Tashi Dorji + Heather Leigh

Born in Bhutan and based in Asheville, North Carolina since 2000, Tashi Dorji's trajectory towards his deeply personal language on the guitar has been informed by a vast array of influences tumbling over one another along the day. Soaking up the usual Metal, Punk and Rock leanings in his teen years, Dorshi took the path from there to free jazz, avant garde and free improvisation, with an epiphanic encounter with Derek Bailey's music proving to be particularly pivotal. Without binding to such guiding lights, Dorshi's playing takes an intuitive approach that feels both lyrical and feral, hinting at tangent references that disappear through improvisations on both acoustic and electric guitar.

With a sprawling discography dating back to 2009, Dorji's first improvisations on acoustic guitar came to life on a number of tapes that found him exploring its properties and boundaries between melody, texture and the unknown. A mystifying vision that continued throughout a number of solo and collaborative albums with such luminaries as Susie Ibarra, Mette Rasmussen, Michael Zerang or Tyler Damon on a number of labels like Ben Chasny's Hermit Hut, Bill Orcutt's Palilalia, Astral Spirits or Feeding Tube. Following the vinyl reissue of two long sold out early tape releases and the 'Stateless' LP in 2020, 'we will be wherever the fires are lit' marks his return to Drag City with a collection of improvised instrumental "torch songs" for acoustic guitar, that balance the delicate and fierce in its intimate execution, imbued with a pathos of resistance. Or, as he succinctly put it, "strumming in opposition to the towers".