Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, and progressive electronic artist Kaiwei recently released his debut album, Reprocessor, revealing elements of glitch, ambient, industrial, and electronica.
Kaiwei explains, “‘Reprocessor’ is a sonic documentation and ‘musicalization’ of Covid-19 era found sounds, with songs composed between 2020-2022. In lieu of conventional ‘reworking’ (in pharmaceutical manufacturing terminology entails altering processing strategies/combining additional elements to yield varying results) of source materials, over two hours in length of raw recordings are repetitively reinforced, dissected, and extracted for expressive sonic events.”
Guest musicians appearing on the album include Luisa Bressan (electronics, flute), Neeladri Ghosh (electronics, saxophone), and Nick Saia (guitar).
“No additional sounds are added subsequently. The goal remained to make a point of solely utilizing and synthesizing prerecorded samples. They are therefore reprocessed rather than reworked, as performative, and improvisational mediums and lush layers of ever-morphing textures. More than 120 unique samples were captured over the span of 3 years, and over 50 musicians and artists contributed their voices. Among those were Luisa Bressan, Neel Ghosh, Nick Saia, Ethan Cohn, and Brian Marsella whose improvisation ensemble at The New School CoPA inspired the making of this project,” says Kaiwei.
Encompassing 12 tracks, entry points on Reprocessor include “Chung Yeung,” traveling on eerie, industrial textures that exude metallic sonic hues and percolating rhythmic pulses. Whereas “Bamjam” rolls out on swirling tones that slowly evolve to dark, dreamy tones. A spectral saxophone infuses the tune with rippling, haunted notes.
“Identity” shifts and oscillates with strident layers that emanate a quasi-tropical sensation, and then alter to heavy washes of shadowy coloration.
The “Tors” series of tracks, “Tors1,” “Tors2,” and “Tors3,” range from sepulchral, fluctuating mechanistic tones to glossy, shimmering evocations with a brief musical interlude, almost classical in nature, in “Tors3.”
The title track conjures up suggestions of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, with its futuristic and at times organic surfaces. When a tinny piano enters, it produces a surreal, spine-chilling effect.
With Reprocessor, Kaiwei collapses the division of melody and rhythm, shaping unexpected, breathtaking soundscapes.
