Exposé Online banner

Exposé Online

Not just outside the box, but denying the existence of boxes.
Covering music from the fringes since 1993.

Reviews

Lingyuan Yang — Cursed Month
(Bandcamp Chaospace no#, 2025, CD / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2025-10-10

Cursed Month Cover art

Lingyuan Yang is a Chinese born composer and guitarist, educated in the USA, who has recently relocated to The Netherlands, where he is pursuing a Master’s degree in composition; Cursed Month is his debut album. Cursed Month (败月) is a term drawn from Chinese astrology, where each of the twelve animal signs is said to have a corresponding inauspicious month, or a time considered unlucky to be born. The seven tracks herein seem to straddle the worlds of progressive rock, free improvisational jazz, electronics and experimentalism — particularly that of microtonal scales, which is one of his primary areas of interest. Joining him in this endeavor is New York City-based pianist Shinya Lin, who has a pretty impressive resume himself, being part-time faculty at the New School, where Yang studied in New York, and Brooklyn based drummer and percussionist Asher Herzog. This is anything but your standard guitar / piano / drums trio, in fact one can hear all sorts of extended piano  and guitar techniques (including his overdriven quarter-tone electric sound), mixed with electronics and much more. “Send Off the Ghosts” is a profound example of the free jazz improv, guitar techniques, and the all-at-once all-the-time manic fury of this trio, with all three musicians reaching pretty far out there. But it’s not all chaotic madness — “Spring Snow” which follows it, is rather gentle and beautiful, tame by comparison until one hits the midpoint of the piece, after which it turns to an exercise in rhythmic complexity that will boggle the mind. The majestic eleven-minute opener “Ritual Fire” is a pinnacle of power, shifting around freely from one idea to the next, with one foot in the prog rock world, another in the jazz realm, and all embracing mysterious scales that might drive some listeners crazy, though the piano acts as the anchor that holds it all together. “The Song of the Mist” is a slow build, and at the point where the piano and drums finally reach a crescendo, the guitar dives into the mix headfirst and together they carry the piece to its conclusion. Closing the set, “The Sound of the Mountain” begins in a very free and chaotic way, but eventually incorporates some electronics and the sound reaches massive intensities before the ending. This opening salvo is a promising start, and I look forward to hearing what comes next.

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases

Related artist(s): Lingyuan Yang

More info
http://lingyuanyang.bandcamp.com/album/cursed-month

 

What's new

These are the most recent changes made to artists, releases, and articles.