*60 copies limited edition* “The ghost it is, who has come into possession of the Tao, reigns over gods and demons, and gives birth to heavens and earth. It kills the undying, and breathes life into the unborn. The sounds it creates, there is nothing it cannot still, nothing it cannot heave, nothing it cannot destroy, and nothing it cannot make.”

In Chinese, “big ghost” is a phrase sometimes used to convey a sense of utter out-of-placeness. If you see a big ghost, you find someone who walks the corporeal world in their own preposterous ways. A big ghost is not a ghost, it does not terrorise, but neither does it belong. It occurred to Li Weisi that this speaks to the very essence of outside music making. One of these days, he started saying “I saw a big ghost playing last night” after going to a very good gig.

Ghostmass, then, are a collective of such big ghosts doing music together. Started in 2021 as an improvisation unit based in Beijing, the project gathers kindred souls who share the vision for an open musical space where ghosts feel at home. To this day, the lineup has evolved into some kind of a supergroup of the capital’s music underground: Li Weisi and Li Qing are known more widely as the retro-manic electro-acoustic duo Soviet Pop, and as two thirds of the cult alt-rock act Carsick Cars; Yan Jun has been a veteran experimenter of sounds, words, and ideas for decades across various scenes; the most recent addition to the group was Yang KuKu (YKK), a professional aquascaper who plays music in a band for the first time.

“Ghost Meditation” was recorded at GEBI, a legendary underground venue and studio in Yiwu, China. In this album, the band delves into a meditative sonic intensity that lies between drone/doom and harsh noise, drawing inspiration from artists like Sunn O))) and Merzbow, while adding their own eerie vocal and percussion elements. The album evokes a profound sense of stillness amidst chaos. Vast walls of sound blend seamlessly with fragmented noise, creating a heavy, mysterious atmosphere. Each side of the album features a long-form track—“Wu” on Side A and “Hu” on Side B. These titles, though merely onomatopoeic, carry the power to immerse listeners in the depths of dark mountains and rivers, the desolate landscapes.