Today's Song of the Day, as chosen by Gabriel Teodros, host of EARLY on KEXP, is "Source of Her (feat. Salami Rose Joe Louis)" by Astu, from the 2020 album ALTARS on Boyish Records.
On her debut full-length ALTARS, Eritrean-American artist ASTU combines soul and synth-pop to craft her confident and thought-provoking grooves.
Astu now resides in Oakland, but arrived there from Oklahoma where she attended seminary college, married a minister, and then became a minister herself. She had been singing gospel music since she was a pre-schooler, but hadn't pursued non-secular music until her 2017 debut EP Patterns. With ALTARS, she opens up even more, writing on Facebook: "this album is filled with me..every part of me..the parts i’ve been too afraid to see most of my life. and i want to give it to you."
