on limited edition CDR and cassette through Logsdon's label Discorporeality Recordings, with their most well-known LP - 2005's Love Like a Veiled Threat - released cooperatively by Eibon Records and Radiotarab Records.

Three decades after the end of Asianova's heyday, a reissue campaign began in conjunction with Danish label Avalanche Organization in 2023, releasing a remastered version of 2008's Burns Alive!, which showcased Asianova's six-date 2007 reunion tour of Europe with kindred spirits Troum. In 2024, Logsdon issued Black Holes Burnt in the Sky on his personal Bandcamp, Asianova's first archival album in fifteen years, simultaneously announcing the project's revival as a duo with musician Tati Musique, with the promise of new material and live shows to come.

Asianova's hallucinatory soundworlds will be warmly received by fans of Maeror Tri, Robert Rich, Zoviet France, Taj Mahal Travellers, Telaio Magnetico, the artists on the Ventricle label and fellow Texans Book of Shadows.


- Gordy, July 2024