Plaza Mayor Company Ltd release Timo Chen's original score for Go Back to China. The album consists of 32 tracks, representing 36 min, 53 sec of music...

Timo Chen puts together some quite extraordinary themes for Go Back to China. I was surprised at how many sweet little pieces of music were buried away here. Throwaway segments that are really beautiful, but you may miss if you're not paying attention. For me this was part of the appeal of this score. It just seems to get better with each listen, ensuring that you're constantly drawn back to it.

Talking about the project, Chen said: "Go Back To China is the story of a young woman finding her way and voice in the world and that world is within her father’s toy factory in industrial China. In the west, we often see beautiful images of China from the Great Wall to the Guilin mountains or glamorised scenes from cities such as Shanghai or Beijing. Industrial China is anything but that. With this soundtrack, I prepared traditional Chinese instruments using paper clips, forks, chopsticks, and other objects to achieve percussive, nontraditional, and often unpleasant industrial-like sounds. Toy sounds were also used to bring a bit of toy factory to the sonic palette. Finally, Sasha’s theme weaves its way through this palette as a melodic interpretation of ambition trying to reach upward and beyond, but always being pulled down."

It's sweet, upbeat and fresh and original. What more could you ask for?

8

Darren Rea