Factory Streams: Live Vids for Covid is a live-stream concert series featuring experimental, electronic, free jazz, noise, and other genre-bending musicians based in Columbus, OH. All of the performances in the series will be streamed from our official Twitch account: twitch.tv/thefusefactory.
Asyla is the dark ambient project of Alyssa Wunderlich, an experimental artist whose work spans multiple disciplines and strives to emphasize the value of process rather than product, blurring the boundaries between art and life, artist and audience. She currently resides in Columbus, Ohio, but is known to incite moments of playful communal catharsis wherever she may travel with whatever is at hand, encouraging those around her to embrace the ephemeral beauty of every passing moment.
In 2018, Alyssa was invited to join the international knitting brigade of the krautrock legends of Faust and collaborated with original members of the Elephant Six Collective apropos of pure serendipity, as both of whom raised her into the four-track lover and fiend for whimsy, texture and repetition she is today. The intricacy with which she weaves and layers her sonic textures and prioritizes playfulness are much akin to the elaborate nests she builds in her physical installations, inviting active engagement of all of the senses for those who happen to take part in them.
Her passion for atmospheric alchemy led her to co-found a series called Nappy Hour, an all-immersive ambient music and art event held every few months on Sunday afternoons, creating an intimate environment that allows for active involvement in artistic collaboration and also the freedom to disengage from reality entirely and enter into a state of deep tranquility or even sleep– something often frowned upon in most public settings.
Asyla, on the other hand, was spawned as the vessel through which she’s channeled much of her dissociation, paranoia, and alienation the past few years into a place of refuge and silliness, a breath of fresh air for the inner child in captivity whose trauma gave them no choice but to grow up quickly and take everything way too seriously from a very young age. Her work unpacks feelings of grief and loss in times of immense darkness for herself and others in a way that feels almost cathartic, as if churning the compost to reveal soil much more nutrient-rich, full of hope for future growth. The organic layers of field recordings, drones, and pulses from manipulated found sounds, toys, and everyday objects are guaranteed to hypnotize and paint emotional landscapes like something out of a wet nightmare you just can’t seem to shake off.