Stream Aïsha Devi’s Debut Album Of Matter And Spirit

“An album about alchemy, about the search for enlightenment, the inner gold.”

September 25, 2015

Named after the last book by her grandfather—a CERN-employed physicist—Aïsha Devi's Of Matter and Spirit is a fluid exploration of her ideas of both physical and spiritual space. "Of Matter And Spirit is an album about alchemy, about the search for enlightenment, the inner gold," the Swiss-Nepalese producer and vocalist writes to The FADER over email. "My journey to a new consciousness was in a strange constant trance, detached from the physicality of things. My perspective expanded, realizing how unbalanced our life is between our materialistic slavery and our natural spiritual seeking. Stuck in an obsolete paradigm. It's a kind of political and spiritual empowerment manifesto, both on an individual and collective level."

How does this translate into her productions? Like the Conscious Cunt EP before it, Of Matter and Spirit ducks and dives between the intensely meditative and the physically jolting: one moment, transcendental vocals lift you up, and the next a metallic, industrial churn drags you right back down. It's a vivid exploration of space and color in electronic music, and from the R&B-like lilt of "Mazda" to the guttual throb of "1%," and it's rich in exquisite details. Devi elaborates: "I did this album in a vivid state of observance, dealing with my own emotions, looking for my Nepali father, coping with the death of my grandmother who raised me, and at the same time gaining inner knowledge. I think my meditation process made me acknowledge space to create a microcosm in each track, modulating silence as an ocean of energy, interconnecting the frequencies of each sound and vocals." Stream it in full below.

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Houndstooth will release Aïsha Devi's debut on October 2. Catch her live at Fabric's ADE showcase on October 17, and pre-order the album here.

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Stream Aïsha Devi’s Debut Album Of Matter And Spirit