Yin: Float Into the Weekend with Beijing Label Prajnasonic’s New Series, “atmos”

Yin (音, “music”) is a weekly RADII feature that looks at Chinese songs spanning hip-hop to folk to modern experimental, and everything in between. Drop us a line if you have a suggestion.

Ending this week with the soft touch of R0008313, a short EP of jagged ambience that Beijing producer iimmune put out yesterday:

This is the second release under a new series called atmos, launched last month by Beijing avant-techno label Prajnasonic. Though the label’s four core members — iimmune, Far Infinity, Punx, and VU — met in the club, they come at their craft from very different directions. For his part, iimmune — aka Xing Jiangbo — is equally active on the rock circuit, as guitarist of popular indie band Glow Curve. His background on not-software instruments turns up in his productions, like the one above, which strikes his trademark balance between musical depth, the meticulous creation of cavernous space, and the hypnosis induced by cold, repeated rhythm. He’s also a seasoned hand in Beijing’s experimental music scene, as a member of the fluid nojiji collective, and the atmos series aims to capture some of the freer-roaming elements from the overlap between China’s rock, electronic, and noise scenes.

The series kicked off in April with a release of modular synth nerdery from Qu Ruining, one of the most active musicians in the northeastern port city of Dalian and a member of the band Which Park. Submerge yourself in that one here:

Prajnasonic plans to drip out new releases within the atmos series on a fairly regular basis, with the next one on deck for Beijing-born, Berlin-bound minimal techno producer Menghan. If you want to keep up with these moves, the best place to follow them is on WeChat (@PRAJNASONIC), but they also check in to Soundcloud, Bandcamp, and Facebook from time to time.

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Cover photo: Dalian artist Ruining (Prajnasonic WeChat)

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