Portland, OR · darkwave · synth-punk

LIGHT ASYLUM

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Shannon Funchess's darkwave project — a cavernous voice over brutalist synths and drum machines, unmatched at volume and unforgettable up close.

Light Asylum began in Brooklyn in 2008 as a duo formed by Shannon Funchess and keyboardist Bruno Coviello, after Funchess heard him play guitar for a friend's project. Funchess had already lent her voice to records by TV on the Radio and !!! before starting the group; the project is now based in Portland, Oregon.

The sound centres on Funchess's deep, powerful voice set against hard analogue synthesizers and drum machines, pulling from early-1980s synth-pop, EBM and industrial but landing harder and darker than most of its reference points. The Guardian compared the group's sound to Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode, with songs built on insistent electronic pulses rather than conventional pop structures.

Light Asylum released the EP In Tension in 2010, reissued through Mexican Summer in 2011, followed by a self-titled album in May 2012. The record drew favourable reviews from Pitchfork, Fact, Mixmag, NME, XLR8R and The Quietus, and remains the group's only full-length release under that name.

Coviello left shortly after the album's release to pursue other work, and Funchess has continued Light Asylum on her own since. She contributed vocals to The Knife's 'Stay Out Here' in 2013, and the Light Asylum song 'Dark Allies' was later used as the theme for the 2019 podcast The Ballad of Billy Balls.

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darkwavesynth-punk