July 2014
Including sound sources from:
Cheng Xu, Jun-Y Ciao, MaiMai, Yi Tao, A23H (Shanghai
Quintet),
Alok, Dickson Dee, Sherman Ho, Sin:Ned (Hong Kong),
Duo
Goebbels/Harth LP Frankfurt/Peking + Otomo Yoshihide’s / Ground Zero’s
Revolutionary Pekinese Opera Ver.1.28 (Peking Opera Remix III), Albrecht Kunze
Link to Kendra Steiner Editions (KSE)
The ambitious and audacious CHINA COLLECTION is proof
that A23H has no peers in the international underground. This 70+ minute
assemblage is truly epic in scope and dense in texture, while still having room
to breathe—-in the tradition of Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow
or Melville’s Mardi or Moby Dick,
it’s got EVERYTHING in it, and something else comes into focus with each
listening. It’s also full of references and allusions and mirrorings that keep
the mind swimming…
From recontextualized slice-and-dice opera to riveting improvisational
sequences to electronics to string passages to disembodied voices to
turntabling to lyrical reed passages to every imaginable permutation of a
seemingly limitless collection of sound sources, the CHINA COLLECTION is a massive
release, and every copy comes with a liner-note insert where Mr. Harth
discusses the overall project and each track in detail. It’s not just a
comprehensive “sampler” of Harth’s China-related activity the last few years;
it’s also a sound-sculpture created FROM those pieces of activity. Although this
is Harth’s 6th release for KSE, it is totally different from each of the
others, and as someone who has been listening to experimental music since my
teenage years, I can say that I’ve NEVER heard anything remotely like this. You
could isolate any two minute chunk of this album and spend a day getting into
its construction and its juxtapositions and the world it creates.
Bill Shute
