Late Aster Announce New EP ‘Light Rail Session’
LATE ASTER ANNOUNCE LIGHT RAIL SESSION EP
OUT SEPTEMBER 29 VIA
SLOW AND STEADY RECORDS/BRIGHT SHINY THINGS
RELEASE FIRST SINGLE + VIDEO “RIPPLE”
EP RELEASE SHOW SEPTEMBER 29 @ BANDCAMP OAKLAND
TOMORROW NIGHT IN SAN FRANCISCO + LA IN OCTOBER
STREAM “RIPPLE” VIA SPOTIFY + APPLE MUSIC
Photo courtesy of Deadeye Press
New York, NY (August 9, 2023) – San Francisco Bay Area duo Late Aster has announced a new live EP, Live Rail Session, for a September 29 release via Slow and Steady Records/Bright Shiny Things. In conjunction with each song the band will share video with footage of the live session filmed on hi-8 tape from a handheld video recorder by SF-based artist/photographer Deadeye Press. Including today, for the record’s first single “Ripple.” Watch + share it via YouTube. The final music videos were then created by filming that footage from a CRT at various remote locations around the country, in a surrealist twist on the live music video genre.
Discussing “Ripple”, Late Aster noted, “We were so taken with the undeniably spiritual experience of trips to Black Rock Desert. The stark and stunning landscape made for a perfect backdrop for ‘Ripple’ and its accompanying video. The track opens with an ominous and pitch bendy synthesizer, and culminates in a French horn soliloquy floating on top of a pulsing electronic brass texture.”
Light Rail Session was fully recorded at Light Rail Studios in San Francisco, CA on June 9, 2023, including all of the effects on each instrument, from vocal delay to horn and trumpet filters to fuzz on the synthesizer. The EP offers an intimate listening of live performances and experimentation of colors and textures within the limits of two brass instruments, fx pedals, a drum machine/sampler, a Korg minilogue synthesizer, and a Moog subharmonicon.
The live tracks are situated somewhere between jazztronica, ambient electronic, and chamber pop. In these live performances Late Aster are essentially two electronic DJs, with training in classical and jazz music, experimenting with brass instruments and effects pedals. Late Aster’s co-producer and mastering engineer Mark Yoshizumi described the tracks as, “distinct from past recordings, but still recognizably Late Aster.“
Discussing the concept for the music videos, Late Aster’s Aaron Messing stated, “I wanted to film the entire session inside a portable inflatable planetarium, but it turns out they are not too easy to get a hold of. The idea also presented significant logistical challenges for sound and video production, so brainstorming led to filming a TV playing the recording session inside the dome, which then led to the idea of filming a TV under real stars out in the backcountry.”
Late Aster will celebrate the release of Light Rail Session with a performance at the Bandcamp Store and Performance Space on September 29 with labelmates SLUGish Ensemble. Additionally, they will perform tomorrow night at NightLife LIVE at the California Academy of Science in San Francisco. And will join Elbows + Maralisa in Los Angeles, October 11 at the Resident DTLA [all dates below].
Photo Credit: Deadeye Press
Late Aster was formed when Aaron Messing and Anni Hochhalter moved to San Francisco in 2019 and released its first EP, True and Toxic, in 2021 via Bright Shiny Things. The San Francisco Chronicle called the record, “as impressive a local debut as I’ve heard this year… you’re guaranteed to hear unprecedented sounds in Late Aster’s very cool collisions of brass instruments and electronic sounds.”
Two classically trained brass musicians, Aaron studied Trumpet Performance at Northwestern University and Anni studied French Horn Performance at the University of Southern California. Anni (born in Oakland, CA) also performs full-time with classical chamber ensemble, WindSync, represented by MKI Artists, and is Executive Director of WindSync’s Houston-based non profit organization.
Lead engineer and producer at the live session, Charles Mueller, is Late Aster guitarist and audio engineer on all other studio recordings. Charles went to Northwestern University with Aaron and the two have been playing together in bands since 2012. Charles is now an engineer at Oktaven Audio and based in Brooklyn, NY.
The SF-based videographer and photographer, Elise Hochhalter, works under the name Deadeye Press and is Anni’s twin sister. Deadeye Press has collaborated with Late Aster since its inception as the ensemble’s in-house visual media director. In 2021, Deadeye Press created a one-of-a-kind series of hand-processed cyanotype prints used in the making of Late Aster’s music video for “Can’t Say No,” from the True and Toxic EP.
Video effects and additional editing by Marisa DeMarini, an LA-based writer, director, editor, and photographer, a former member of the now-inactive editing collective racertrash, and a current member of dream video division (dvd), a new experimental mixed media collective.
Co-producer and Mastering engineer, Mark Yoshizumi, has worked with Aaron and Charles to engineer, mix, and master original music since 2012 when they all met in Chicago, IL. Now based in NYC, Mark has served as producer, engineer, and technical director for Pitchfork Radio and Sonos Radio and has contributed production, engineering and sound design for media outlets like Talkhouse, Gimlet, and NPR Music.
Live Dates:
08/10 – San Francisco, CA @ NightLife LIVE w/ No Vacation
09/29 – Oakland, CA @ Bandcamp w/ SLUGish Ensemble
10/11 – Los Angeles, CA @ Resident DTLA w/ Elbows + Maralisa
Light Rail Session Track List:
01. It Never Entered My Mind – Live
02. Safety Second – Live
03. Play It As It Lays – Live
04. Ripple – Live
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