Sound and color are both waves that physically alter our environment, each capable of evoking the full spectrum of human emotion.

The phenomenon of synesthesia is literally the interpretation of sound as color. Synesthetes and non-synesthetes alike experience music-color association — on dancefloors, in dreams, through psychedelia, or in moments of surprise and inspiration.

Hearing Color asks the question: What does it mean to view sound through color instead of genre, and to explore every color in a contemporary sonic palette? What does colorful music sound like?

James Axon looks to the most cosmic, emotive, and lush varieties of dance music past and present for answers, drawing from the sounds of deep house, dreamy techno, italo, balearic, psychedelic disco, ambient, IDM and the in-between. Sometimes it’s a solo mission, and other times like minded guests join in the musical inquiry.

For this episode of Hearing Color, James Axon invites Alex Kassian for a exploration of ambient and downtempo music.

Alex Kassian is a producer, DJ and artist from Kyoto, now based in Berlin, where he splits his days equally between making music and astral projection.

Alex’s sound is sophisticated and precise (he previously worked on soundtracks for contemporary dance and theatre); it’s also lush and organic, cinematic and uplifting, bursting with optimism and energy, informed by spontaneity and improvisation and specifically designed to promote the kind of out-of-body experiences demanded by discerning ravers across the universe.

As a solo artist, Alex has released on a number of labels here on Earth including Paramida’s Love On The Rocks and Alex Bradley’s Utopia Records. Together with Hiroaki OBA, he is also one half of Opal Sunn, who operate their own imprint Planet Sundae since 2017, through which they self-released a number of EPs, catching the attention of and support from dance music luminaries such as Andrew Weatherall and DJ Sprinkles.

In 2018 they released their first EP Parallax on Nick Höppner’s label Touch From A Distance, and in 2019 and early 2020 took their live show on tour around Europe and Asia, with stops everywhere from Field Maneuvers festival to The Observatory in Saigon and PanoramaBar in Berlin. Their second release, Laika, came out on Touch From A Distance in 2020, shortly followed by Alex’s first solo outing on Love On The Rocks, Oolong Trance.