press kit
jamie awakshidar
jamie awakshidar is a two-piece gothic rock / ambient pop outfit hailing from wellington, new zealand. the current lineup is luna (vocals, mixing, synthesisers) and almaz (backing vocals, keyboard). luna, a veteran of ambient and pop music, originally formed the band in may 2018 as a solo offshoot of their industrial / noise project kagyrgyn restoration, which had seen some success from 2017-2018 in the drone ambient scene with the albums darien and flame. they released two albums under the name jamie awakshidar in the later months of 2018 - there is more beauty in corruption and wavecrash - which were critically acclaimed by many reviewers such as grey lee and odile strik. in april of 2019, luna was joined by almaz initially as support as a session musician, and he later became a full member of the band. almaz's tenure as a classical pianist made him excel at the often-turbulent, classically-inspired passages of complex keyboard work across the catalogue.
their sound has been described as "a powerful surge of uplifting synth tones [...] radiating undulations of malice and entropy", "a moody and gorgeous exploration of synthetic soundscapes", and "a wonderful ambient journey". their sound is influenced by classic gothic rock like the cure and depeche mode, but also embraces the new era of dream pop and coldwave pioneered by artists such as turnover and negative gemini. you can even hear drone music influences peppering the deep cuts of jamie awakshidar, drawing from sources like aube and sunn o))). featured in mixes on nts radio and all across the shoegaze scene in new zealand, russia, and europe, jamie awakshidar continue to play at festivals and smaller gigs throughout their country. mainly, though, they enjoy working on albums, art, and singles. so far, they have released four albums, an original ep, and one remix ep.
luna and almaz are both non-binary, and this transfers often into their music. many of their songs together are protests against capitalist ideas of gender division and identity-based discrimination. everything in the jamie awakshidar catalogue aims to target problems faced by trans and non-binary people both as individuals and as a whole. almost every physical release by the band includes the phrase "trans rights" somewhere on the packaging. most of the profits of these releases go to transgender empowerment causes, with the remainder going to either the record label, the distribution service, or various sound engineers.
for all enquiries please email luna @ kagyrgynrestoration@outlook.com or message them on instagram
about
two-piece voidpunk band from te-whanganui-a-tara, aotearoa. consists of luna (they/fae) and almaz (he/him)
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jamie awakshidar
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