Asher Levitas

Asher Levitas, a London-based electronic musician, established the enigmatic experimental project Old Apparatus alongside a collaborator in the early 2010s. The duo first surfaced in 2011 via a pair of singles issued on Deep Medi Musik, the imprint founded by dubstep pioneer Mala, yet their output resisted easy categorization as it moved between dark ambient drone and suspenseful abstract beats. In 2012 Old Apparatus featured on Honest Jon's Records' Shangaan Shake collection, a remix album drawn from the Shangaan Electro compilation, while cassette imprint The Tapeworm put out the duo's recording 15:24-15:46. That same year the pair issued four 12" EPs on their self-run label Sullen Tone; the majority of those tracks later appeared on the 2013 CD Compendium. Following the compilation, the duo released the digital EP Epirtsder. Also in 2013 Levitas launched the project Saa together with vocalist Linn Carin Dirdal of Marble Arch. Though markedly more pop-oriented than Old Apparatus, Saa retained an equally eerie and experimental character; its debut EP came out on Left Blank in 2013 and was succeeded the next year by the cassette Walking Waters on Overshare Records. In 2014 Levitas supplied a remix of the track "Halo Heart" for Glass Body, the first EP by Berlin-based darkwave pop outfit Soft as Snow, which Houndstooth released. Levitas then joined Mike Paradinas' Planet Mu roster for his solo debut Lit Harness, issued in June 2016. The record sustained a blend of throbbing bass, tense atmospheric electronics, and ethereal pop components, among them vocals from Marina Elderton.