CONG, OLIVIER - Tropical Church

With Tropical Church, Hong Kong based composer and musician Olivier Cong transposes the humid nights of the rainy season into a fluid audio postcard that speaks to contemporary life in his home city-state. His pieces dwell with a sense of intent, shifting between the sprawling cascades of human traffic, to the moments experienced alone in environments that maintain a strange familiar. Known for his work on film and theatre, Cong's approach is one of generous texture and minimalist forms, each of these contoured by a strong and deeply personal sense of harmony. Tropical Church is a recording that speaks to the emergent generation of new Hong Kong composers and sound artists. It is a gateway to a new audio vision of Hong Kong.

A note from Olivier: "In Tropical Church, you will experience music composed of piano, ambient electronics, shakuhachi, Chinese yuan, guzheng and spoken words, which I think represent my feelings for home -- Hong Kong. And to me, home is an old church that harbors a myriad of unspoken emotions, flowing from the West to East. Complex history hidden within the dampen pillars, the sounds of the city and the foot-steps of the everyday people that liven up the streets. Most notably in the first track, 'I am afraid of', voice recordings of anonymous strangers were collected describing their deepest fears. I'm most touched by the answers as they've shown me the same fears of death, love and being alone we all share." - Someone Good