Sonoluminescence
A 12 track leftfield/idm album (55m 12s) — released November 29th 2024 on NX Records
Richard Greenan's NX imprint delves into the wellspring of sonic arts at Goldsmiths University, coming up with an IDM beauty by Chinese debutante Jia Wei Chong, aka 76%.
In Chong's own words, Sonoluminescence is 'inspired by the mesmerising phenomenon where sound waves cause microscopic bubbles in liquid to implode and emit brief flashes of light'. True to his word, 76% proceeds to uncap a plunderphonic geyser - sloshing sample manipulation against an array of analogue synths and mutant percussion.
Each piece is an otherworldly sonic interpretation of a natural phenomena. Rippling, erupting melodies are painstakingly blended with samples of water, the cracking of bursting bubbles, and echoes that reflect light scattering through liquid. Chong's focus veers from a tangled mass of creaking fibres ('Knot'), to children bouncing balls through a vortex ('Mod 2'), and the heaving salt and sulphur of the Mexican coastline ('Cancun').
Listeners are coaxed through layers of fetid, peaty trip hop on 'Soft Soil', before a spiky amble across tarmac on 'Walkwave' - the crunching, three-legged rhythms for which were generated using Chong's very own home-made shoe-installed snythesizer (??!). Light is decoded into zero g serialist tones on 'Red and Black', before closing with an earth splitting homage to the perpetually rumbling 'Mount Yasur'.
Recommended if you like Autechre, Daphne Oram, Suzanne Ciani.
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