Vee Hua 華婷婷
(Photo credit: elijah jamal asani)
Thus, when I received an email from AKP Recordings introducing me to asani’s second full-length album, ,,, as long as i long to memorise your sky ,,,, it felt obvious. It felt obvious that, of course asani was also a musician, and of course his musicianship incorporates numerous elements that I have come to associate with his artistry. The sonic worlds he creates are poetic, moving, considerate, ethereal, and heavy on their adoration of nature.
growth through homecoming
According to asani, the reason that all of his work operates in the same aesthetic universe can be attributed to intuitive ebbs and flows.
“I feel like it all becomes cohesive because it happens in eras or steps,” he comments. “When we’re all young, we are just exploring different art styles and trying to see what touches us the most. I’ve been kind of going through that phase non-stop since I was little.”
asani’s artistic explorations first began from playing music with his father, morphed into writing throughout high school and college, and eventually returned back to music.
“Then it kind of morphed into, like, ‘Okay, I love the music, but now I would like to have something to show to go along with the music,'” asani notes. “‘And then that’s where film came in… so it just kind of slowly interweaved and intermingled.”
After spending most of his life in Chicago, asani now resides in Portland, Oregon, just across the river from Vancouver, Washington, where he was born. asani moved away from the Pacific Northwest when he was only months old – but when it felt like Chicago was no longer giving back to him in the way that he wanted to, he felt it was time to leave.
“Portland was… almost like a homecoming, in a way,” asani reveals. “I definitely had like a draw to it in terms of wanting to know what the land was like, wanting to get to know the area where I was conceived, and where my first breaths and first first moments were.”
The album’s first single, “thirtyonecircles /// soft shoulder(s) confluence near second mesa,” features a music video that melts in and out of candy-colored skies and red rock geologies. asani edited it on his phone, using an application called EFEKT.
distilling grandeur into a record
,,, as long as i long to memorise your sky ,,, is a collection of ambient tracks that is largely driven by asani’s experiences as a 2022 artist-in-residence at the Grand Canyon National Park. Across its 7-track duration, the album weaves together field recordings with guitar, piano, percussive elements, zither, and guest flute contributions by Diné (Navajo) and Northern Ute musician Aaron White.
“I didn’t even know that National Parks had artist residencies until I applied for this one,” asani reveals. “Living in Chicago, it’s like you feel a little bit disconnected from the natural part of of the world; you’re just surrounded by concrete and metal – so to be able to spend two months intimately in such a natural wonder was very alluring to me.”
asani’s appreciation for the experience is perhaps best captured by the statement he wrote for the album. He writes that ,,, as long as i long to memorise your sky ,,, is: “an audio journal comprised of the sounds & sentiments captured on that fortyfourth night inside of the canyon; an echo of the softness etched upon those muav stones; an aide-memoire on the long-lost creation story between the river, the desert floor, & all the elements in between that remain intertwined for as long as they decide, forming what we call the grand canyon.”
The residency housed asani for two months in an apartment located right above the Grand Canyon National Park’s gift shop. Gifted with an incredible view, asani could wake up everyday and be immediately immersed into the beauty that the park had to offer.
“It was really intimate – just waking up and being able to be right there next to it,” he says.
While asani first applied for the residency with a vague idea of creating an audio journal, the particulars of the concept ultimately had to be discovered in-person.
“Realizing how vast [the Grand Canyon is] and how to encapsulate such a space into a small amount of artwork: that was a challenge,” explains asani. “But I think it allowed [for] true exploration – because I was just walking around with the field recorder and just being intentional and slow, and allowing the sounds to find me, in a way, because I didn’t know. I didn’t know what was around every corner.”
elijah jamal asani performing live with Aaron White at Grand Canyon National Park. (Photo Credit: M. Quinn of the National Park Service)
finding divinity in native lands
asani points to two stand-out moments during his residency. The first was getting to know musician and flautist White, who lives in the region. The two were introduced “organically,” after asani reached out to Canyon Records to see if the label might have any Native artists who might be interested in collaborating.
The only musician to respond was White – but the connection ran deeper than just circumstance. Before the two ever decided to work together, asani went to a few of White’s shows, and the two found that they just “hit it off as human beings.” From that foundation grew the opportunity for them to eventually perform a live improvisational show at the Grand Canyon, as well as for White to collaborate with asani on the album’s fifth track, “one ear to the land ,,, the other to each whisper of a cloud.”
“His ancestors and legacy is connected to the land, so I was able to get to know him and his family and create some music with him…” says asani. “Being able to watch him make a flute and then play it on the land… felt like time travel, in a way. That was a potent moment for sure.”
Towards the end of his residency, asani also took a three-day, three-night backpacking trip down near Phantom Ranch. It is located on a part of the Colorado River that runs through Grand Canyon National Park.
“Just being able to touch the water that had worked for millions of years to carve this canyon: it felt like they were even having a conversation…” reflects asani. “That was almost like a spiritual moment, too.”
Adding even more weight to the experience was understanding the context of how important the lands were to the Native people of the area.
“[For some,] it’s their creation source; it’s their origin story. Their ancestors are connected to it, from the future and the past,” asani continues. “There’s a lot of divinity in that land, for sure.”
Divinity, divinity, divinity. Of all the questions that I ask asani, there’s only one that really takes him a moment to answer. I offer that I can come back to the question later, but, “No, no,” he insists. “I just need a second to put it into words.”
The question I am asking him is whether he has an ethos or philosophy for creating his work, considering he operates in so many mediums – yet somehow, everything just clicks together. After a moment, asani references an essay he recently read by Russian filmmaking legend, Andrei Tarkovsky.
“He said that his art is a prayer,” asani shares. “I felt like those were the words I was looking for in order to explain what I feel when I’m creating or when I’m having my intimate moments with making art… in the creation process, it does feel like a prayer or meditation.”
Listening to ,,, as long as i long to memorise your sky ,,,, one can practically imagine being at the Grand Canyon. One can take in its depths and take the time to understand how it was formed slowly, across centuries. The album offers us a chance to reflect, to embrace slowness, to appreciate the world around us, and to notice that we’re living it right here right now… if only for a fleeting moment.
,,, as long as i long to memorise your sky ,,, (AKP Recordings) Full Album Stream
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