Pan Daijing – Tissues

Taken from her 2019 exhibition-performance of the same name, Tissues continues Pan Daijing’s experiments in creating music that blends industrial electronics and operatic vocals into something that pushes through creeping disquiet into places that are ecstatically moving. Of course there is a sense of something being lost without the benefit of the performance the piece was meant to accompany, but the music more than holds its own. Though comprising a sonic palette familiar from Daijing’s previous work, the piece is a more expansive effort, both spatially and structurally, unfurling across fifty minutes as one extended track.

As such there are long passages that feel like some kind of inhaling, a piece gathering itself before bursting forth, which when it does is always impactful, whether it's peaking in grinding noise, swirling banshee wails or more classically operatic vocal interplay. These gathering moments never feel like aimless meanderings though, every moment has a tension to it, constantly teetering between the potential for something gorgeous or something terrifying. This patience and gradual development is key, as the rewards, such as the hammered chords accompanying the whole soundscape growling back to life in the piece’s closing movement, are spectacular. It adds up to a remarkable work of often queasy beauty that never releases its grip.

Listen to: Tissues (all four movements in full)