Backwards Blue by Karen Ng

Halocline Trance is pleased to announce the debut full length album from improviser Karen Ng - Backwards Blue is a collection of saxophone and electronics-centred compositions that simultaneously distills and widens Ng’s restless creative practice. A notable departure from the typical live, ad hoc and acoustic offerings that we’ve come to know from her, this album marks a bold step into new sonic territory.

Recorded across 2024 at Halocline Trance Studios with Producer David Psutka (Egyptrixx, ACT!, Ceramic TL) the two fused compositional ideas from disparate yet complimentary musical backgrounds, bringing together elements of the improvised, interactive, randomized, composed and programmed. The dynamic worlds of Backwards Blue offer an open query to the concept of improvised and creative music, and are shaped by electroacoustic interpolation and exuberant sonics. Saxophonist and audio engineer Joseph Shabason brings a mix that augments the relationship between the acoustic and electronic elements with his deep knowledge of the saxophone and recorded audio.

“I wanted to create little vignettes that examine the (many) different relationships that can occur between acoustic and electronic sources. It was less about how one is different than the other or how a pedal or plug-in could alter an acoustic sound, but rather how they could talk to each other or shift your aural perspective of either, the melding (or not) of both parts, the opposing qualities that together create an anomalous but distinct sound.”

“The concept of colour came up when deciding on track titles. I find it so interesting that something so definitive like the colour ‘blue’ can’t really be described with words,yet we all know what it is. Each track is named after a colour and is paired with a descriptive adjective that does not describe the colour. I’m finding that even so, my mind is constantly trying to search for what ‘Inflatable Grey’ might look like”

In a cultural moment shaped (often belligerently) by technological frontierism, ‘Backwards Blue’ identifies a more nuanced lattice of creative approaches and music technologies, woven together deftly so as to understate their apparent divergence. With this project, Ng and Psutka have created a novel sonic environment that is encircling and vibrant.