Tonight TheWaveVR and Ash Koosha challenge the boundaries of music and take on tyranny with the power of VR.
London-based electronic musician Ash Koosha will perform in the US for the first time via virtual reality in TheWaveVR. Originally from Iran, Koosha is currently hindered by Trump’s travel ban, which targets people from majority-Muslim countries and bars them from entering the United States. In Ash's 2016 Ted Talk from Oslo he challenged where is the boundary of what is just a sound, and what is actually music. Is there even such a boundary? Tonight TheWaveVR accepts that challange
Ash Koosha, who had been imprisoned and blacklisted by his home country for making rock music and films, lives in asylum in London, where he produces what RollingStone calls, “uncompromising, dizzying and dense” electronic music. RollingStone named him “An Artist You Need To Know,” last February, upon the release of last year's I AKA I on Ninja Tune.
Unfortunately, Ash had to cancel his supporting tour due to “extreme vetting” of his visa. Earlier this year, he had to cancel yet another tour due to Trump’s travel ban, and has yet to set foot in the US, where he seeks to promote his music.
In January, he issued a statement on the travel ban, writing, “All of my ambitions, contributions and efforts were reduced to bureaucratic paperwork that left me feeling betrayed and burdened because of my ‘place of birth’."
Ash's wave will bring his audio visual show, AKTUAL, to the US, where users will be transported inside his mind to watch him perform his music and conduct dynamic visual forms using TheWaveVR's revamped performance tools.
