Xia Lang – Codex

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Conversations with Xia Lang remain enigmatic. As far as determining his intentions, the 21 year old Beijing native appears to puzzle even himself. Citing a desire to abandon conventions and rebuke ritual in favor of daring experimentations, he nevertheless appears bound to the traditions that precede him. The declassified works contained in Codex exemplify Xia’s stance in his art: his sound counters the rigid norms demanded by his day job producing music for commercial media, fully embodying his outlook on the global creative landscape. Yet it remains familiar, if only distantly so.

By day Xia works toward completing a university degree while excelling in a job scoring ads, TV, and video games. He hopes to eventually compose for films – like Ryuichi Sakamoto – and one day carve a distinct stylistic lane for himself where sound meets picture. For now, he concedes to being a go-to composer in his field crafting music for broad appeal – a one-man orchestra playing the same hits over and over.

It was in the early days of university that he was finally able to visualize his path forward. Stumbling upon a chance performance by Yuyu Feng (aka Fishdoll), he found inspiration. Yuyu had just returned from New York, recently releasing music with local label Paxico Records. The two met after the show; song drafts and emails of encouragement soon followed. Yuyu saw a special quality in Xia’s instincts – something equally delicate and devastating unique to his artistic sensibilities. Xia felt the satisfaction of making music for himself, retreating deeper into the trenches of his abilities and imagination. After long days at work and in class, the late night became Xia’s arena to become the architect of his own sonic structures. The end result of his constructions would form his genre-defying multidimensional debut collection, Codex.

Spanning 30 minutes and a myriagon of styles, Codex flutters through cataclysmic IDM inflections, weightless baroque colorations, and swaying samba sensibilities. At no point does it fall comfortably under one label, rather finding solace as a shapeshifter. High flying string arrangements nod toward Xia’s work composing for picture, pairing rich neo-classical sentiments with a tasteful sampling of otherworldly electronic delights and blue jazz piano strikes. Xia’s work carefully meets Satie with Autechre with Bill Evans, only to violently mix them into a vibrant bloody pulp to create a new canvas. All moments of stylistic clarity are forced through a prism – twisted and reflected back at the music it once referenced as a deliberately vague adulteration of its former self.

Codex follows the beat of Xia’s drum in both abstract and material ways. “The Corridor”, along with the title track, marches at a swaying pace – impressed by round bass notes and open piano. “That, There,” “Angles,” and “Steps” explore the hollowed cavities of Xia’s investigations in structure, flipping traditional notions of arrangement into phantasmic mechanical rhythms. “Reddish,” featuring vocals from Fishdoll, finds an intersection where Codex’s stylings converge – blending latin-jazz influences with a soaring choir of arpeggiated vocal clips, all collapsing into a somber conclusion of solo piano; or, Xia left alone with his primary tool of invention.

Xia intends to carve his own space rather than encode a message. His goal through his art, while not explicit, is easily recognized through his enthusiasm for seeking newness in the midst of noise:

“I find beauty in little accidents…it’s really hard to give them meaning. I want to create – chords with color, beauty, and accidents.”