Back in 2011, ChaCha felt her calling to the world of music while studying on an exchange program in Europe. Soon, she began experimenting with the possibilities of the human voice, eventually wielding it as a musical instrument. This approach helped her turn music into something shapeless and fluid, making it a medium that accommodates the ways she expresses herself. The Shanghai-based independent musician’s memories of travel and the mundane moments in her everyday life both make their way into her music in the form of field recordings, which she manipulates using a combination of hardware and software, a process that transforms them into dreamy, collage-like soundscapes. Earlier this summer, under the alter ego of Faded Ghost, she released Moon Mad, an ambitious conceptual debut album that pulls listeners into a dark and atmospheric world filled with shamanistic energy.
Faded Ghost 是独立音乐人ChaCha的一个分身，2011年她在欧洲交流学习期间受到启发，开始了这个以个人音乐实验为目的的项目. 在这个项目的实验中，她尝试将人声以乐器的方式运用，音乐也不再有固定的形式和表达方式。她偏爱那些从生活和旅行中采集的声音切片，在硬件探索和软件加工中将其重塑，用自己的方式为听众呈现出充满场景感的声音拼贴画。今年夏天，Faded Ghost于上海厂牌SVBKVLT发行了她的新专辑《Moon Mad》，这是一张充斥着仪式感、黑暗氛围的概念专辑。
Listen to select tracks from the new album below:
点击下方链接试听新专辑的精选曲目：
Last month, Faded Ghost held a live debut of Moon Mad in Shanghai. The show presented the album as an audiovisual experience to help introduce the sense of space of different dimensions that she’s crafted with sound. During the show, the constant samples of chanting and bells evoked imagery of religious rituals. That, along with the ethereal feel of the rest of the album, turned the performance into a mind-blowing experience that blurred the boundaries of reality and fantasy.
前不久，我们去到Faded Ghost在上海举办的《Moon Mad》首发演出现场，提前领略了新专辑带来的独特视听体验。在这张专辑中，Faded Ghost大量使用了具有空间感的音色设置、充满宗教意味的经文吟咏与钟声。模糊了真实与幻想的界限。
Describing Moon Mad, Faded Ghost says, “The album explores feelings and experiences of the sun and moon at different latitudes around the globe and the collisions of sound, culture, and technology in these regions. Using and reshaping sound samples collected over five years, and observing the connection that language, culture and religion play on the sounds of a location, Moon Mad looks at the power of tidal fluctuations caused by the position of the moon and the effect this has on language, the calendar, art, and mythology, as well as the weather and seasons, and the effect this has on the mood and intrinsic energy of an individual as well as a group.”
“人类在最初的时候，崇拜太阳也崇拜月亮，他们研究星辰解读动物和植物，心怀对大自然的好奇和敬畏，认为万物皆有灵魂。他们相信灵魂之间的对话，这种对话包括与自我的，也包括与宇宙万物的。他们通过绳结和舞蹈，图画和文字，水和火，泥土和空气，光谱和声波，磁场和引力，宗教和巫术，杀戮和救赎来解读这些对话。这回响迄今仍在空气中震动，一如月相变化引起的潮汐涨落，影响着我们的语言，历法，艺术和神话，直至四季和温度，情绪和内在能量的变化。”
Nini Sum of Idlebeats, who was responsible for the cover art of Faded Ghost’s first album, is also the artist behind the cover art of the new release. In addition to the album art, Sum also created eleven additional artworks that accompany every track on the album, which has been compiled and released as a limited-edition risograph zine. Each zine has a unique, non-expiring download code for the Moon Mad album and is meant to replace traditional CDs while still being a tangible vessel for the digital release. This unique collaboration is the result of two highly talented artists who are both working to redefine the role of their artistic mediums and reinvent the possibilities of collaborative projects, resulting in this union of visual arts and music. The Moon Mad zine can be ordered from the IdleBeats website and on the IdleBeats Taobao store.
操刀制作了Faded Ghost首张专辑封面的艺术家Nini Sum，这次也为《Moon Mad》创作了封面及每首作品对应的11幅画作，印制成具有收藏价值的Riso画册限量发售，开创音乐与独立出版的新形式。不同以往的是，这次的专辑并没有实体CD贩售，而是在每本Zine中包含一个独一无二的专辑下载码，这永不过期的链接使欣赏音乐脱离了实体播放器的限制。这个项目也是两名艺术家在多年合作和探索后，对于视觉+音乐跨界发行新媒介的思考及实验之作。现在，你可以通过Idlebeats的网站或Idlebeats淘宝店购买《Moon Mad》Zine。
Weibo: ~/xhaxha
Soundcloud: ~/chachachina
虾米: ~/chacha
Contributor & Photographer: Ye Zi
Additional Images Courtesy of Faded Ghost
