FAN WU | touch the Ten Thousand Things without dependency | 2023

$25 LP

The Ten Thousand Things (萬物) is both a quantitative number and a shorthand way to refer to the teeming unnameable infinity of existence. Subtending all apparent and sensual things is the Way, which is the seed of what teems; a mobile and mutable emptiness, it pervades within us as the energy of potentiality. The Way's generative unity invites us into an ethos of care without attachment, loosening the stubborn grip of projection and expectation.

“touch the Ten Thousand Things without dependency” was recorded in the winter of 2022 at the Vernon Lodge. It's woven of qigong, morning talks on gut health, the Chaotic Blob fable in the Zhuangzi, vapes and lines, fireplaces and cigarettes, alien encounters, daily donut specials, and winter walks over the high hill. It is a document of friendship, of hedonistic healing; the bubble-sphere of a trance archive. We played for hours, assuming the poses of telepaths in action. We lived together, a cool delight to breathe the same air. Please enjoy our transmissions as we've enjoyed culling and cultivating them for you.

A rotation of synth, electric violin, bass, guitar, percussion, yarrow sticks, flute and field recordings played by: Fan Wu, Matt Smith, Julian Hou, Kasper Feyrer, Eddy Wang, Amy Gottung, Dylan Godwin, Michael Loncaric, SF Ho.

Produced by Prince Nifty.
Mastered by Robert Steenkamer.
Designed by Chang Yuchen, whose two corals "without" and "dependency" adorn the back & front respectively.

Special thanks to Adam, Ellie & Fez at Rural Road 1 for their space out in the county, and to William and Emily for their words, without which I would not be.

With support from the Western Front