Tasseomancy are a Canadian psychedelic pop duo comprised of twin sisters Sari and Romy Lightman. Their latest album was released in Nobember 2016. For the seasoned loners, stoners, and lackadaisically laid, Do Easy was written as a dead-beat anthem for a generation who was told that anything is possible after the possibility slows. Written in both Toronto and Montreal, Do Easy was created as a lamp shade of hope; of soft survivalism. Serene, strange and magnetically sung, it’s an album that honours its free-thinking forebears without being weighed down by them, creating immersive worlds of loving allusion. Genesis P-Orridge and Kathy Acker believed William Burroughs to be a vibrant beam of clarity.  P-Orridge, a disciple of Bouroughs, referred to “The Discipline of D.E. as a smooth hand of magic”. Romy Lightman of Tasseomancy stumbled upon the Discipline of D.E. (Do Easy), a short story outlining a-don’t-bust-a-gut Buddhist philosophy and “like a gentle old cop making a soft arrest”, she was deeply touched and set out to find the easy way. Soft synths and crystalline harmonies merge hypnotically on ‘Dead Can Dance and Neil Young’, an invitation to “fade into folk song”. If folk song this is, it’s folk of great idiosyncrasy, where vocoded chorales provide atmospheric shading and alto-saxophones drift like cigarette smoke from a David Lynch dream-film. Between the new age synth of “Claudine & Annie”, ambient swoon of “29 Palms”, Kate Bush-like prog-psych of “Missoula” and gently lapping title-track, Do Easy plays like pop from a parallel world. Tasseomancy will perform in Berlin at ACUD on Tuesday, 07.03.2017

Questions

1.What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
Our muses for music comes in a multitude of forms. Some are tangible and conscious and some are not. It really depends and it’s often a challenge to articulate when inspiration arises as most often then not, songs emerge in the strangest of places and there’s really no way of controlling it. Maybe you can engage in certain mind and body practises to allow yourself to be more ready to catch it when it the song comes down the line but most of the time the music will arrive with its own volition; when driving down a highway late at night, while walking through the alleyways on cold winter’s day. Solitude helps so does coffee.

2. How and when did you get into making music?
Both my sister and I began playing songs on oversized guitars when we were around 15 years old. Our grand father bought them for us and once a week we had a guitar teacher named Ted who would come over to our house. We would go down to the basement and play him a song we liked off of Napster and he would chew his gum really loudly and write down the chords for us. Once we understood how the basic song structure existed we began song writing teenage angsty songs separately in our bedrooms. I remember one of the first songs my sister (sari) wrote was about a woman who was stoned to death. Most of the themes were morbid and centred about feelings of alienation and death. This phase lasted all the way into our early twenties and then we finally began playing with Other people and suddenly the joy of music was revealed as a language and a great unifier.

3. What are 5 of your favourite albums of all time?
Alice Coltrane Turiya Sings!
Arthur Russell – Love is Overtaking Me!
Robbie Basho- Twilight Peaks!
Joni Mitchell- Heijra !
anything by Getachew Mekurya

4. What do you associate with Berlin?
Spies, swarms of international youth seeking a visceral experience, a haven for poor artists,
buying ornate loaves of bread from the Turkish market

5. What’s your favourite place in Berlin?
El Matador beach and the Museum of Jurassic Technology

6. If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead
focus on scent!

7. What was the last record/music you bought?
Eden’s Island !

8. Who would you most like to collaborate with?
The spirit of the late Leonard Cohen.

9. What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
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10. How important is technology to your creative process?
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11. Do you have siblings and how do they feel about your career/art?
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