"I am impressed by the conceptual clarity of Suki Sou's album Notes on Listening. I can hear common roots to Harmonia's music and I'm sure that many of our fans will enjoy Suki's tracks." - Michael Rother (NEU!/Harmonia), 2023

"A homage to early electronic instruments and pioneering producers - think Suzanne Ciani, Pauline Oliveros and Terry Riley - the seven-track album feels like a healing, mind-clearing walk in nature." - Claire Francis(DJ Mag)

We are pleased to announce the release of electronic composer and sound designer Suki Sou’s deep listening focused debut mini album, Notes On Listening, as a limited edition cd, digital download and streaming on all major digital platforms.

European customers order here at Burning Shed.

Born from a fascination with early electronic instruments, the record is a unique blend of neo-morning electronica, kosmische and proto techno. With its purified synthesized babble and hydrated loops, it’s perfect for accompanying moments of mindfulness, from wiping rain off your nose, to melting in a eucalyptus bath.

Inspired by the quotidian, the overlooked and the pleasurable, and with synaesthesia since birth, Suki has created aural tapestry filled with early morning sunlight and chromatic opalescent patterns. It was built around natural elements, silence and focus. “When the interference is low, and distraction minimum, all you have is your pure focus to listen to every vibration around you. You can feel and hear the everyday differently”, she comments.

Suki is a self-taught improviser who plays by ear and centers her compositions on the fundamental waveforms of electronic music. She uses sequencers to create intricate and layered melodies and rhythms, drawing on synthesis techniques, repeating patterns, and subtraction to create her distinctive sound.

Across seven varied, nuanced and subtly detailed tracks, we hear Suki taking minimalist oscillating riffs but guiding them through endless harmonic pulsations, evoking the natural elements of water, air and light. The ambient drones ebb and flow like the gentle rhythm of the ocean, seamlessly shifting and evolving with each chord progression. Her manipulation of percussion and temple toms creates a symphony of nature's ever-changing weather patterns, which resonate with one’s senses and emotions.

Both electronic sketches and notes on a symphonic scale, Sou’s creations display a strange and ironic juxtaposition, being as there’s a bucolic idyll to the album, evoking the feel of a pre-industrial world. "The album conjures a sense of desire for a simpler time, yet it is also a celebration of modern technology and electronic music. The beats and melodies are in contrast to the pastoral setting, creating a sound I hope is both nostalgic and forward-thinking, blending the past and the present”, she comments.

About Suki Sou

Suki is a cheerfully cantankerous creative who draws from arcane inspirations from across the globe. You can hear traces of the blissful minimalism of Terry Riley; the soft and wobbly electronica that Hans-Joachim Roedelius played on his ‘Wenn Der Südwind Weht’ album and ‘Sowiesoso’ when he was in Cluster; the electro-acoustic compositions of Joanna Brouk; the quiet focus of Eliane Radigue, the hypnotic arpeggios of Laurie Spiegel; the fizziness of Suzanne Ciani’s pop and pour, Raymond Scott’s research beeps, and the syncopation of Tom Dissevelt.

Equally influential to Sou is vivid memories of the smell of cigarette smoke from her grandmother’s room listening to Taiwanese pop star Teresa Teng in the rain, eating cantonese wonton soup, and watching Hong Kong animation and news broadcasted by TVB Pearl channel 1.

Suki was born in the former Portuguese colony Macau, to a Burmese father who was an electronics engineer and half Japanese, half Chinese mother, who was an accountant. “My parents sent me to a Catholic boarding school in Berkshire to study when I was eight years old. I travelled to the UK on my own with just a dictionary; My mother’s theory was that I needed to learn the language all by myself, without anyone's help”, Sou recalls.

After moving from London to the Peak District, Suki set up a home studio and began using Buchla, Moog modular systems and rare analogue systems like the ARP 2500, ARP 2600 and Serge, Synthi from Willem Twee Studio in the Netherlands – all of which helped create this sensory wonder.