After years of playing music with friends, AsterAqua is a Brighton-based solo project.

But you're never really alone are you?

With little interest in social media and little time for self-promotion, the songs are cast out — but they'll always be there, and sometimes strange things happen.

There are two EPs: Pomoranji, and Kukuli. Songs old and new, clinging to the edges of many musical projects that have come and gone.

The names for the EPs come from an Austrian nursery rhyme that my omi sang to my dad, and that my mum and dad sang to me, and that my wife and I sing to our son. It's about small goslings rustling in straw without shoes, and cobblers without lasts.

The music of AsterAqua has been described thusly:

"AsterAqua is the architect of shimmering and soaring nocturnal moodscapes. Synths glide while yawning basslines are supported by constellations of beats that pulse and skitter, punctuating sonic heights like stars. At times mourning, at others in elation, this folktronica gently probes at the light and dark of the heart; buoyant and eerie meditations of perseverance amid nature’s stately thrum."

You can read more about the tracks at the Bandcamp site — and listen to them too, of course. If you like them, and want to support this project, buying them from there is best.

In addition to the tracks, you can also purchase the stems of the tracks and remix them to your heart's content. You can even get at the original Logic files, although some things may be a bit weird if you open the files without the original plugins. If you create something cool, let me know.

The songs are released under a BY-NC-SA 3.0 Creative Commons license. This lets you copy and redistribute them, and remix and transform them, as long as you attribute me, it's for non-commercial purposes, and you share your creations under the same terms.

Zmitrowicz

AsterAqua

Buy track
The featured song of the EP. An old song, originally written just verse / chorus on acoustic arpeggios. Briefly performed live in a band, but in a very different arrangement. Like Night-Time Storm, another song thinking Read more
The featured song of the EP. An old song, originally written just verse / chorus on acoustic arpeggios. Briefly performed live in a band, but in a very different arrangement. Like Night-Time Storm, another song thinking about the sea and rain at night. I have a memory of sitting in my room in our rental on a road running south of St James's Street, at night, with the window open, where you could be hearing the noise of the wind or the traffic from Marine Parade, but you also hear it as the sea just a little further away. I'm really pleased with how this one turned out. I recorded me doing some bad beat-boxing for Olli to start working on the beat, and we decided to fold it in to the overall mix. The vocoder is all Olli's idea and I love it. Likewise the guitar in the second chorus. Of all the songs on the EP, this one makes me want to dance the most (at some kind of sad disco).

It's not very tight lyrically, more working with imagery and feels. Breakups, the sea, the city, climate breakdown — the usual.
0:00/???
  1. Zmitrowicz