“Yang Chen’s debut album, longing for_, is a prismatic sonic refraction. Chen’s adventurous vision and artistic identity are the points of light...It’s a delight to get lost within.”
longing for _
is my debut album of 8 new percussion centric works each developed in collaboration with an artist-musician-friend who, because of the pandemic, I had missed out on working with.
The theme arose from my own processes of grief and adaptation with the widespread cancellation of live musical events and loss of conventional methods of connection and closeness to my own musical communities.
This album features: Sara Constant (CAN), Jason Doell (CAN), Yaz Lancaster (USA), Connie Li (USA), Charles Lutvak (USA), Andrew Noseworthy (CAN), Stephanie Orlando (CAN), & Sarian Sankoh (USA)
In addition to an audio album, a visual album with videos accompanying each track was developed by myself and Serville Poblete of Slow Drip Studio. The album was released via People | Places | Records on November 11, 2022
Laura Stanley, YANG CHEN IS CULTIVATING HAPPINESS, published in New Feelings
“Although they admit that any aesthetic cohesiveness of longing for _ was unintentional, when each piece is built with the same foundation of love, friendship, and joy, the end products share an inherent connection.”
Ivana Popovic, published in Whole Note
“Chen is innovative and experimental in their approach and gently unapologetic about their ideas...an adventurous, probing, charming, debut album.”
Marc Masters, The Best Experimental Music on Bandcamp: November 2022, in Bandcamp Daily
“Perhaps most compelling are Charles Lutvak’s two compositions, in which Chen performs alone on vibraphone, conjuring up sonic ghosts who appear and fade like flashes in a dark room.”
Tom Haugen, published in Take Effect Reviews
“An aesthetically fascinating body of work, Chen’s sonic journey is one that’s iconoclastic, avant-garde and completely captivating.”