Ashkan Kooshanejad

Ashkan Kooshanejad (Persian: اشکان کوشانژاد; born 13 August 1985), also known as Ash Koosha, is a British-Iranian multidisciplinary artist, futurist, innovator[1] and technology entrepreneur[2] living in London, United Kingdom. He is known to use computer software artificial intelligence and virtual reality in his work. He is the founder of Auxuman Inc.[3] He played the lead role in an Iranian-Cannes jury prize winner docufiction film by director Bahman Ghobadi called No One Knows About Persian Cats, which follows his band's story scouring the Iranian underground music scene trying to find musicians to play in a festival in the UK.[4] [5]

Kooshanejad sought asylum in the UK as a result of the reaction to the film in Iran.[6][7]

Kooshanejad released the album GUUD in 2015. The video for "I Feel That" was directed by digital artist Hirad Sab.[8] The album has received positive feedback and support from music critics such as pitchfork (website).[9] The album holds a rating of 4.4/5 on discogs.[10]

He released his second LP I AKA I on London label Ninja tune which has gained critical acclaim worldwide. The album holds a rating of 8/10 on Allmusic and 79 on Metacritic[11] I AKA I was accompanied by CGI videos created by Hirad Sab and was premiered on Adult Swim.[12]

In 2015 he introduced the concept for the world's first virtual reality album and has developed multi sensory experiences for songs such as Snow, OTE, Stained and Eluded since.[13] He has performed using a virtual reality headset for the first time at the London Institute of Contemporary Art, in collaboration with TheWaveVR.[14]

In 2018 he introduced a virtual singer named "YONA" using advanced technologies[15]

In 2019 he founded Auxuman inc., a technology company building virtual musicians using artificial intelligence[16]