Swim by Asta Hiroki x Tristan de Liège
Long distance friends and frequent remote collaborators, Asta Hiroki and Tristan de Liège decided to embark upon a joint project in late 2021 that saw them meet up in person and produce a collection of tracks centered around an exploration of leftfield electronic styles with an emphasis on live instrumentation and human performance at the core of the production methods.
Recording in Nicosia, Cyprus they joined their complementary production styles to create an EP heavily informed by nu jazz, beat music, ambient, and leftfield electronica influences.
The second track to be taken from the EP is ‘Swim’ - an energetic and sprawling nu jazz / beat track with an arrangement of two main sections. The first consisting of a vocal line and synth vamp underpinning live harp playing, Fender Rhodes glissandos and excited drum patterns and short percussive breath samples to emulate the experience of swimming fast in open sea. This subsides in the latter section where a mellow jazz horn section creates a new calmer groove as the excursion reaches calmer waters and the mind and body settles after the exertion.
Shades of Jaga Jazzist, Teebs, and Gogo Penguin all surface throughout, yet the track remains unique in its own right and showcases a thoroughly interesting side of the two producers' repertoire.
Since incorporating Folded Music Asta Hiroki has gone from strength to strength, picking up wide support at radio from Tom Ravenscroft, Chris Hawkins and Huey Morgan at BBC 6Music, MBE on KCRW, FIP, Couleur 3 and Radio Eins. Not to mention press heavyweights XLR8R and some stellar streaming figures thanks to placements on Spotify’s coveted Jazztronica and Lofi Beats editorial playlists.
Tristan de Liège is a prolific producer with no less than ten albums to his name and counting BBC Radio 1, France Inter, JazzFM, WorldwideFM, Indie Shuffle and Bandcamp as fans of his work.
Asta Hiroki and Tristan de Liège are longtime collaborators with respected catalogues spanning cinematic downtempo, nu jazz, electronica and hip hop. After meeting in person for the first time in 2021 they recorded an EP over a weekend in Cyprus, and so began a new project born of a mutual love of explorative leftfield styles, and a more human, live approach to music creation.