Born in Venice Beach, Ca. in a home two blocks from the boardwalk,
Attasalina grew up between Los Angeles and the wilderness just outside
the Ojai Valley. Her name is her birth name given by her godmother, a
pioneer teacher of Buddhism in the West, and has been translated as
“providing the meaning”.
Her musical abilities can be traced to her
grandfather, a Cuban-American progressive jazz drummer and singer.
Her work is culturally informed by lineages in Theravada Buddhism and
Indigenous Religion and Resistance Movements and focuses on visionary
experiences as a quest for truth explored through personal narratives of
oppression, awareness and survival.
Attasalina began writing poetry around four or five years of age,
loved to sing and asked for piano lessons at age six. She studied piano
and opera through childhood and in college became interested in
photography. She began working as a photographer at the age of twenty
two and has continued to practice commercial and fine art for over
twenty years.
In 2008, Attasalina formed her first rock n roll band, The Seraphim
Rising. After debuting at a former mortuary turned ninety seat theater
and subsequently performing to many more packed houses in their home
town of Ojai, Ca., they were invited to record at a studio in LA. They
tracked a six song EP entitled “Life In Suspension” at the legendary
Swing House Studios in Hollywood, Ca and released digitally on Halloween
in 2011 followed by a CD and merch release from a successful
Kickstarter campaign in June 2012.
Her first release, however, was a collaboration with Daniel Ash (Love
& Rockets, Bauhaus, Tones on Tail). The song entitled “The Soldiers
of Everyday” was recorded in Ojai, Ca., and released Nov. 2010 on
iTunes along with a stunning music video featuring the two of them. The
song is also part of the 2016 limited edition CD release Freedom I Love.
Attasalina has since reformed as a solo project, debuting at the
Desert Stars Festival in Joshua Tree, Ca. in 2014, she released two
singles “Heart of the Beast” and “The Legend of Seraphim Rising”. In
the Spring of 2016, she also collaborated with producer John Fryer (This
Mortal Coil, Cocteau Twins, NIN) for his project Black Needle Noise.
The song titled “Messages By Dreams” released on the album “Before The
Tears Came” followed by a music video and release on vinyl in 2018.
A second collaboration with John Fryer for Black Needle Noise
“Machine” released on COP International in June 2021 and featured
remixes by Christopher Hall (Stabbing Westward), Mark Hockings
(Mesh/Blackcarburning), Sick Jokes, Soman & (London DJ) Samantha
Togni.
Attasalina is currently working on a solo album and photography book ‘Freed From Rage and Sorrow’ which can be subscribed to on Patreon.
PRESS
“Attasalina’s gorgeous vocal performance is haunting and
mesmerizing in equal measure. Strong and soaring in one moment, intimate
and soothing in the next. She takes us away into a land of shadows and
sorrow, but she is also guiding light and salvation. Breathtakingly
beautiful!” – Christian Petke (COP International)
“Messages by Dreams is soulful dreampop; a tangle of barbed wire and
muslingauze that unwinds only by tearing into fibres.” – Cold War Night
Life
“In 2000 Ash hooked up with a brilliant musician and a ‘Annie
Lennox’ style singer, Attasalina, and cut a song titled, ‘Soldiers of
Everyday’. The song contains such a compelling rhythm that with Ash’s
combined guitar work it makes the song a transcendental journey. This
track could’ve easily been a Love and Rockets song. Personally, I think
this is the most unique work Daniel Ash has done during his solo music
sojourn.” – Jefferson Laufer, Rock Bands of LA
“This is a track that is for the smokey, coffee house crowd…beat
poetry with a spacey, electronica soundtrack. To be truly appreciated it
requires a bit of intellect, something that is needed these days as it
is decidedly lacking in mainstream music.” – Fourculture Magazine
“Chilling and assertive social commentary.” – DJ Mac, Woody Radio
“This belongs to that holy 0.01% that totally shines!” – Dani Macchi
(Belladonna) The Noir Hour – Rock n Roll Radio, Italy
“The Real Deal.” – Daniel Ash