@cbc_music 🧡 7. Watin, Aysanabee “"What's your name?" asks Aysanabee's grandfather, as the song "Nomads" from Oji-Cree multi-instrumentalist Aysanabee, a.k.a. Evan Pang, comes to a close. It's the question at the heart of this debut album, Watin, a project named after his grandfather. Watin's name was changed to "Walter" when he was forced to attend residential school in northwestern Ontario, and the name Aysanabee is itself a reclaiming: the moniker is Pang's mother's maiden name, as she gave him the last name Pang — one that "doesn't have any connection to anyone," as he recently told Unreserved — because she thought it'd be easier for him to find work with a non-Indigenous name. But on Watin, Aysanabee pushes back against his family's erasure. The album's backbone is built with nine recordings of conversations Aysanabee had with his grandfather during the pandemic, where Watin opens up about the trauma of residential school and how he later started his young family. In response to each recording Aysanabee offers nine stunning songs, weaving Watin's story with his own, one core-shaking song after another. "Seeseepano" serves as the album's opening anthem, Aysanabee pleading "Won't you tell me?" backed by gorgeous harmonies; on "We Were Here" his voice holds a rainbow of emotion over building piano and percussion; and on "Nomads," that final song, he cleverly twists his lyrics, singing, "Grandfather/ did we flip the scripture? Grandfather/ I think we've flipped the script/ I'm sure," before the galloping drums kick in. Aysanabee is a multi-instrumental force, and on Watin he joins his incomparable voice with his grandfather's, linking his past to his present in powerful reclamation. — HG” @_aysanabee_ @ishkoderecords @umusic