Krzsysztof Orluk & Bai Tian combine traditional and contemporary sounds into ambient structures. The eight pieces are based on bits and pieces constructed by Bai Tian for a proposed solo album that never materialized and Orluk’s private archive of field recordings, musical phrases and sampled, vintage Polish shanties. Each track is credited to he who assembled the resources provided by the other.
[Release page] The fifth volume in the CHoP release series, a broad brush Polish-Chinese art and ambient music project founded by Grzegorz Bojanek and Zen Lu in 2006, which will culminate in a three-day conference and festival in Hong Kong and Shenzhen just a couple of weeks from now. For this album, Krzsysztof Orluk & Bai Tian combined traditional and contemporary sounds into ambient structures. The eight pieces they created together via the Internet are based on bits and pieces constructed by Bai Tian for a proposed solo album that never materialized and Orluk’s private archive of field recordings, musical phrases and sampled, vintage Polish shanties. Each track is credited to he who assembled the resources provided by the other.
Despite having never met, working over great distance connected only by cables and wires and coming from such different cultural backgrounds, the two share an overlapping aesthetic that neatly marries the digital and natural realms. Orluk seems to think more digitally abstract, Bai Tian more concretely though with a wistful mien. The former’s “Panaphonic” is a floating journey through the innards of a mainframe and his “Mind Spa” sounds like what happens when you get water on it. Bai Tian’s “On the Way” is a lazy autumn promenade irresistibly drawn toward a flute played with the clarity and bell-like resonance of a very sweet trumpet. “Sense” is the aural equivalent of people-watching at a mall that nature slowly reclaims. “White Night” is true synthesis, a kind of panoramic view over a bleak, virtual environment.
The two have undeniable chemistry. There is not a hint of disfluency between tracks. The inclusion of an original, Chinese-inspired ink and water colour on rice paper by Bojanek with the first hundred digipak versions is a nice touch and extension of the spirit of this impressive transnational undertaking.
Structure of is available on Etalabel. [Release page]
