11. Pan DaijingLack
I first heard this album when it came out and I was frankly awestruck by it. I mean you could call it noise [music], but the use of space and silence is incredible. I am into classical music, but it’s one of those things were you feel like you have to know before you start listening to it, which always puts me off. So for this I felt like, ‘Well, I know this because it comes from my sphere. I don’t feel threatened by it’. Yet I listen to it and think, ‘This is monumental!’
I wanted something in this list from my past and my future and this is one of those. I took a lot of inspiration from it in terms of the use of space and silence, and also drama. It sounds so futuristic but so classical at the same time. And so I think it will always sound modern and that’s something I wish for in all albums, especially the ones that I put out on my label. Actually before that album came out, I wanted to sign her as an artist for my label, but she’d already signed to PAN. I contacted her about eight months before the album came out. Because that’s what I want to represent with the label: the kind of thing that is experimental and pushes boundaries, but also connects with people emotionally. That’s very hard to do all together, to be honest.
