Illuminating the inside of Asemix, the collaborative force of Mari Maurice (aka more eaze) and Nick Zanca (aka Mister Lies), are ideas in constant motion. These are musicians with distinct voices and ideas spread across vast discographies, yet Asemix finds its own euphoric lane. Living on the diamond’s edge, their first missives careen through a sprawling matrix of processes to emerge fresh and ready to blur the line between what is and what is possible. Eventually, they fly.
Deconstructed worlds are really just our own reality reimagined. Asemix exists in this space together, pulling strings to shift our perception and doing so in ways that add a layer of familiarity before completely scattering our preconceived ideas in the ether. “Lakebrain” starts off in ultraviolet warmth, the sun kicking down, as we float on a raft across a digital lake. It’s slightly off-center, the wind tingling with an electronic edge and the waves lapping in high-frequency tonal shards. Sonic threads unwind before a deep bass rumble opens a black hole, pulling in all the scenery and leaving nothing but an anxious, synthetic sheen behind. Yet, there’s a glimmer of hope amidst the emptiness.
Gurgling springs rise from the Earth, defying gravity to become a kaleidoscope of skyward stretching synthetic tones. While “Rehearsal Earthquake” continues that extraterrestrial climb, an acoustic steel-string reverberates to death via ebow. In the ashes, the aqueous sounds continue flinching and an acoustic guitar thrums out a sad montage of decayed realities. . In the maximal aural wealth of “Communal Nude,” dreams bleed into waking moments, real-life becomes the simulation. Do we wake up? Can we? Does it even matter?
Maurice and Zanca have this attention to detail that places everything under an electron microscope. Asemix is not flawless, nor do they try to be, instead making space and holding expression aloft in the stream of tiny imperfections. I could listen to this 100 times and still pick out new crevices to explore. Creating a dense, hyper color world like this is a feat on its own.
I had little doubt that a collaboration between these two would be good, but the question with these kinds of projects is always whether it’s memorable and whether it pushes the conversation somewhere interesting. Asemix does both with Maurice and Zanca finding a common footing with how they approach music and then taking a huge swan dive from that point to create something new and unique.
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