Li Yilei - NONAGE
“Growing up has always been a solitary journey, marked by forward-looking anticipation, anxiety, unripe potential, aspirations, and closures.”
London based Chinese composer and multi-instrumentalist Li Yilei returns to Métron Records with NONAGE, their second full length release following 2021’s OF. An introspective reflection on the journey through childhood, this new work brings together samples from old Chinese TV shows, mechanical children’s toys and an array of acoustic and electronic instruments - some of which were designed and built by Li themselves.
The Chinese title for "NONAGE" is "垂髫", which translates to “childhood” or “disheveled hair”, and refers to the carefree phase of life when children let their hair down, both figuratively and literally. For Li, nonage is a place that they always revisit - to learn about fear and fearlessness, love and despair, grief and glee, curiosity and mistakes.
“I remember pressing piano keys like touching flowers, reading scores like looking at paintings, writing like how I would talk to myself, greeting death like how I would greet life.”
Initially conceived as an archiving project, the record retraces and reimagines fractions of Li’s childhood memories through smell, location and colour, and brings to life the lingering feelings that remain into adulthood.
Compositions are built around a variety of unusual sources: damaged instruments such as a toy piano, a hand cranked music box, bird whistles, a broken accordion and anything else Li could find that evoked nascent recollections. Interspersed throughout are samples from Li’s childhood piano jams, moments of contemplative transmigration where previous incarnations of self and memory meet the present.
Written and Recorded by Li Yilei.
Mastering by Brandon Hocura.
Artwork by Li Yilei.
P & C Métron Records 2024.
© + ℗ 2024. Métron Records. All rights reserved. Unauthorized copying, reproduction, hiring, lending, public performance and broadcasting is strictly prohibited.
Dasom Baek - Mirror City
Dasom Baek is a Seoul based composer and performer of traditional Korean instruments, specialising in the daegeum and sogeum, types of ancient Korean bamboo flute that have a deep historic and cultural significance.
‘’I think the charm of wind instruments is that their sound is based on how you breathe. The stories I’ve kept in my mind I breathe into the instrument - they become music’’
On her latest album Mirror City, Dasom explores ideas of solitude and community within cities and the effects this has on inhabitants. Wishing to hold a mirror up to modern life, she uses music to express the emotions of the people living in the city.
“People have plenty of choices and the convergence of all these choices create infinite possibilities in the city. What impact have I left on my city through my choices?”
Dasom’s contemporary expression of these ancient instruments bridges the gap between traditional craftsmanship and contemporary sonic experimentation. Sparse and spacious, Mirror City layers textured ambient sounds and chopped dusty vocal patterns, all set to the rasping and rich timbres of the daegeum and sogeum.
Mirror City also features the incredible work of Minseon Choi who plays ajeang on the album; a zither with twisted silk strings that is played with a slender stick. Collectively the sogeum, daegeum and ajeang represent a part of Korean musical culture that is starting to regain more attention. With Mirror City, Dasom Baek hopes to showcase the power these heritage instruments can have in contemporary music.
As an accomplished soloist, Dasom has performed all over the world with esteemed orchestras, played international music festivals including SXSW and has received academic recognition from prominent Korean arts institutions as well as a PhD at Seoul National University.
Written by Dasom Baek.
Ajaeng by Minseon Choi.
Recorded and mixed by Sanghyun Cho.
Mastered by Brandon Hocura.
Artwork by Sukyeong Jeong.
© + ℗ 2023. Métron Records. All rights reserved. Unauthorized copying, reproduction, hiring, lending, public performance and broadcasting is strictly prohibited.
Audrey Carmes - Quelque chose s’est dissipé
Audrey Carmes is a composer and artist based in Paris, France. Having graduated from the Paris School of Fine Art, she found herself drawn towards the city’s experimental electronic music, developing a sound practice that she combined with her poetry and writing.
On her spellbinding debut album Quelque chose s'est dissipé, Carmes creates spacious worlds that shimmer with subtle intricacy. Inspired by krautrock, ambient and avant-garde electronic music, the French artist draws on a range of sonic elements to create her own distinct blend of sound design and composition.
Songs build through evolving layers of synthesizer, easing the album seamlessly through its eleven tracks, surrounding Carmes’ delicate vocals and spoken word segments with bass guitar, vibraphone and flute.
“This album was conceived as a contemplative journey, a remedy spelt with whispers, hushed soundscapes and repetitive patterns, it hosts the wish to find both appeasement and peaceful strength”
For Carmes, the making of the album became a path towards healing. Examining her thoughts and experiences, she treated the creative process as an experiment in care. Indeed, the rough English translation of the album title reads ‘something has dissipated’.
“Through this project I entered into movements of introspection and reconstruction. It was a kind of a meditation on the vertigo of our existence by approaching the void, getting lost and finally coming back to familiarity’’
Quelque chose s'est dissipé will be released on July 26th on LP and digital formats via Métron Records and features cover artwork drawings by the artist.
Written & Recorded by Audrey Carmes.
Mastered by Brandon Hocura.
Artwork by Audrey Carmes.
'Printemps' composed with Vadim Pigounides.
Bass guitar recorded at studio La Mami
with Bertrand Fraysse.
© + ℗ 2023. Métron Records. All rights reserved. Unauthorized copying, reproduction, hiring, lending, public performance and broadcasting is strictly prohibited.
Early Fern - Perpetual Care
The bulk of Perpetual Care, Early Fern’s third album for Métron Records, was inspired by memories of a time and place of great emotional significance. Early and their partner had been working at a rural farm in Central New York, living in a small campervan nestled in a valley between two long ridges, with flowing creeks and rocky waterfalls, surrounded by hemlock and maple trees.
Unexpectedly they were evicted from this place of vast natural wonder and their lives were hastily upturned. Unable to return to the place they had grown so fond of, Perpetual Care stands as a document to this moment of upheaval in Early’s life and the recollection of their former home.
“Creating music was a refuge, a place where I could create freely and openly both within and beyond my emotional state. In a way, I think of this as a break-up album with a place I had fallen in love with.”
A deeply personal record, Perpetual Care stands as the first musical creation from Early after beginning hormone replacement therapy for gender transition, an experience they believe heavily informed their relationship to their memories and to these songs.
But despite this intimacy, with Early bravely sharing their interior experience with the world, Perpetual Care is an overflowing and expressive ode to the life force of Mother Nature. Densely layered, the album ebbs and flows and stands as a rich sonic monument to the beauty and healing power of nature.
‘’ The name Perpetual Care was drawn from some little signs which were placed around the local cemeteries, but I expanded the meaning to fit my needs. In my time of greatest deprivation, I am privileged that my needs were still met. When the people and places I love are gone from my life, their memories dwell inside me in Perpetual Care.’’
Owing to their nomadic lifestyle, Perpetual Care is borne from technical and physical limitations. Created using a cheap digital piano, a laptop, a gifted bass guitar and a clarinet, the work interweaves live instrumentation with field recordings taken from sites around the farm.
It also marks the first time Early has been able to collaborate with another person in their musical practice. Lead single ‘Softly Brushed By Wind’ features Joseph Shabason contributing some beautiful wind work in a synergetic experience Early called “deeply gratifying and inspiring”.
Perpetual Care is music to honor the hills and valleys in which it was composed.
Even in times of pain and tumult, even amidst manmade deprivation and destruction, you are inseparably enveloped by a world which provides for you. Thanks Mom, Caroline, Joseph, Steve, Casper, Trevor, Katie, and Lydia for your help and support, and of course, your ears.
Written & Recorded by Early Fern. Wind Instruments on ‘Softly Brushed by Wind’ by Joseph Shabason.
Mixed & Mastered by Kabamix. Artwork by Early Fern.
P & C Métron Records 2023.
© + ℗ 2023. Métron Records. All rights reserved. Unauthorized copying, reproduction, hiring, lending, public performance and broadcasting is strictly prohibited.
Grant Chapman - Indentations
Recorded in its entirety using just a laptop, a pair of headphones and a midi sampler, Indentations is the debut full length album from New York based percussionist and producer Grant Chapman.
Indentations draws deeply on Chapman's personal experiences surrounding loss and betrayal. An intimate work reflecting the struggle of dealing with traumatic experiences, the album makes the case for equilibrium following life-altering experiences.
‘’The album is a meditation on the sheer weight a broken relationship can have on two people. A personification of the stages of grief one feels when growing apart from someone they love, for reasons they can’t seem to reckon with or comprehend.’’
Working from his East Village apartment, Indentations is a rich amalgam of intricately layered found sounds, almost all of which were found on YouTube, taking in influences that range from ASMR to acapella choral performance.
The effect is dizzying in its depth and scope. Chapman has created a boundless emotional musical journey that can feel both deeply intimate and cosmically vast.
Written & Recorded by Grant Chapman.
Mixed & Mastered by KABAMIX.
Artwork & Photographs by Grant Chapman.
Design & Layout by Jack Hardwicke.
© + ℗ 2023. Métron Records. All rights reserved. Unauthorized copying, reproduction, hiring, lending, public performance and broadcasting is strictly prohibited.
