Goh Lee Kwang — New Ear 2xCD

Band: Goh Lee Kwang
Title: New Ear
Label: Herbal International
Format: Album, Double CD (2xCD), Digifile
Release Date: 2013
Country: Malaysia
Genre / Style: Experimental, Avant-Garde, Abstract, Electronic, Ambient, Minimal, Drone
Streaming Link: Bandcamp

* Price excludes postage and handling fee.

Remarks: 
Packaged in a six-panel card sleeve.
2 x Audio CD 
Total length of 130 minutes+

Goh Lee Kwang (family name Goh, Penang, Malaysia) is an enigmatic sound artist from Malaysia.

Goh has created sound installations, sonic-visual interactive installations, single and multi-channel videos, improvised music performances, field recording, tape music, works for radio broadcasts and soundtracks for theater, dance, film, and has exhibited in venues in both Asia and Europe.

Goh's works focus on the various possibilities of natural sound and recorded sound, crossing the boundaries of digital and analog, electronic and acoustic. They go beyond language, allowing audiences to experience the work directly and in their own personal way.

With a career spanning over two decades, Goh fearlessly explores the vast expanse of the musical cosmos, crafting compositions that defy easy categorization. Seamlessly blending avant-garde, electronic, and experimental elements, he creates a sound that is both captivating and thought-provoking.

Review Neural Magazine

The new 2-CD release by Goh Lee Kwang for Herbal International includes more than 130 minutes of abstract minimal sounds: drones, hums, acute whistles and glitches – highly synthetic elaborations that the author calls “Vurnmmkied”. The sounds seem to be balanced in a steady way, combining static digitalisms, whose interpretation is difficult, with loops and iterations that are reminiscent of avant-garde minimalist music from the sixties. According to the release notes the author had no intention of creating an easy listening experience. Listeners are forced into enlarging their perceptual range, paying attention to multiple elements simultaneously. We are presented with volumes changes, alternations between empty and full spaces, breaks and twists. In the second CD the field recordings and the buzzing noises (dark beats on the edge of the sound spectrum) become even more difficult to deal with. The Malaysian sound-artist usually makes installations featuring these types of sounds, often in conjunction with visuals. He focuses on the edges between natural sound and recorded sound, digital and analogue, electronic and acoustic, moving in an area of thought where languages are deadlocked and the audience must use personal taste and experience to fill the gap left by the author. The project is not made for everybody, but those you who have the courage to take a listen will find some interesting passages.  — Aurelio Cianciotta, Sep 2014