AKASHAA always knew she’d reclaim her name. The Vegas-based musician had her original alias, Ami Divine, “gifted” to her while performing poetry. And for years, she honored that title, even going as far as to label her musical mysticism as the Divine Sound.
In Sanskrit, the word “Akasha” loosely translates to space or sky. That’s arguably the best way to describe where her new album takes us. An astral, introspective journey rife with texturally dynamic soundscapes, Bloom grows in size with every listen, putting the brain into a pleasant flow state. Here we see AKASHAA (which stands for “also known as ‘she heals, aligns and ascends’”) evolve her Divine Sound, reshaping it into a sonic exploration of spaced-out spoken word, woozy R&B and ambient psychedelia.
“My music serves me first. I don’t release anything unless it has worked on me. It’s almost like creating medicine—you test it on yourself,” says AKASHAA, who also founded the experiential creative platform Freequenciii. “Bloom has held sacred, vulnerable space for me. I’ve cried. I’ve journeyed on mushrooms to this album. I’ve discovered myself.”
While 2020’s album Spells represented AKASHAA’s path to healing after the death of her parents, Bloom digs up that grief and replants it into something beautiful. On “Planets,” she narrates her father welcoming her mother into the afterlife over psychotropic beats. On “Prizm,” she navigates the “deep inner child work that I’ve done.”
Gratitude and words of affirmation overflow on this self-produced record, and its musical essence sharply contrasts the R&B-laden approach she took on Spells. AKASHAA praises her Divine Sound’s ever-changing fluidity, ensuring no two albums sound the same.
“I really like to allow my listener space to feel and come up with their own conclusions,” she says. “I’m just there to guide them through that. My intention with my music is to hold space for my listeners.”
AKASHAA linktr.ee/akashaa.art
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