To truly appreciate the art of elijah jamal asani, it helps to slow down and match his pace. The music released by the young ambient artist is patient, measured, and beautiful—like watching grainy super-8 footage of a flower opening to the sun, played back in slow motion.

 “wetradedmauveforthelasttimesomewherebeforeourtearscouldreachthemouth…,” a piece from his 2022 cassette memento{us}, opens with a watery synth ostinato pulsing like a calm heartbeat while a non-stop kaleidoscopic hum of noise and drone rattles underneath it. Listening to the track through headphones, I could feel my usually agitated pulse steady itself, mirroring the music’s rhythm—calming me even as it sparked me to attention.

The same advice regarding asani’s music applies to getting to know the person responsible for it. Rather than meeting up in the typical interview locale of a coffeehouse or a bar, asani and I took a leisurely early evening stroll around Mount Tabor. Fitting choice considering asani’s deep love of the natural world—something he profoundly explores on his new album ,,, as long as i long to memorise your sky ,,,. As our walk progressed, it felt as though I was finally tapping into the deliberate velocity he’s maintained since he first started making music. 

During his junior year at Marquette University in Milwaukee, asani injured his leg, spending many hours at home recuperating. “It forced me to be more introspective,” he explains. “There were a few weeks when it was just me and my laptop.” At the beginning, he focused on beats, inspired by the sounds of producers like Madlib and J Dilla along with performers like Björk and Kendrick Lamar. But after three years, asani’s perspective shifted.

“I realized it would be nice for somebody to sample my stuff or have something that’s sampleable,” he says. “And I realized I was gravitating toward ethereal and ambient [music].”

By this point in his journey, asani decamped to Chicago where he was performing regularly with a collective called Push Beats, connecting with members of the Windy City’s undeniable jazz community including Makaya McCraven and Junius Paul.

Composer and clarinetist Angel Bat Dawid also helped push asani in new sonic directions when he was part of the first cohort of Elastic Arts’ Dark Matter Residency. The two collaborated, along with vocalist Brandon Markell Holmes, on ẹ̀bà, a far-reaching project culminating in ephemerals’ forever(s)—a heady mix of psychedelic sounds akin to tuning the AM dial to a frequency shared by six different broadcasts.

Great as his time in Chicago was, asani felt “there was a desire for a shift. I had the community in some instances, but I felt like I was still quite alone.” Born in Vancouver, Washington he felt a distinct pull back to the Northwest. He chose Portland as his landing spot, moving here in 2022.

Before he was able to fully settle into his new homebase however, asani decamped to Arizona as he was named Artist-In-Residence at the Grand Canyon Conservancy. For two months, he hiked trails, camped, and drank in the almost alien landscape of natural wonder—all while making field recordings, slowly developing material that would grow into as long as i long. 

“There were definitely moments where I had intentions,” asani remembers, “like asking people, ‘Where can I find the best bird calls?’ and trying to find things. For the most part, it was a wandering journey. Kind of like what you’re doing,” he says pointing to the smartphone I’m carrying to capture our conversation. “Taking that around and seeing what pops up, what [can be] capture[ed].” 

The album opens with an assortment of clatter—the sounds of resonant bits of wood and metal, rocks and water all gently clashing together—subtly joined by long chords and notes played on piano and synth. The track, “goodnight in muav” grows, blossoming for a full 18 minutes, staying earthbound while straining toward something cosmic from above or within. 

The rest of the album strikes a similar balance of natural and synthetic, soothing and rattling. On the billowing “one ear to the land ,,, the other to each whisper of a cloud,” asani pays respects to the area’s Native communities, collaborating with Aaron White—a Northern Ute/Diné multi-instrumentalist who plays flute on the track.

“He’s a wind whisperer,” asani says of White. “He’s a force on the flute. I had the privilege to do a performance with him. The idea was to time it with the sunset, right on the rim. Kind of like a lullaby to the sun. That was an honor to be able to have that conversation with him on his native land. That was a special moment.”

As our walk circles around to our starting point, asani briefly humors my questions about what he may do after as long as i long is released, preferring instead to talk about the art holding his attention these days—the music of Hiroshi Yoshimura and Aphex Twin, the films of Apichatpong Weerasethakul. As well as speaking to his work at Vibe of Portland, a music education nonprofit near Cathedral Park. He knows the next phase of his artistic life will come along soon enough, but until then, he’s content to keep steadily strolling forward, quietly waiting for inspiration to strike. 

,,, as long as i long to memorise your sky ,,, was released on May 2 and can be found on Bandcamp. asani will be playing an intimate release show at Super Electric Records on May 23.