INTRODUCTION

Elaine Cheng  鄭依玲 (she/her) is a composer/sound artist from Edinburgh, Scotland and from Hong Kong descent. Her practice is currently based around producing drone music from analog and modular synthesisers and has come from a compositional background in electroacoustic music. Elaine has also explored free improvisation as a compositional tool in her work. 

Elaine has studied at Goldsmiths, University of London, Newcastle University and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. She has released music with NX Records, TingShuo HearSay and The Lumen Lake. Her music has been played on various independent radio shows as well as BBC Radio 3 and NTS Radio.  

Elaine has exhibited sound work in the Culture Lab, Square One and Occasion Festival in Newcastle, as well as at Trinity Apse in the Edinburgh Student Arts Festival (ESAF). In 2017, she was nominated for an award for her work, Happy Accidents, at the Edinburgh Student Arts Festival.  

INTERVIEW

How did you get into composition/sound design? What initially inspired you?

I'm a classically trained musician and wanted to compose from a young age. What got me into the kind of composing I do now is during my first year of uni when I was thrown into the studio to make my first electroacoustic composition. What fascinated me were the possibilities of audio processing and how far you can manipulate sound to the point where it no longer sounds like its original sound source. I still do some notated composing and recently wrote a Cantopop song as a tribute to my parents' migration from Hong Kong. 

What themes do you tend to interrogate in your work?

I love exploring acousmatic sound - the acousmatic is when the listener isn't able to recognise the sound source or see where the sound is coming from. I do this mostly through making drone music where sounds are so warped and stretched that you can't figure out how it's been made or where it's come from. 

What is your favourite project you've ever worked on and why?

My favourite project to date is working on my debut album, Instead of Dreams (available on Spotify, Bandcamp and Soundcloud), and it was the first time I seriously focused on writing just drone pieces. I experimented a lot with different ways to process sound through audio processing programs and had a lot of fun playing around on various synths available to me. I did a lot of research and listening to other drone artists, and I hope people hear the beauty that I hear in that body of work. 

What advice would you have for creatives of colour looking to get into music/sound and the creative industries?

My advice for any creatives of colour starting out would be to keep at it, don't give up the dream. You might be working a boring day job to pay the bills, but don't lose sight of what you want to pursue. And most importantly in a world where cost of living is rising, don't offer/accept to work for free - your skills are valuable and organisations should pay people of colour fairly.

What are you currently working on?

I've just finished a project with Art27 Scotland called 'Sound of Southside' where I worked with Hong Kong/Chinese communities in Edinburgh to create freely improvised music and record soundwalks. It was showcased as a 4.1 sound installation as part of the Festival of Migration. The track is available to listen in stereo on my Soundcloud page. 

In September, I'll be releasing a collaborative vinyl with NX Records as part of a project called 'In the Round' where I contributed some short pieces as part of the larger body of work. That will be found on the NX Records Bandcamp page.

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