Death is Home by Aisha Devi

Whether its reputation is deserved or not, synthpop music is rarely considered to be particularly deep or introspective. However, on her new album Death is Home, Swiss artist Aïsha Devi produces intimate and thoughtful electronica influenced by her Nepalese-Tibetan heritage and ancestor work with her deceased father. Navigating the bardo between dark trance, R&B, and new age music, Death is Home abandons traditional song structure in favor of a non-linear progression through cavernous soundscapes. Cinematic in scale, these tracks convey a sense of complex interiority and contemplation, setting a ritualistic atmosphere that is better suited to inducing flow states than letting loose on the dance floor. Instead of predictable bass-drops, impactful self-transforming climaxes draw the listener deeper into Devi’s matrix. Her pitched vocals explore frequencies far above human limitations, synthetic manipulation lending an otherworldly quality to her voice that brings this release to new ethereal dimensions. With a sound drawn from the place where we exist before birth and where we go after death, Death is Home seems to blur the boundaries between the living and the non-living, a philosophy of nonduality that embraces both the light and the dark.