Aïsha Devi - Death is Home
Aïsha Devi, a Swiss-Nepalese artist and musician, describes her sound as “Aetherave”—a fusion of club music, techno bursts, and oscillations of rave leveled by a primordial gush of metaphysical exploration. Discernible throughout her latest LP release, Death is Home, a reconnaissance of sound into the Aetherave, the album dynamically moves between meditative soundscapes and pulsating sonic meters. Converging the physical and metaphysical, Devi offers a transformative experience not meant for casual listening.
In the track “The Infinite Chemistry of the Betwixt (Tool),” the ephemerality of life is conjured and immortality as notional problemic is tested against the backdrop of a mechanoid voice that narrates: a “chemistry beyond duality / [neither] dead nor alive / but in a trance of a dream.” Manufacturing a cyber soundscape that harkens back to the album title, Death at Home, which signals the impermanence of life and the transitoriness of existence—sentiments of being and becoming that underscore the solace that we paradoxically find in endings, in death, and in mortality. However, death is merely a perceived end, and the record grapples with death as cyclical transformation, a theme marked and sonically stressed by her use of heavy bass, ethereal synths, and chants that evoke otherworldly dimensions.
Notable tracks include: “Immortelle”—reminiscent of a requiem—the track combines Devi’s spectral vocals with sparse instrumentation to create a haunting piece of a preternatural, multidimensional sonic vision. “Dimensional Spleen,” which features Kenyan experimental producer Slikback, blends industrial beats with distorted vocals to create a frenetic energy captured by a sense of disintegration. “Chthonic Sway” is a visceral integration of Devi’s darker sonic palette—both cathartic and unsettling—its heavy bass and fragmented rhythms embody the album’s psychic intensity.