As the former synth player for Cherry Glazerr, Sasami Ashworth provided a different direction for the rock group. In her album debut SASAMI the songwriter confronts inner emotions and shares, whilst standing in the front, her true form with the world. What at first seems to be a linear transformation quickly becomes a well thought out spiral of sounds that produces a conversation that widens across synths, hazy vocals, fuzzed guitars, and an unprecedented cathartic attitude from Sasami – attracting a variety of listeners that will not get distracted by the augmented sincerity that is each song.
A graduate of the Eastman School of Music and classically trained as a French horn player, Ashworth also worked as a music teacher. With a vast experience collaborating with other artists, composing for film and commercials, SASAMI – the album – is sort of a cinematic experience itself of events and moods. A melodic manifestation of awareness and self-reflection. “There is a shadow over something that used to be a light/I was a window into something you didn’t like” first sings Ashworth in the album opener “I Was a Window” exposing an honesty across the fragility that exists in coming to terms with failed interactions and relationships. A constant in Ashworth’s debut that converges against a climax of lush melodies and arrangements allowing us to understand her psyche without restraint. The angst only exists in the form of revelations transmuted into the songs itself. Ashworth’s vocals, in the vast of the record, are hushed and aren’t necessary screaming at you unless you’re intentionally and purposefully listening.
As her title album, SASAMI, is all about Sasami, or what it seems to be is a personal exploration of feelings that become a soothing manifestation. Not only in the more laid back tracks like “Free” and “I Was a Window” but also in the rock-pop songs, “Not The Time” or “Callous”, even the poppier production in “Morning Comes”. The latter being a surprise pop effort filled with gentle lullabies that unravel into a repetitive chorus and tone that resembles Nina Persson’s approach and range. Ashworth sounds best in “Free” with Davendra Banhart, where her voice is stripped and candid. “Pacify My Heart” continues the conversation in “I Was A Window” about the likes and pushes of finding yourself and unraveling, simultaneously, while being involved with someone in a romantic manner, and that relationship fails to complete and leave us realizing that love is just not there – and the decision that comes after that is the hardest, but always for the best. “Callous” develops without intrusion into a frantic dreamscape that disguises the gorgeous approach that we dive into in “Adult Contemporary”. Alongside French songwriter Soko, the song’s conjured in song-smithery with lush, darkness and hope.
It’s hard to ignore these tracks were first conceived and demoed into an iPad while on tour with Cherry Glazerr, before announcing her solo endeavors or that the last song in SASAMI “Turned Out I Was Everything” is a sonic wave of temperamental synths, because Sasami Ashworth feels less calculated and more human and present than the rest in the fast paced world that we live in.