Producer, Musician, DJ and Dancer Rise Ashen has devoted his life to the study of sound and movement. From his early years as a B-boy in Montreal in the 80s, to his studies at Fanshawe College (North America’s Oldest Recording School) and the Banff Centre for the Arts, his focus has been on applying hi-fi know-how to underground music. He has remixed or collaborated with Brazil’s Bebel Gilberto, American jazz legend Duke Ellington, San Francisco based Bombay Dub Orchestra and Fred Everything, Mali’s Issa Bagayogo, Montreal Juno award winner Miguel Graca, Toronto based Ammoye, Version XCursion, LAL, Eccodek, King Sunshine, the New Deal and Bageshree, UK’s Sean Escofferey, John Beltran, Steph Lefrancois and Josef Malik, New York’s Angel Moraes, Ottawa Algonquin singer Flying Down Thunder and Disco Daddy Trevor “Lifeboogie” Walker, Oni The Haitian Sensation among others. He has shared the stage with such varied greats as K’Naan, The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, Kid Koala and Jully Black among others. You can check out his releases on Afroart, Gotsoul, Dub Fu and Defected to name a few, his mixed series Deepworld on the Balanced website and a few CBC radio shows called A NU JAZZ ORDER. He believes music and dance are essential to human culture and that united, artists can lead humanity towards a more enlightened way of living. “We need to make a shift towards long-term thinking”… Quoting Fela Kuti:”when the higher forces give you the gift of musicianship …it must be well used for the good of humanity”
Appears on
Various – Link Pins
Citizen Sound – Trouble
Ammoye & Rise Ashen – Haffi Win
King Sunshine – That Rag
Rise Ashen – Earth Dragon
Rise Ashen & Trevor Walker – Common Ground
Rise Ashen – Crazy Spirit
Joe Silva – Uncorrected
Rise Ashen – Atma
Flying Down Thunder & Rise Ashen – One Nation
Various – Northern Faction 5
Citizen Sound – Addicted
Flying Down Thunder & Rise Ashen – North Wind
Rise Ashen – Music in the City
Paris to Kyiv – Fragmenti Remixes
Silla and Rise – Debut
Various – 15 Years
Kasm – Stargate
20 Years – Clinton Sly, Ammoye and Rise Ashen
20 Years – Kasm, Rise Ashen & Solidaze
DANE ANTHONY SWAN X RISE ASHEN – DREAM Canadian-Bermudan poet, musician and writer Dane Anthony Swan and Ottawa musician and DJ Rise Ashen started collaborating together over 20 years ago. At the time, Dane was living in Ottawa and DJing with Bellyful Soundsystem. Rise became an instant fan of Dane’s cool personality, music, DJing and…
Various artists Cat: BAL-60 Released Dec 9th, 2023 House Dance Mystics is a musical project, the brainchild of Tangent and Rise, housedancers in Ottawa Canada who create sounds to dance to. Founded by Rise Ashen and Tangent in 2023 it aims to showcase them and a community of guest dancers/musicians/djs who perform together across the…
BAL-59 Melo T & Rise Ashen Music is a Journey Digital October 27, 2023 Brothers from the day they met at the famed Mercury Lounge in Ottawa, Canada in 2015, Melo and Rise have been collaborating on music together since their initial release on the Costa-Rica-based Merecumbe records in 2019. Both accomplished DJs, they bring…
Catalogue: BAL-58 Format: Digital Release Date: March 03, 2023 Rise Ashen & Boddhi Satva Boddhi Satva and Rise Ashen come together for this futuristic deep-dive on the topic of unity. Two big men with big hearts, Rise and Boddhi have been fans of each-other’s production from across the pond for decades and when they met…
Catalogue: BAL-57Format: Digital ReleaseDate: Jan 13, 2023Theland and Rise – Same Home Intergenerational sensational Theland and Rise (Theland Kicknosway, 19-year old Cree and Potowatomi singer and dancer and 48 year-old 3-time Juno-Award nominated global grooves producer Rise Ashen) come together for this haunting slow-house groover. Same Home combines Theland’s soaring contemporary vocals with lush bamboo…
Various artists Cat: BAL-56 Released July 8, 2022 The final installment of our 20 year series lands with two uptempo tracks from some of the original Balanced creators. Longtime collaborators Kasm & Rise team up for a warm, meditative track guided by Rise’s powerful, expansive vocals. As a bonus, the instrumental version is also included…
Artist: Various Cat: BAL-50 Format: Digital Released September, 2021 The second instalment in our 20 year celebration features new tracks and collaborations by some of our favourite artists. Montreal’s king of the dancehall Clinton Sly starts it off with Croatian sensation Stinky Ranks on “Worldwide Posse”. Multi Juno nominees Ammoye and Rise Ashen’s hit tune…
Artist: Kasm Catalogue: BAL-46 Format: Digital Released: June 21, 2019 Stargate is a bass driven journey into deep space and inner realities. Revisiting a 2008 jam with label partner Seed Organization, the final iteration combines elements of bass music with dripping dubby leads, lush textured melodies and mystically charged percussive particles. Michael Red, the label…
Catalogue #: BAL–45 Format: Digital Release Date: December 16, 2016 File Under: Dub, World, Deep House, Dubstep, Downtempo, Techno, Balanced music Fifteen years ago, surrounded by an ocean of wheat and snow, Balanced Records was created to harness the talent from a collective of emerging Winnipeg electronic producers. Since that time, the label’s catalogue of…
Artist: Silla & Rise Cat: BAL-44 Format: Digital Released September 28, 2016 Silla and Rise’s debut album is a sonic experiment blending Inuit throat-singing and futuristic dancefloor beats. Silla are Cynthia Pitsiulak (Kimmirut, NU) and Charlotte Qamaniq (Iglulik, NU) their name comes from the word “Sila” in their Inuktitut dialect meaning weather. Sila is what…
Catalog: BAL-42 Released: May 20, 2016 Paris To Kyiv’s Fragmenti recording was originally released in 2005 and is arguably the ensemble’s most soul-baring work. A sonic tapestry of ancient Ukrainian song fragments and contemporary sounds, Fragmenti marked the group’s fourth recording and first international release for singer Alexis Kochan and her primary collaborators; bandurist and…
Artist: Rise Ashen Cat#: Bal–38 Format: CD, Digital Release Date: June 17, 2013 File under: World, House, Global Beats, Electronic Music In The City is Rise Ashen’s first solo record in 8 years. It is an epic 19 song journey into the depths of Rise’s musical world where he seamlessly fuses everything from traditional…
Artist: Flying Down Thunder and Rise Ashen Catalog No: BAL-35 Format: CD, Digital Release Date: November 9, 2012 File Under: Aboriginal, electronic, house, hip hop On their second full length release on Balanced Records, Flying Down Thunder and Rise Ashen delve deeper into their musical collaboration, bringing together traditional Algonquin chanting and futuristic dancefloor beats.…
Artist: Citizen Sound Cat : BAL – 34 Format: Digital Release Date: August 24, 2012 File Under: Dub, Reggae Citizen Sound & Ammoye are back with their latest single “Addicted”. A driving bass line, blazing horns and distorted guitars sets the tone for Ammoye’s seductive story of her passion for music. Written & Produced by…
Artist: Various Artists Cat#: BAL-33 Format: Digital Release Date: March 27, 2012 File Under: Dub, Rootical Dubstep, Electronic, Downtempo The soldiers of the Northern Faction deliver a message of bass, beats and peace in the fifth instalment of Balanced Records’ signature series. Northern Faction 5 takes a dubwise dive across both Canadian and global culture.…
Artist: Rise Ashen & Flying Down Thunder Cat # BAL-28 Format: CD, digital Release Date: October 11, 2011 File Under: Indigenous Electronic Rise Ashen and Flying Down Thunder deliver a new and unique sound, sharing Algonquin language and chanting through Indigenous and urban electronic music. Honouring Aboriginal culture through collaborative composition, One Nation is a…
Artists: Rise Ashen and Seema D Cat: BH-05 Format: Digital Released: October 4, 2011 File under: house, dub, broken beat, electronic There have been many nights of inner-space drumming and meditative dancing at Ottawa’s Mercury Lounge. After one of these nights, Rise Ashen and vocalist Seema D. headed over to Rise’s studio to jam. There…
Catalog # BAL-23 Format: digital Release Date: April 19, 2011 File Under: house, dub, broken beat, electronic Balanced Records is ecstatic to re-release Rise Ashen’s 2003 album Earth Dragon: a dubbed-out excursion into broken grooves from the four corners of the world. The textures and melodies are bred from dub reggae, Indian fusion, Scandinavian folk,…
Catalog # BAL-24 Format: digital Release Date: April 19, 2011 File Under: house, dub, broken beat, electronic Balanced brings you another back-catalog gem with Common Ground from Rise Ashen and Trevor Walker. Originally released in 2002, this Canadian world-jazz duo draws from the Middle Eastern, African and Latin dance-floors. Deep layers of instrumentation are united…
Catalog # BAL-25 Format: digital Release Date: April 19, 2011 File Under: house, dub, broken beat, electronic Originally released in 2005, this album was the culmination of 2 years in the studio for Rise Ashen between 2003 and 2005. We are proud to re-release it digitally in 2011! In Rise Ashen’s own words: This album…
