What I compose:

Music has been a lot more than background noise to me; like many others, it's a medium I've used to process thoughts, feel creative, and bond with others. I play the bass and compose music–solely with the bass. One reason for making my music is to show that the electric bass has a larger range than what that instrument is typically used for, which has been under-explored because of how difficult it is to make anything but treble-dominated sounds polished enough to release. But the primary reason why I make music is to treat my own discomfort about having a motor dysfunction and OCD with an analog of how phantom limb is treated.

One of the many features of my music is the repetition of themes that–when primed with other sounds–can feel very different from the first time you hear them. My songs are about experiencing video game nostalgia, having climate anxiety, being insignificant, working towards asymptotic goals, being able to relax or not, having no control over time’s relentless passage, transforming formatively as human beings, growing beyond your old tastes, detecting and making use of subtleties, acting like we know what we're talking about when we don't, being part of a conceivable computer program in a world we try to recreate with other programs, collecting data and telling stories about our planet, identifying various types of patterns, participating in various aspects of culture, expressing ourselves across languages with universalities, acknowledging what may not stand the test of time as skills/knowledge that's useful, improvising our way through life, deceiving the human ear, being unable to always complete the things we want to finish, living with the elements we have no control over that slowly seep into our lives, and making the most of what we have. The songs are a mix of indie, electronic-inspired, post-rock, ambient, and jazz-inspired music and could be appropriate for various soundtracks. The songs here are mostly intended to create tension (for climate outreach and television/film soundtracks), be ambient/sparse (for television/film soundtracks and art installations), be nostalgic (for video game soundtracks), and/or be quirky (for television/film soundtracks).

I wanted call myself Bassick, D-Tro, or Port Man Toe, but those names are taken. I called myself AshkenBASSic for a couple of years but have opted to go by my given name. I've made albums out of many themes, and will hopefully continue to do so. If you want to hear my favorites from one particular genre, listen to the sample (ambient) songs listed below, which can be downloaded for free on my Bandcamp page. If you want to listen to my outreach albums, listen to the albums listed at the bottom of my outreach page. Alternatively, you can go to my Spotify or YouTube pages to hear my thematically organized albums. I'm not a salesperson; I wouldn't be an oceanographer if I wanted to sell my music. If you hear my music and find it enjoyable then great. If not then find whatever it is you do enjoy.

Samples:

What I listen to:

I came across the above-mentioned artists and others intermittently over the past decades through taking trips to record stores, getting recommendations from bandmates and others, and doing online research. There are hundreds of hours worth of songs listed in various playlists on my Spotify profile, but I'd like to highlight a select few albums from each genre that I most appreciate uncovering for myself (see the albums with links below). I'm sorting them by genre in case you want to ignore some. And in case you want to just go right to my favorites artists, they are: Cocteau Twins, Stereolab, Aphex Twin, Max Richter, and Tim Hecker:

Ambient:

36's "Tomorrow's Explorers"

Ana Roxanne's "Because of a Flower"

Benoit Pioulard’s “Stanza IV”

Aphex Twin's "Selected Ambient Works 85-92"

Aphex Twin's "Selected Ambient Works Volume II"

Cowboy Sadness's "Selected Jambient Works Vol. 1"

Dania's "Voz"

The Dead Texan's "The Dead Texan"

Eluvium's "Talk Amongst the Trees"

Ex Confusion's "I Remember When"

Green-House's "Music for Living Spaces"

Green-House's "A Host for All Kinds of Life"

Hiroshi Yoshimura's "Green"

Hiroshi Yoshimura's "Surround"

Imaginary Softwoods' "Annual Flowers in Color"

The Inward Circles' "Before We Lie Down in Darknesse"

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's "Songs of Forgiveness"

Malibu's "One Life"

Pan American and Kramer's "Reverberations of Non-Stop Traffic on Redding Road"

Philip Otterbach's "The Dahlem Diaries"

Roedelius's "Wenn der Südwind weht"

Stars of the Lid's "And Their Refinement of the Decline"

Steve Roach's "Structures From Silence"

Various Artists' "Mono No Aware"

William Basinski's "92982"

Yui Onodera's "1982"

DJ/sampling/hip-hop-ish:

The Art of Noise's "(Who's Afraid of) The Art of Noise?"

The Books' "Thought for Food"

The Books' "Music for a French Elevator and Other Oddities"

The Books' "The Way Out"

Cornelius' "Fantasma"

DJ Shadow's "Preemptive Strike"

DJ Shadow's "Endtroducing..."

Honour's "BEG 4 MERCY"

Macintosh Plus' "Floral Shoppe"

Mono/Poly's "Golden Skies"

Prefuse 73's "The '92 Vs '02 Collection"

Prefuse 73's "Vocal Studies and Uprock Narratives"

UNKLE's "Psyence Fiction"

Electronic:

AFX's "Hangable Auto Bulb"

Air's "Talkie Walkie"

Air's "Moon Safari"

Air's "The Virgin Suicides (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)"

Air's "10 000 Hz Legend"

Air's "Pocket Symphony"

Anthony Naples' "Chameleon"

Aphex Twin's "... I Care Because You Do"

Aphex Twin's "Drukqs"

Aphex Twin's "Windowlicker"

Aphex Twin's "Richard D. James Album"

Aphex Twin's "Syro"

Arovane's "Tides"

Autechre's "Tri Repetae++"

Autechre's "Amber"

Autechre's "LP5"

Blue States' "Nothing Changes Under the Sun"

Boards of Canada's "Tomorrow's Harvest"

Boards of Canada's "Music Has The Right To Children"

Boards of Canada's "Geogaddi"

Caribou's "Up In Flames"

Casino Versus Japan's "Go Hawaii"

Casino Versus Japan's "Whole Numbers Play the Basics"

Jeremiah Chiu's "In Electric Time"

Colleen's "Everyone Alive Wants Answers"

Drexciya's "Journey of the Deep Sea Dweller I"

Drexciya's "Journey of the Deep Sea Dweller II"

Emeralds' "Does it Look Like I'm Here?"

ex_libris' "001 + 002"

Forest Swords' "Compassion"

Four Tet's "Rounds"

Four Tet's "Pause"

Fuck Buttons' "Slow Focus"

Gold Panda's "Lucky Shiner"

Harald Grosskopf's "Synthesist"

Heinrich Dressel & Sonobe’s “Frames n2”

Holden & Zimpel’s “The Universe Will Take Care of You”

Jamie xx's "In Colour"

Kraftwerk's "The Man-Machine"

Larry Heard's "Scenery Not Songs, Volume One"

M83's "Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts"

Marumari's "The Wolves Hollow"

MPU101’s “ITX036 - MPU106”

Oneohtrix Point Never's "Replica"

Oneohtrix Point Never's "Garden of Delete"

Oneohtrix Point Never's "R Plus Seven"

Raven's "Gnosis"

Rival Consoles' "Howl"

Rival Consoles' "Landscape From Memory"

Seefeel's "Quique"

Seefeel's "Squared Roots"

Sinoia Caves' "Beyond the Black Rainbow (Original Soundtrack)"

Squarepusher's "Hard Normal Daddy"

Squarepusher's "Music is Rotted One Note"

Squarepusher's "Feed Me Weird Things"

Steve Hauschildt's "Where All is Fled"

Steve Hauschildt's "S/H"

Terre Thaemlitz's "Tranquilizer EP’s 1 - 3"

Torn Hawk's "Let's Cry and Do Pushups at the Same Time"

Torn Hawk's "Through Force of Will"

Underworld's "Second Toughest in the Infants"

Various Artists' "Diggin in the Carts: A Collection of Pioneering Japanese Video Game Music"

Various Artists' "Still In My Arms: Compiled by Bayu and Moopie"

Various Artists' "Virtual Dreams II: Ambient Explorations In The House & Techno Age, Japan 1993-1999"

mu-Ziq's "Lunatic Harness"

mu-Ziq's "Royal Astronomy"

mu-Ziq's "1977"

Yoshio Ojima's "Club"

Experimental electronic and other:

33EMYBW & Gooooose's "Trans-Aeon Express"

Astrid Sonne's "Ephemeral Camera Feed"

Astrid Sonne's "Great Doubt"

Dialect's "Atlas of Green"

Fennesz's "Endless Summer"

Fennesz's "Venice"

Kara-Lis Coverdale's "Grafts"

Loke Rahbek and Frederik Valentin's "Buy Corals Online"

Mark van Hoen's "Plan For A Miracle"

Not Waving and Romance's "Infinite Light"

Rachika Nayar's "Heaven Come Crashing"

Rafael Anton Irisarri's "A Fragile Geography"

Rafael Anton Irisarri's "Midnight Colours"

Romance and Dean Hurley's "In Every Dream Home a Heartache"

Romance and Dean Hurley's "River of Dreams"

The Sight Below's "Glider"

Sofie Birch's "Holotropica"

Tim Hecker's "An Imaginary Country"

Tim Hecker's "Harmony in Ultraviolet"

Tim Hecker's "No Highs"

Tim Hecker's "Ravedeath, 1972"

Tim Hecker's "Virgins"

Walt McClements’ “On a Painted Ocean”

Experimental rock:

A.R. Kane's "Sixty Nine"

A.R. Kane's "i"

Anna Butterss' "Mighty Vertebrate"

Arthur Russell's "First Thought Best Thought"

Bill Orcutt's "How the Thing Sings"

Bing & Ruth's "City Lake"

Bowery Electric's "Beat"

Brian Eno and David Byrne's "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts"

Brian Eno's "Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)"

Brian Eno and John Cale's "Wrong Way Up"

Brian Eno's "Another Green World"

Bundy K Brown and others' "Directions in Music"

Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld's "Never Were the Way She Was"

Deakin's "Sleep Cycle"

Dijit's "The Room"

Dirty Three's "Cinder"

The Durutti Column's "The Return of the Durutti Column"

Gastr del Sol's "Camoufleur"

Hood's "Cold House"

Jabu's "A Soft and Gatherable Star"

Jim O'Rourke's "Bad Timing"

Julia Holter's "Have You in My Wilderness"

Julia Holter's "Aviary"

Mice Parade's "The True Meaning of Boodleybaye"

Mice Parade's "Ramda"

Moondog's "Moondog [Columbia Records]"

Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling, and Andreas Werliin’s “Ghosted III”

Polvo's "Today's Active Lifestyles"

Rat Heart Ensemble's "Northern Luv Songs 4 Wen Ur Life's A Mess"

Secret Boyfriend's "Listener's Guide"

Yasuaki Shimizu's "Kakashi"

Yasuaki Shimizu's "Kiren"

Yves Tumor's "Safe in the Hands of Love"

Krautrock:

Can's "Tago Mago"

Can's "Future Days"

Can's "Ege Bamyasi"

David Borden's "Music for Amplified Keyboard Instruments"

Faust's "Faust IV"

Faust's "Faust/So Far"

La Dusseldorf's "La Dusseldorf"

Manuel Göttsching's "E2-E4"

Neu!'s "Neu! 75"

The Soft Machine's "Volume Two"

Stereolab's "Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night"

Stereolab's "Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements"

Stereolab's "Aluminum Tunes [Switch On Volume Four]"

Stereolab's "Dots and Loops"

Stereolab's "Emperor Tomato Ketchup"

Stereolab's "Mars Audiac Quintet"

Stereolab's "Refried Ectoplasm [Switched On Volume Two]"

Stereolab's "Fluorescences"

Stereolab's "Instant Holograms On Metal Film"

Lo-fi rock:

The Advantage's "The Advantage"

The Advantage's "Elf Titled"

Beirut's "March of the Zapotec and Real People Holland"

Beirut's "Gulag Orkestar"

The Beta Band's "The Three E.P.'s"

Disco Inferno's "In Debt"

Duster's "Stratosphere"

Duster's "Contemporary Movement"

Fridge's "Sevens and Twelves"

Galaxie 500's "On Fire"

Galaxie 500's "Today"

Guided by Voices' "Bee Thousand"

Helium's "The Dirt of Luck"

The Microphones' "Mount Eerie"

The Microphones' "The Glow, Pt. 2"

Morphine's "Cure for Pain"

Mount Eerie's "Clear Moon"

Mount Eerie and Julie Doiron's "Lost Wisdom"

Mount Eerie's "Wind's Poem"

Papa M's "Hole of Burning Alms"

Papa M's "Live from a Shark Cage"

Pavement's "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain"

Pavement's "Wowee Zowee"

Piano Magic's "Low Birth Weight"

Quasi's "Featuring "Birds""

Quasi's "R&B Transmogrification"

Yo La Tengo's "I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One"

Yo La Tengo's "Painful"

Yo La Tengo's "And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out"

Yo La Tengo's "President Yo La Tengo/New Wave Hot Dogs"

Neoclassical:

Alarm Will Sound's "Acoustica"

Ethel's "Heavy"

Hauschka's "Room to Expand"

Hauschka's "Salon des Amateurs"

Julia Kent's "Delay"

Mary Lattimore's "Hundreds of Days"

Mary Lattimore's "Silver Ladders"

Max Richter's "The Blue Notebooks"

Max Richter's "Songs From Before"

Max Richter's "24 Postcards in Full Colour"

Max Richter's "Three Words: Music From Woolf Works"

Max Richter's "Infra"

Nils Frahm's "Spaces"

Rachel's' "Music for Egon Schiele"

Rachel's' "The Sea and the Bells"

Rachel's' "Selenography"

Rachel's' "Systems/Layers"

Zöe Keating's "One Cello x 16 [EP]"

Zöe Keating's "One Cello x 16: Natoma"

New-wave rock:

Depeche Mode's "Black Celebration"

Depeche Mode's "Violator"

Depeche Mode's "Some Great Reward"

Gary Numan's "Telekon"

Gary Numan's "Replicas"

Gary Numan's "The Pleasure Principle"

Joy Division's "Substance"

Magazine's "Rays and Hail 1978-81"

Mark Renner's "Few Traces"

New Order's "Power Corruption and Lies"

Pylon's "Gyrate"

Sad Lovers & Giants' "Feeding the Flame"

Sad Lovers & Giants' "Epic Garden Music"

The Smiths' "Hatful of Hollow"

Talk Talk's "Laughing Stock"

Talk Talk's "Spirit of Eden"

Talking Heads' "More Songs About Buildings and Food"

Talking Heads' "Remain in Light"

Tears for Fears' "Songs from the Big Chair"

Yellow Magic Orchestra's "Technodelic"

Yukihiro Takahashi's "Neuromantic"

Noise rock:

The Boredoms' "Super Ae"

Camberwell Now's "All's Well"

The Soft Moon's "The Soft Moon"

Sonic Youth's "Daydream Nation"

Sonic Youth's "Murray St."

Sonic Youth's "Sister"

Sonic Youth's "EVOL"

The Pop Group's "Y"

This Heat's "Deceit"

This Heat's "This Heat"

Unwound's "Leaves Turn Inside You"

Pop rock:

Animal Collective's "Feels"

Animal Collective's "Sung Tongs"

Animal Collective's "Merriweather Post Pavilion"

Animal Collective's "Time Skiffs"

Avey Tare's "Cows on Hourglass Pond"

Beach House's "Bloom"

Beach House's "Depression Cherry"

Beach House's "7"

Beach House's "Teen Dream"

Beach House's "Thank Your Lucky Stars"

Beck's "Mellow Gold"

Beck's "Odelay"

The Chameleons' "Strange Times"

Cocteau Twins' "Heaven or Las Vegas"

Cocteau Twins' "The Moon and the Melodies"

Cocteau Twins' "Treasure"

Cocteau Twins' "Head Over Heels"

Cocteau Twins' "Love's Easy Tears"

Cocteau Twins' "Blue Bell Knoll"

The Cure's "Faith"

The Cure's "Pornography"

The Cure's "The Head on the Door"

The Cure's "Disintegration"

David Bowie's "Low"

The Flaming Lips' "Transmissions from the Satellite Heart"

The Flaming Lips' "The Soft Bulletin"

The Flaming Lips' "Clouds Taste Metallic"

The Flaming Lips' "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots"

Grizzly Bear's "Yellow House"

HTRK's "Work (Work, Work)"

John Maus' "We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves"

Low's "I Could Live in Hope"

Low's "HEY WHAT"

Mazzy Star's "So Tonight That I Might See"

Mogwai's "Mr. Beast"

Mogwai's "Young Team"

Neon Indian's "Psychic Charms"

The Notwist's "Shrink"

Panda Bear's "Young Prayer"

Panda Bear's "Person Pitch"

Radiohead's "Kid A"

Radiohead's "The Bends"

Radiohead's "OK Computer"

Sigur Rós' "Takk..."

Sigur Rós' "Ágaetis byrjun"

Sigur Rós' "()"

Post-rock:

Aix Em Klemm's "Aix Em Klemm"

Dif Juz's "Extractions"

Do Make Say Think's "Goodbye Enemy Airship the Landlord is Dead"

Do Make Say Think's "Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn"

Explosions in the Sky's "Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever"

Explosions in the Sky's "All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone"

Explosions in the Sky's "The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place"

Glenn Branca's "The Ascension"

Glenn Branca's "Lesson No. 1"

Godspeed You! Black Emperor's "G_d's Pee AT STATE's END!"

Godspeed You! Black Emperor's "Luciferian Towers"

Godspeed You! Black Emperor's "Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven"

Godspeed You! Black Emperor's "Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada"

Godspeed You! Black Emperor's "Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!"

Godspeed You! Black Emperor's "Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress"

Labradford's "Mi Media Naranja"

Silver Mt. Zion's "Born Into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upward"

Silver Mt. Zion's "He Has Left Us Alone But Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corner of Our Rooms"

Silver Mt. Zion's ""The is Our Punk-Rock" Thee Rusted Satellites Gather + Sing"

Tortoise's "Millions Now Living Will Never Die"

Tortoise's "A Lazarus Taxon"

Tortoise's "TNT"

Windsor for the Derby's "Giving Up the Ghost"

Windsor for the Derby's "Minnie Greuzfeldt"

Windsor for the Derby's "Difference and Repetition"

Singer-songwriter:

Any's "Mega Mercy"

Björk's "Homogenic"

Björk's "Post"

Björk's "Vespertine"

Carla dal Forno's "You Know What It's Like"

Carla dal Forno's "Look Up Sharp"

Dean Blunt's "Black Metal 2"

Dean Blunt's "Give Me a Moment" + "Burberry SS24"

great area's "Follow Your Nature"

great area’s “Good Coding”

Grouper's "Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill"

Grouper's "Ruin"

Grouper's "Grid of Points"

Julee Cruise's "Floating Into the Night"

Julianna Barwick's "Healing is a Miracle"

Julianna Barwick's "The Magic Place"

Troth’s “An Unfinished Rose”

Shoegazing rock:

Bark Psychosis's "Hex"

My Bloody Valentine's "m b v"

My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless"

Slowdive's "Souvlaki"

Slowdive's "Slowdive"

Slowdive's "Pygmalion"