Late Aster Release 'Light Rail Session' EP

San Francisco Bay Area duo Late Aster have released their new live EP, Light Rail Session, today via Slow and Steady Records/Bright Shiny Things. In conjunction, they have shared a video for their take on the popular jazz tune, “It Never Entered My Mind,” created by artist/photographer Deadeye Press. Watch + share via YouTube. Order Light Rail Session via Slow and Steady Records, Bright Shiny Things or Bandcamp.

"An uncontroversial opinion, no doubt, but Miles Davis' arrangement of 'It Never Entered My Mind' has been on the short list of my favorite songs of all time for most of my life,” notes Aaron Messing on the decision to tackle the track.

"I've always felt like there was something futuristic about the way Red Garland's piano accompaniment navigates the chord progression, which was actually brought into sharp focus one day when I was fiddling with the arpeggiator on my Minilogue and sort of stumbled into the simple chromatic movement of Red's part. It was like it was written for an arpeggiator--a technology probably decades away from popularization when the Miles Quintet recorded this tune in late 1959.

As we were leaning into our electronics and a more futuristic sound to perform our music live, it seemed like the right moment to incorporate this song into our set. As Anni and I started working on performing the piece, we began grabbing inspiration from other classic takes on the song too, like from Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, so we ended up arranging the vocals and lyrics from the standard as well.

Picking a location for our four music videos was an exercise in deriving a physical space from the sounds of the music. And 'It Never Entered My Mind' always felt like a sunset on the San Francisco coast to us. Because the idea was to catch a dozen or so sunsets, I was particularly excited about shooting this video because it meant I had extra motivation to make it out to as many sunsets as possible. But as many Bay Area residents know, our fog, lovingly referred to as Karl, can be incredibly uncooperative for projects such as these, and it was so for us. Karl, I forgive you!"

Late Aster will celebrate the release of Light Rail Session tonight, with a performance at the Bandcamp Store and Performance Space in Oakland, with labelmates SLUGish Ensemble. They will join Elbows + Maralisa for a performance at Resident DTLA, in Los Angeles, October 11. And travel to New York, November 19, to perform at The Owl Music Parlor in Brooklyn, with SLUGish Ensemble. 

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, Messing noted, "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 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:

09/29 – Oakland, CA @ Bandcamp Store [tickets] w/ SLUGish Ensemble

10/11 – Los Angeles, CA @ Resident DTLA [tickets] w/ Elbows + Maralis

11/19 – Brooklyn, NY @ The Owl Music Parlor w/ SLUGish Ensemble

Photo courtesy of Deadeye Press

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