Asura

BIOGRAPHY:

Formed in 1996, Asura was comprised of Vincent Villuis and Charles Farewell. Their first album, Code Eternity, was released in 2000 on Ultimae Records (France). Containing deep groove analog sounds, trance rhythms and an overflowing cup of ambient dub elements, it was more than a casual listening experience. Moreover, it showed that ambient music could sometimes be more powerful than upbeat dance music.
Since 2001, Asura now consists of Charles Farewell, 29, founding member of the band, pianist Christopher Maze, 30 (who joined in 1998), and bassist Alex Ackerman, 32, who replaced Vincent Villuis (gone to concentrate on his solo project, Aes Dana) in the middle of 2001.
Their sonorous investigations, after their first album, led them into near and far, present and past musical territories. Merging worldly or urban vocals and rhythms with electronic atmospheres, acoustic instruments, and ethnic soundscapes, their new album, Lost Eden, is a patchwork of genres and places, an experiment of unheard mixtures, and, by the way, tries to define its own identity. For them, many artists inspire their work such as Peter Gabriel, Natacha Atlas, Kruder and Dorfmeister, Moby and Tangerine Dream, as well as FSOL, Barramundi, Boards of Canada, and Banco de Gaia, all well known from the realms of Emusic.
Lost Eden definitely visits some musical territories, which were not explored in their first opus. Asura’s music kept its unity, its vocation, and remains centered on the perpetual search of infinite spaces and multiple origins.
Since 1998, the band has been featured on numerous compilations and magazines from all over the world such as German labels Spirit Zone, Zoomshot, and AP Records (securing a feature in Mushroom Magazine), Hommega from Israel, Chaos Unlimited in England (plus a feature in Wax Magazine), Neurodisc, and Waveform in America, Green Energy from Japan and French labels Infinium, Ultimae, Frenchsound, and 3D Vision, (with a great feature in Coda Magazine).
TV Matters President and CEO, Jan Willem Bosman Jansen, talks about their new expansion, “Amsterdam has emerged as the world crossroads of electronic/lifestyle music and as a Dutch company TV Matters has moved to position itself in this busy intersection of ‘groove and soothe.’”
In 2002, Billboard magazine recognized TV Matters’ Music Matters label as the fifth-ranking “Top World Music” label for its Irish Tenors franchise which has generated 2.1 million units sold and three of the most successful pledge shows ever for PBS. In addition to its Music Matters and Dutchi record labels, TV Matters is a producer of televised music events for the U.S. public broadcast network, PBS, having originated and produced three Irish Tenors shows, a flamenco project, “FURY”, and the recent PBS fund-raising success, Cantors: A Faith In Song.
According to label manager, Janet Schorer, “We’re enormously happy that Dutchi Records’ first release is the top French electronic band Asura. Ambient music fans will be familiar with their talent thanks to their highly regarded Code Eternity album and all their compilation contributions.” Schorer adds, “This is where Dutchi wants to be, deep in the heart of the electronic music melting pot, from world chill to house grooves to urban jazz and ethnic techno - from artist to concept-driven projects.”
The new imprint plans to release international artist albums as well as concept-driven faire (such as Musique Pour Le Bain and Make Up Music). The two aforementioned concept CDs will target the largest growing consumer market - women 35 to 45+ years old (25% of the world's population in 2000). Tentative future artist albums include Chicago-based Electronfarm and UK-based, radio-friendly AntiAtlas, which is, co-produced my Radiohead manager Chris Hufford. The album is mixed by awayTEAM and Robin Millar, producer of Sade and Everything But The Girl.

Since July 2005, Asura is only composed by C. Farewell.
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DISCOGRAPHY:
2000 - Code Eternity (Charles Farewell + Vincent Villuis) - Ultimae Records
2003 - Lost Eden (Charles Farewell + Alex Ackerman, Christopher Maze) - E-FrenchSound Records
2007 - Life² (Charles Farewell) - Ultimae Records

The band also had several tracks in compilations.




~ZawHeR