Xia Ye

《Xia Ye》的音乐创作萌芽于 2020 年 2 月初，Night Swimmer 在家乡湖北黄冈的封城生活经历 —— 一次雨后夜游山郊之旅。在对名为“蚊虫山”的攀爬探索之中，泥泞但闲暇自在的步伐带来了长久遗失的旷野独处之乐趣，但外部世界开始质变的那些混乱且沉重的征兆，也不断撕扯着这份自在。自然带来的原始慰藉已抵达，但其所创造的心灵景观开始了波荡扭曲。
在随后的两年时间里，日常的苦闷与琐碎、对超验主义的理想与爱、城市之间的无目的流转、以及外部环境的剧烈变化，与脑海中“蚊虫山”的记忆嘈杂交错，汇聚成《Xia Ye》的叙事碎片。Night Swimmer 在模拟电子、采样及人声之中溯源音乐记忆里的世纪末 New Age 以及各类乡间神秘仪式的声响，在传统中国乐器声色和幽暗旋律中勾连回忆与现在，呈现一次完整的内部探索之旅。
《Xia Ye》并非对当下的精神困境之解药，它是对个体危机、精神变迁与自然慰藉的一次记录。每个人都可以在这块闲暇旷野之地感获某种意义，于现实风暴之中寻得新的安宁。
During a nighttime visit to a mountain called “蚊虫山” (Mosquito Hill), located in his hometown, Huanggang, Hubei Province, the idea for Night Swimmer’s full-length album, Xia Ye, came into being under the bleak and harsh background of a city lockdown, during the early outbreaks of COVID 19. The journey began with an unrestrained and immersive exploration into the nocturnal wilderness of the mountain. The dim-colored environment refreshed and inspired his mind without any human contact. Yet, the thoughts of the chaos and ordeals rampaging in the external world began to resurge, relentlessly lashing back at his long-lost mental serenity; A spiritual terrain was formed and modified.
In the following two years, every aspect of his life: the intermittent gloom and triviality of daily living, the continuing ideal and love for transcendentalism, the nomadic wanderings among cities, and some looming befuddlement over the still-happening chaos around this world, all turned into winds and waves carving this spiritual landscape and finally condensed into the symbols behind each track in Xia Ye. In Chinese, Xia Ye can mean either chill night or chill field. To delineate this transformed state of mind, Night Swimmer employed analog synths, organic samples and human voices that are essentially redolent of his listening experiences of 90s New Age music and local rituals in his hometown when he was a child. Xia Ye meanders through the past and the present via traditional Chinese instrumental sounds and melodies, conjuring up a wholesome inquiry into this imagined field of self.
Xia Ye is not an antidote to the spiritual crisis of the contemporary world. It is a memoir of the transformation of the inner self. But, these sounds and melodies can hopefully help achieve some meaning and peacefulness for those also finding themselves lost amid the realistic, grueling storms spreading worldwide.