Ashley Paul studied at New England Conservatory, following this she pursued an involvement with free improvisation and new music, performing in groupings with Eli Keszler, Joe Maneri and Anthony Coleman, among others.

Matt Krefting reviews Heat Source in The Wire 369: "Her particular blend of songcraft and experimentation stands apart from other artists working in similar fields. Hers is not a case of someone turning their back on experimental music to make songs – there’s none of Cornelius Cardew’s political rigidity, nor any overtly commercial impulses – or of someone who bolts strange features onto an otherwise easy to grasp song form.
... One of Heat Source’s most engrossing aspects is the consistent blurring of the line between the earnest and the affected. “I want your hands touching me”, Paul intones somewhat unconvincingly on “Feet On Legs”. But when she calls upon stranger desires – “I want your skin on my ears” – the words begin to levitate. “Touch me”, she pleads repeatedly in monotone, enhancing the possible implications of the lyric. Placed alongside phrases like “I want your feet on my legs” or “I want your face on my hands”, the declaration “I want your eyes on me” becomes unstable. It suggests craving the obvious desires implied by another’s gaze, but also conjures an image of someone holding open their eyelids to press an eye into another’s body."

Ashley Paul's Heat Source is out on Important Records