RedShift is twenty-two minutes and twenty-two seconds of reaching for the stars, only to be interfered with and buffeted by microwave static.
[Release page] Recorded live at the Liangcha Shop in Shenzhen, whose “herbal tea” doesn’t come in leaf form but rather audio/visual happenings, art exhibits, and limited edition book publishing. Alok Leung, a veteran experimental soundmaker and founder of Lona Records, is one of Hong Kong’s most energetic promoters of innovative noises, while Zen Lu has been curating events and pursuing his interest in increasingly experimental directions alone and in collaboration with international artists including Poland’s Grzegorz Bojanek, whose latest solo album was recently reviewed in these pages.
A redshift is a lowering in the wavelength of light, such as when it is loosed from the bonds of gravity. RedShift is twenty-two minutes and twenty-two seconds of reaching for the stars, only to be interfered with and buffeted by microwave static. While certainly bleak, it doesn’t qualify as dark ambient, but rather unromantically cosmic. The galaxy is a cold and empty ocean, which is what makes the brief, unexplained siren song midway through so welcome and reassuring. Like encountering a space mermaid.
RedShift is available on Lona. [Release page]
