Time Out by Asta Hiroki x Tristan de Liège
Having spent over half a decade as 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.
Organising the recording process in Nicosia, Cyprus they created an EP from lengthy writing sessions working from two keyboards and a drum programmer, recording on the fly and building the compositions out organically into their final form. The result is a glorious fusion of their complementary production styles with nu jazz, beat music, ambient, and leftfield electronica influences all coming through the pieces.
‘Time Out’ is a gorgeous slice of electronica on the dancier end of the collection with a bed of delicate soft synths and a Phillip Glass or Steve Reich -esque piano line creating a hypnotic beat before melancholic vocal snaps ridie above and the dance bass line enters. The arrangement peaks and troughs to keep the listeners attention, with elegant lines of orchestral elements and intricate sound design flourishes informing a beautiful mix of neo classical electronica.
Deliberately designed as a conceptual double entendre, the title combined with the ambient, yet melancholic character of the vocals alludes to inspirations of both taking time out to relax or potentially time running out.
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.