Pak Yan Lau
Pak Yan Lau, born in Belgium, with roots from Hong Kong and now based in Brussels is a sound artist, improviser, musician and composer, who has developed over the years a rich, dense and captivating sound universe from prepared pianos, toy pianos, synths, electronics and various sound objects. Skilfully blending acoustic, electro-acoustic and electronic approaches, she explores sound in a bewitching way, merging these different approaches and sound sources with poetry, magic and finesse.
Pak Yan Lau, born in Belgium, with roots from Hong Kong and now based in Brussels is a sound artist, improviser, musician and composer, who has developed over the years a rich, dense and captivating sound universe from prepared pianos, toy pianos, synths, electronics and various sound objects. Skilfully blending acoustic, electro-acoustic and electronic approaches, she explores sound in a bewitching way, merging these different approaches and sound sources with poetry, magic and finesse.
Member of: Going, The Crappy Mini Band
Traditional Noise (LP)
**300 copies** Traditional Noise, the final instalment in Holidays’ latest batch, is a collaboration between two up and coming stars of experimental music - Mette Rassmussen and Pak Yan Lau - and possibly the most exciting of them all, offering glimpses of probable futures of improvisation across its brilliant two sides.Mette Rasmussen is a Danish saxophone player based in Trondheim, Norway, who first gained attention as a member of Trio Riot, before increasingly branching out as solo artist, wo…
Bakunawa
Easily among our favorite records of the year - issued in a very limited vinyl edition of 300 copies by Cortizona and Stuk - Pak Yan Lau's latest, "Bakunawa", is a truly stunning thing to behold. A continuation of her long-standing "Book of Toy" project, expanded for the first time to incorporate the contributions of a five-piece ensemble, it's a sprawling expanse of deep harmonics and percussive rhythms that channel the magical and poetic into the realms of experimental music, deftly nodding to…
Duo Pour 454 Chordes
**CD edition** Dual piano meetings have a checkered history in the improvised music world. Although innovators such as Satoko Fujii and Keith Tippett have experimented notably with the form, the instruments’ orientation towards harmony and away from abstraction have defeated others efforts. Two piano duos, one Belgian and one French, have found a way out of the conundrum by hewing to contrasts in keyboard preparation and musical direction. Pak Yan Lau and Lionel Malric met in June 2014, witho…
Trudge Lightly
**Deluxe gatefold sleeve with varnish effect including an 8 pages photo booklet.** "Pak Yan Lau, one of the most original pianists of the new European creative scene, has the ability to build complex formal architectures starting from minimal materials – insistent rhythms, barely hinted melodies, electronic effects as evocative as they are mysterious. Darin Gray uses his long experience as the backbone of many improvisational groups with a painstaking work on timbre and a deep and multiform soun…
Live at Atelier 210, Mar. 27th, 2018
**200 copies** SoundShots presents a live recording by Going taken on March 27th, 2018, at Ateliers 210 in Brussels.Going is a Belgian based group that has a skeletal line up which packs a big punch: 2 drummers, (João Lobo and Mathieu Calleja), and 2 keyboards / synths / fender rhodes + plenty of electronics (Giovanni Di Domenico and Pak Yan Lau). The sound that they come up with could be loosely post-rock, but also closely allied to improvised, experimental and minimal music. Their universe is …
Live at Les Ateliers Claus, Apr. 17th 2011
**200 copies** SoundShots presents a live recording by Pak Yan Lau as The Crappy Mini Band taken on April 17th, 2011, at Les Ateliers Claus in Brussels.Pak Yan Lau (BE/HK) is part of the Brussels underground crowd. Her music spans different horizons with improvisation and sound as main focus. Taking the extraordinary out of the ordinary and creating little sound mosaics in a minimal, poetic way, while exploring the vast spectrum of sonar possibilities is the best way to describe her path. She is…
II (Machinery)
Going is a double duo: 2 drums, 2 keys. They bring fat groovy beats, warm and distorted rhodes, mixed with dirty organ sounds and silly 80’s synths. Odd rhythms and polyrhythms go hand in hand with free improvisations and loose compositions.313 hand-numbered copies, laser-printed covers, hand-folded and hand-packaged
III (Disque D'ORgue)
Going's third effort is a joint release by Silent Water and meakusma. Recorded in the span of one year in monthly recording sessions, it sees them venture off into an at times melismatic and contrasting contemplation on forward musical propulsion, 70s crossover jazz and minimalistic and at times downright futuristic electronic music. Over the course of two spun out yet concentrated pieces, light and dark are built into a mesmerizing musical reverie that is equally as contemplative as it is expli…
Going I
A double duo of two keyboards (Giovanni Di Domenico and Pak Yan Lau) and two percussionists (Joao Lobo and Matthieu Calleja). While I know I’m not the onl one out there with an abiding and unreasonable love of the sound of a distorted Fender Rhodes, I’m probably in smaller company with my long-term affection from that early ECM release from Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette, “Ruta & Daitya” (the former’s last venture into electronics?). Going doubles down on the instrumentation while summoning u…
Solo Books
The 8th release on Silent Water's catalogue (although it shows the 009 number, but that's a story to be told another time) is Pak Yan Lau's magnificent solo effort Books. Divided in three parts, as the three different 10 vinyls that host them, it brings all the magic and true imaginative sonic world of Pak Yan, being it on the prepared piano (Book of Wood), on synths & electronics (Book of Star) or on toy pianos (Book of Toy).The purity and the very strong 'naif' commitment that we can hear on t…
Asbestos and Little Rain
Infinitely inventive (and busy) drummer Chris Corsano has paired up his furious kit-exploring with Pak Yan Lau, who uses electronics and the like, but also toy pianos and a ‘typatune’ to squeeze a fresh sound into improvisations. Lots of lovely fiddly small-sound interplay going on here, and thus lots to enjoy. Asbestos & A Little Rain is out on Les Albums Claus.
Chris Corsano plays the drumsPak Yan Lau plays toy piano's, typatune, pendules and electronics. recorded, mixed and mastered by Etien…