Yenting Hsu :: Flash 須臾 (Ash International)

Sound, music, and glass exist as art forms of time. In this album, sound materials from samples of glass sounds are accompanied with field recordings, electronic sounds and voices. Yenting Hsu uses various approaches to imagine and depict the concept of time and different time frames.

Sound, music, and glass exist as art forms of time

A palette of glass sounds, machine sounds, plus hints of people, some very young, blending very atmospheric and textural sound sculptures including factory or industrial sounds, machinery throbbing and textural spices that increase the musical attraction, providing surprises. According to the liner notes, Flash is dedicated to the theme of ‘time.’ Sound, music, and glass exist as art forms of time. In this album, sound materials from samples of glass sounds are accompanied with field recordings, electronic sounds and voices. Yenting Hsu uses various approaches to imagine and depict the concept of time and different time frames.

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Electronic munching. That is what I hear for a few long moments. “Unknown 未知” (3:18) begins a splendid mystery, emerging tones and instrumental sounds that are very sparse and ominous. There is a minimal bass instrument being handled and played, almost hidden in the mix with the electronic munching, and the sound of the end of a vinyl album clicking after the last track plays, the wind-off. The beginning of this first track just might be the most difficult listening part of the album, establishing tension that pleasantly releases in each of the tracks that follow. It is a living creature, put there for us to listen to, I have never encountered anything like this, the munching fades into quiet mystery.

Track 2: Gotcha! There is a sudden big hiss. It is quick and then it is over and the quiet mystery takes over. Maybe I was wrong about the electronic munching intro, and this track’s abrupt hissing moment is the most difficult listening part of the album, this is spooky so far. I like it. In the distance a hidden bell sings a three note call, over and over, “Coordinates 座標” (3:42) emerges from an opaque fog of the sounds of an industrious mechanical glow. Somewhere nearby, on the production floor as the line rolls out, sometimes the machines are run at very high speeds, stuff clatters, this is not a loop, it has some drone aspects, mixed textures. I am thinking about spooky darkness and machines.

Track 3 is slow and dreamy, delicate and complex, many layers of gauzy drones and remote soundings, with a momentary sustained fog horn mood, “January 一月” (5:34), delicate chaos, and midway through, the voices emerge. I hear the vinyl wind-off sound again, a rotating clicking pattern so familiar to the pre-digital audio past. I love the remote sounds, haunting, the quiet close voices are young and old, perhaps a mother and infant, or maybe a caregiver and infant, gentle expressions between big and little.

The mood is changing, things are happening, “Circle 迴圈” (3:46), for this track we are getting busy, things start happening fast and keep it up, no lulls, chopped bits of sound formed into a perfect surreal flow, some surprises jump out. I hear voices, humming, saying a word, singing, backwards, odd surprises, kids voices, adults chuckling, layers and montages of rapid cuts and isolated moments, the mood is playfully busy and complex, a strange palette of changing real life and art mixed together.

Dreamy and loopy, keeping it sparse and gentle, “False or True 虛實” (6:41) brings whistling slow mysterious atmospheric textures, a sigh and now several repeating whistle patterns, not a loop, this is a whistler in real time. I feel lots of peaceful moments with just tiny textural crinkles or hums that coast past, some tiny electronic screeching followed by some rests followed again, I like feedback whistling.

Now I think we are on a train, or near one. “Starry 星塵” (2:23) opens with roaring throbbing metal scraping, where are we? It could be a subway, we are on or within this sound, and there are interesting odd sounds that visit and then fade.

From strange unknown sounds in the dark to feedback whistling ::

This whole album has everything I like, from strange unknown sounds in the dark to feedback whistling, lots of little interesting odd sounds that flow together into the album experience, six tracks of glass sounds.

Yenting Hsu is from Taiwan. She uses sound as her primary creation medium. Interweaving field recordings with electronic sounds and objects, she continues to explore documentary and fiction/narrative and imaginary elements of recorded sounds. Mixing with other art media and artistic disciplines, she creates installations, performances, audio documentaries, electroacoustic music and more. Yenting Hsu is part of the Touch Mentorship program.

She has a BA from the Department of Journalism, National Cheng-Chi University; and an MA from the Graduate Institute of Arts Administration and Management from the Taipei National University of the Art. She continues with her Stained Glass lab collaborative work with the Relight+MUSIC project. Yenting Hsu investigates the cultural context and texture of sounds, her works often reflect the relationship between sounds, environment, individual/collective memories and the surrounding world from an alternative angle. Using field recordings as her primary source material with electronic sounds and objects, Hsu’s exploration contemplates between documentary, narrative and imaginary elements of recorded sounds under the form of audio documentaries, soundscapes, installations, electroacoustic music and performances. She also collaborates with dance theaters and films as a sound designer/composer.

The Blacksmith Project is inspired by Hsu Yen-ting’s life experience in Taipei, Taiwan. This project let me think about her short residency in Chong-Ching, China—she is very often working on the phenomenon of modern cities. Like many rapidly developing cities, Chong-Ching especially has the most rebuilding buildings in the world, Chinese government urges to upgrade this city as “the first grade city” such as Shanghai or Beijing. Local people are almost unable to find a trace of their childhood. It’s not only about the rise and fall of a city or cities, but in this modern society, especially with the internet world, from outer to inner world, hardware to software, everything could change extremely fast.

“And interestingly, in many cases, we hardly notice things that always exist in our daily lives, whatever people, events or objects. We tend to ignore what is always there until it disappears. We start to notice it, we want it back, we miss it. When people in Chong-Ching know that some old places are going to be demolished, they start to get nervous and want to preserve them. It happens in Taiwan and everywhere too. Not only cities, but also in many other cases of our lives. So, what is the existence? What is the disappearance? Which one is real or void? Sometimes the disappearance is more real than the existence, and very often, we don’t have any power or chance to change facts, but since we start to notice those facts, we can believe the energy is still running somewhere. It’s also proved in physics.

“In collaboration with Kappa Tseng, based on the law of conservation of energy, we experimented on sharing energy with fans, objects, and sounds. All the energy from various objects and sounds could affect each other in different ways. The content of sounds was from those objects, fans, electronic sounds and some disappearing sounds of Taiwan, ranging from traditional cultures to animals.“

Her awesome amazing work has been shown at Taipei Artist Village, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taitung Art Museum, ChengLong Wetlands International Environmental Art Project (Taiwan), Taipei International Documentary Festival, Asian Meeting Festival (Japan) in Taipei Arts Festival, Festival Film Dokumenter (Indonesia), Toyama Glass Art Museum (Japan),  Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (Australia), Fremantle Arts Centre (Australia), Lacking Sound Festival and On-Site (Taiwan), Liquid Architecture (Australia), Arte Radio (France), Resonance fm (UK), among others.

Flash 須臾 is available on Ash International. [Bandcamp]