Longing For_
People Places, 2022
9/10
A Toronto artist with a multi-faceted approach to songwriting and a knack for unorthodox percussion, Yang Chen collaborates with friends who are also composers for this highly experimental outing.
“EUPHORIC” opens the listen with a dreamy ambience, where Yaz Lancaster’s vision is fleshed out with creative, twinkling sounds, and “All Good Pieces Have Two Things” follows with fragmented, jarring bouts as well bare moments of sublime beauty in the Andrew Noseworthy piece.
At the midpoint, Sara Constant’s “silt” presents colorful textures that’s interpreted from watercolour images and emits electronic processing with intrigue, while “til the dam breaks” shifts into R&B territory with eloquent singing and plenty of steel pan that makes the Sarian Sankoh track the album’s best.
Landing near the end, Stephanie Orlando’s “crank/set” finds itself in ambient waters, where a bicycle is used as an instrument, and the psychedelic closing track, “Nighttime renewals towards more friendship, more love, like snowfall, I want to sing with you”, takes nods to Chinese pop music with Connie Li’s vision alongside Chen’s execution.
An aesthetically fascinating body of work, Chen’s sonic journey is one that’s iconoclastic, avant-garde and completely captivating.
Travels well with: An Laurence- Almost Touching; Warp Trio- Warp Trio’s Pandemic Disco Fantasy