Howie Lee - Walking on Thin Ice (2023)

Consisting of two improvised pieces and another three compositions, Walking on Thin Ice is Howie Lee and Liu Pi's first collaboration recording.

The EP is distinctive from Howie Lee's past bass-heavy awesomeness or his quirky electronic folklores, and also a departure from the usual projects that Liu Pi has been working on ( Liu's the drummer of the avant-garde band Dreaming Julie and the founder of the Instrumental Soundscapes live improvisation series).

Liu Pi forms structures with his own percussions while also simultaneously dismantling them: "Personally, I try to break the expectations of playing that depend on timing measurement, trying to cause some dissonance in the sense of tempo and looping." In the uneven balance, Howie Lee picks simple synth melodies and long lines of sound out of the void through gestural controls, a technology/technique for playing, editing and mixing the synths he's honed over the years.

The intended sound design here is relatively plain, favouring the acoustic and subtle sound materials, but the impact it generated is nevertheless profound, supplying the audience with inexhaustible energy from the depths of sound. Like ice-skating on a frozen lake, thin lines of melodies glide effortlessly by, disappearing of their own volition beyond the horizon of order; underneath the surface, where musical tensions stealthily and continuously pile up, the improvisation stand-off is at a critical state, tilting towards the inevitable faith of collapse.

Essentially, Walking on Thin Ice is a direct and instinctive collision between the musicians, or to Howie Lee, a 'terma' (Tibetan Buddist term for hidden treasure or hidden teaching) that he and Liu achieved from the frozen and buried snow in the midst of the future.

Tracklist:
1.01 - Howie Lee - Song of Ice (4:55)
1.02 - Howie Lee - New Tension (3:15)
1.03 - Howie Lee - Instant Fracture (4:51)
1.04 - Howie Lee - Tilted Angle (3:27)
1.05 - Howie Lee - The Cavern Looks into You (4:30)