Divine Weight

Beyond the personal consciousness, there is the familial consciousness, above the familial there is the cultural, above the cultural, the historical, and so on ascending into the vast cosmical or spiritual consciousness. The conception of Divine Weight derives from Zhang’s “failed” attempts of saxophone compositions and recordings accumulated over the last 3 years, from there it became the actual stem tracks that were heavily digitally disfigured until it no longer resembled the sound of saxophones. Like dreams, visions often come to us without us having the capability to measure or understand fully what they mean. Similar to Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Psychomagic, dreams and visions take on the roles of witnesses inside the uncharted labyrinth of the personal sub-conscious. To witness, is to believe. To believe, is to project a certain reality onto the external world. The projection then, has nothing to do with reality. Perhaps it’s where dreams go, after it dies.

In what is essentially a radical remix project, the artist formerly known as Dirty Beaches refines his own imperfect saxophone recordings into something radiant and pure.

Florence + The Machine open up old wounds (and stick to old sounds) on High As Hope, while both Gorillaz’s The Now Now and what should be Teyana Taylor’s breakout moment, K.T.S.E., feel unfocused and undercooked. These, plus Panic At The Disco, Jim James, and Dirty Beaches’ Alex Zhang Hungtai in this week’s notable…

Alex Zhang Hungtai is influenced as much by filmmakers as fellow musicians.