Tsunxmi
Wisconsin-based composer Ava Stedman has been making atmospheric emo music under the Tsunxmi name since 2015. Drawing influence from such disparate places as Tim Hecker, uplifting trance and the midwest emo scene, her work uses droning textures and searing harsh noise to create intense emotional compositions.
Originating as a vaporwave project, Tsunxmi quickly started applying the techniques of the genre in increasingly dense and textured ways, until deciding in late 2016 to start writing original compositions instead of solely using samples. She recently finished a trilogy of releases on themes of death, mental illness and grief, along with working on material for her collaborative project under the name Midnight Express.
In her latest, Broken on reflection, Tsunxmi leads listeners into a Lynchian world of digital dream logic and nightmare fuel, with characteristic skill and artistic abandon. Harmony and discord intertwine sweetly, as textures envelope and then abandon the listener. There is no predicting what direction this iconoclastic post-everything, “future emo” album will go next.