Sasami Kantine Berghain

SASAMI (Sasami Ashworth) has been making music in almost every way possible for the last decade, and between playing keys, bass, guitar within Cherry Glazerr and Dirt Dress; contributing vocal, string, and horn arrangements to studio albums by the likes of Vagabon, Curtis Harding, Wild Nothing, and Hand Habits; arranging for films and commercials; and even playing French horn in an orchestra – she has gained a reputation as an all-around musical badass. Now taking a turn to focus on her own music, SASAMI’s self-titled debut will be out March 2019 on Domino.

After Sasami graduated from the Eastman School of Music in 2012, she scored and made orchestral arrangements for films, commercials and studio albums, and worked as a music teacher in Los Angeles, where she is currently based and makes music. In 2015, she joined the American rock band Cherry Glazerr with whom she played synths and toured for two and a half years before announcing her departure in January 2018 to pursue her solo musical career.

On April 3, 2018, Sasami shared her first solo track “Callous” on SoundCloud, which Pitchfork awarded with their “Best New Track” label. On October 9, Domino Recording Company announced that Sasami had signed to their label, and officially released “Callous” alongside a new song titled “Not the Time”, premiered by The Fader, who called Sasami “rock’s next big thing.” Sasami stated, “I wrote both of these songs on tour on a guitar on my iPad with GarageBand plugins and Moog 15 app sounds and then re-recorded them in the studio onto tape with really great tones. So it’s kind of like emotionally scribbling a letter on a tear and snot-stained napkin and then re-writing it on fancy papyrus paper to make it look like you have your shit together.” The songs were released on a 7″ vinyl on October 26. Throughout 2018, Sasami toured with various musicians, including Baths, No Joy, King Tuff, Mitski, Soccer Mommy, Snail Mail and Menace Beach. On January 9, 2019, Sasami announced her eponymous debut studio album, Sasami, and released its third single, “Jealousy”. The album was released on March 8.