Azusa Plane

The Azusa Plane was the psychedelic music recording and performance project of Jason DiEmilio (1970 – 2006) of Clifton Heights, Pennsylvania.

His first full-length release, 1997's Tycho Magnetic Anomaly and the Full Consciousness of Hidden Harmony, released by the Australian Camera Obscura label, was highly regarded for its four extended tracks of drifting, multi-tracked guitar drone and gave birth to a spate of lesser releases and live appearances by a trio formed by DiEmilio with guitarist Jason Knight and drummer Quentin Stolzfus (later of the pop group Mazarin, with whom DiEmilio performed for a short time) who were, at the time, esteemed contemporaries of Philadelphia natives Bardo Pond as well as Windy and Carl and Flying Saucer Attack.

Few of his initial fans stuck by him for his 2001 swan song The Highway's Jammed With Broken Heroes, released by the Belgian K-raa-k label, consisting of two grim tracks of seemingly malfunctioning equipment and digital noise.

Between major releases, DiEmilio issued dozens of tracks, most of them recorded quickly and titled for personal obsession ("The United States Investment in Foreign Countries," was one "For Claudia Cardinale," in tribute to a 60s Italian sex goddess was another, while other paid tribute to his musical heroes like the Velvet Underground, the Smiths, Belle and Sebastian, and Wayne Rogers of Crystalized Movements and numerous other psychedelic bands on his own Twisted Village imprint).

[1] His story was told in more detail in a piece entitled "Noise Kills: When Everyday Sound Becomes Torture," published in BuzzFeed.