Eyvind Kang - Riparian (2025)

This record was a gift to my partner from Kou Records, a new and promising experimental record label. The album consists of two solo longform improvisations performed with a baroque oddity known as a viola d’amore. Kang switches between bowing and plucking while also flowing on the margins of musical traditions ranging from middle eastern, to Chinese, to many others that lay beyond my knowledge. I couldn’t believe he was creating all of these textures on one instrument.

There is something about the spacious, contemplative way Kang plays that invited my full attention in a way that many longform solo performances don’t. Perhaps that says more about my need to work on my attention span but nevertheless, it was very much worth braving the cold for this beautiful surprise LP in our PO Box.