two talented, beautiful and musical women name yasi.

The first of these women is Yasi Hofer. She’s a 22-year-old guitar player from Germany, who released an instrumental album last year, and an EP back in ’07.  I first became aware of Hofer a few years ago, when I found her on youtube. I’ve liked to search for guitar players who are very talented. The vast majority of amazing guitarists I’ve found have been guys. (Why there are so few women playing electric guitar compared to the men.. that I don’t know).

I was therefore surprised to find a very attractive young woman playing as well as (and in some cases better than) the guys. Yasi certainly caught my attention. Here’s the video I found. It has received over a million hits. You can find this piece on her EP. Here it is,  “Tender Storms.”

And here is Yasi performing with Steve Vai when she was only 14:

There are many videos of Yasi Hofer on youtube.. vids she made in her room, including both early versions of originals and some excellent covers, as well as live performances.

This one shows her softer side:

She made her first album, an EP (Extended Play.. a type of album that has fewer tracks than a full album.. 4 or 5 for an EP, vs. 8 or more for a full album, unless the tracks are really long). It is called “Yasi Sounds Like Vai.”  Not the most original album title, nor is it an accurate one. On 4 of the 5 tracks, she sounds more like herself than Vai, which is good. I like the first three tracks, the first one, as I mentioned, being “Tender Storms.”

The second piece is a bit slower than the first. It is called “I.L.Y.” It is full of shredding, dark and moody. Reminds me a little of John Petrucci (of Dream Theater).. Petrucci’s playing on his solo album, “Suspended Animation.”

Third track is called “Violence Prevails.” It’s heavy. Some incredible shredding on this track! This girl was better at 15 than most guitarists ever get.

The 4th track is called “Answers.” This is the one in which Yasi sounds the most like Steve Vai. I don’t like it (I’m not much of a Steve Vai fan, in case you are wondering. I mostly just like his work with David Lee Roth back in the ’80’s, and a few of his instrumentals). The 5th one is a latin version of “I.LY.” Yasi goes for a Santana-like tone in this one. It is ok. I bought downloads of the first three tracks.

Hofer’s full length album is called “Yasi.” I haven’t listened to all of this album yet, just some sound samples, tracks on youtube, and two which I have downloaded. As far as I can tell, I don’t like the whole album. There is a surprising amount of variety on it though. It’s mostly more mellow than the EP, and some tunes sound too much like Vai, in my opinion. But some tracks are good.

Track one, called “Mtec,” (a German word?) is an instrumental.. fairly heavy. Second track is more mellow, and called “Modern World.” Not bad, and Yasi sings on it.. I am guessing it is her voice. Not a bad voice.. not great, but decent.

Other tracks worthy of note.. “Quest,” a jazzy, prog rock instrumental, and the last one, “Boston Bound,” which is quite mellow, and sounds like it was either played on an acoustic guitar, or, more likely, played on an electric, but with a clean, non-distorted setting. I wouldn’t consider any of the songs and instrumentals on this album to be bad, except for a song called “Afraid of Losing You.”

So far, I’ve purchased downloads of the first two tracks, and might buy “Quest” as well as “Boston Bound.”

You can find both the EP and full length album on Amazon, iTunes, and eMusic. If you want to find the full length album on any of those sites, you’ll likely have to type in “Yasi Hofner,” but to find the EP, just type in “Yasi.” Weird. Anyway..

iTunes has the longest sound samples (1 min. 30 seconds). Other sites have sound samples that are a minute or less.

Here is Yasi Hofer’s website: http://www.yasihofer.com/

You can listen to sound samples of her full length album here: http://www.yasihofer.com/shop/

If you would like to save some money, I’d suggest not buying Yasi’s tunes from that link though. Better to find them from the online vendors I mentioned. You can buy individual tracks that way, or buy a download of the whole album, but at a lesser cost.

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The other Yasi I found today, by accident. She just uses the name Yasi. I found her while searching for Hofer. This other Yasi’s full name is Yasmine Aker.

Aker was born in Dubai, lived in Canada, and, in 2011, moved to LA. So far, she’s just released a 4 song album, or at least, that is all I can find by her. The album is called, “The Sun, The Stars, and All the White Lights.”

Yasi Aker’s music is drastically different from Hofer’s. Aker has a unique and versatile, almost eerie singing voice. Sometimes she sounds American, sometimes Irish, but not quite like anyone else I’ve heard.

I purchased the first three tracks. Haunting, dark music. First song: “Open My Eyes.” Slow tempo, well-sung. Second track:

This is the only video I’ve found by this Yasi, which is too bad.

Third song.. slow tempo, moody, called “Lover Songs.”

Last song, “Like A Star.” Musically, it reminds me a tiny bit of Lorde. I like Lorde, but I don’t care for this song. Lyrics are creatively written, but too raunchy for my taste. Not a bad song, just one I don’t particularly like. I purchased the first three tracks.

You can hear the whole songs, not just sound samples, and purchase downloads here:

https://iamyasi.bandcamp.com/releases#_=_

And her website here: http://iamyasi.com/

This Yasi is also on the download sites I mentioned earlier in this post.

I’m grateful to find two talented and musical women named Yasi.  Please give them a listen, and pay for your downloads. These artists deserve your support.