Moon Mad

Neocha
Neocha
Jul 20, 2017 · 4 min read

Back in 2011, ChaCha felt her calling to the world of music while studying on an exchange program in Europe. Soon, she began experimenting with the possibilities of the human voice, eventually wielding it as a musical instrument. This approach helped her turn music into something shapeless and fluid, making it a medium that accommodates the ways she expresses herself. The Shanghai-based independent musician’s memories of travel and the mundane moments in her everyday life both make their way into her music in the form of field recordings, which she manipulates using a combination of hardware and software, a process that transforms them into dreamy, collage-like soundscapes. Earlier this summer, under the alter ego of Faded Ghost, she released Moon Mad, an ambitious conceptual debut album that pulls listeners into a dark and atmospheric world filled with shamanistic energy.

Last month, Faded Ghost held a live debut of Moon Mad in Shanghai. The show presented the album as an audiovisual experience to help introduce the sense of space of different dimensions that she’s crafted with sound. During the show, the constant samples of chanting and bells evoked imagery of religious rituals. That, along with the ethereal feel of the rest of the album, turned the performance into a mind-blowing experience that blurred the boundaries of reality and fantasy.

Describing Moon Mad, Faded Ghost says, “The album explores feelings and experiences of the sun and moon at different latitudes around the globe and the collisions of sound, culture, and technology in these regions. Using and reshaping sound samples collected over five years, and observing the connection that language, culture and religion play on the sounds of a location, Moon Mad looks at the power of tidal fluctuations caused by the position of the moon and the effect this has on language, the calendar, art, and mythology, as well as the weather and seasons, and the effect this has on the mood and intrinsic energy of an individual as well as a group.”

Nini Sum of Idlebeats, who was responsible for the cover art of Faded Ghost’s first album, is also the artist behind the cover art of the new release. In addition to the album art, Sum also created eleven additional artworks that accompany every track on the album, which has been compiled and released as a limited-edition risograph zine. Each zine has a unique, non-expiring download code for the Moon Mad album and is meant to replace traditional CDs while still being a tangible vessel for the digital release. This unique collaboration is the result of two highly talented artists who are both working to redefine the role of their artistic mediums and reinvent the possibilities of collaborative projects, resulting in this union of visual arts and music. The Moon Mad zine can be ordered from the IdleBeats website and on the IdleBeats Taobao store.

Weibo: ~/xhaxha
Soundcloud: ~/chachachina
虾米: ~/chacha

Contributor & Photographer: Ye Zi
Additional Images Courtesy of Faded Ghost

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Neocha

Written by

Neocha

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