Indie X Film Fest
"Lost Time Remains"
BEST SONG AWARD
Indie Shorts Festival
"Lost Time Remains"
BEST SONG AWARD
Cannes World Film Festival
"Lost Time Remains"
BEST SONG AWARD
Cannes World Film Festival
"A Scent Of Time Ash"
BEST COMPOSER OF THE FUTURE
Global Music Awards
"The Realm of Desire" ALBUM
SILVER MEDAL CREATIVITY & ORIGINALITY
SILVER MEDAL BEST COMPOSER
Indie Shorts Festival
"Lost Time Remains"
BEST SONG AWARD
Cannes World Film Festival
"Lost Time Remains"
BEST SONG AWARD
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
Grammy Awards ®
5 CATEGORIES
Yang Zhang; Album
"The Realm Of Desire"
HAS BEEN SUBMITTED IN
BEST NEW AGE, AMBIENT OR CHANT ALBUM CATEGORY
Yang Zhang; Featured Single
(also from the same album)
"Lost Time Remains"
HAS BEEN SUBMITTED BOTH IN BEST INSTRUMENTAL COMPOSITION & BEST ARRANGEMENT, INSTRUMENTAL OR A CAPELLA
Track 1
"A Scent Of Time Ash(Trumpet Version)"
HAS BEEN SUBMITTED BOTH IN BEST INSTRUMENTAL COMPOSITION & BEST ARRANGEMENT, INSTRUMENTAL OR A CAPELLA
Or Chant Album
2. Best Arrangement,
Instrumental or a capella
3. Best Instrumental
Composition
About The Project
The desire, form, and formless realms constitute three spheres of Buddhist cosmology and the lines between the three spheres and the connection to Buddhist cosmology seem boundaryless.
“The realm of desire” boldly redefines the philosophy of “nirvana” by exploring the first realm of desire as the access to further and reflect the concept of Samsara: the cycle of conditioned existence, birth, and rebirth.
The philosophy behind the desire realm, and the connection to “nirvana” is intuitively sophisticated, controversial, and infinite. The album sets the tone of “Retro-futurism‘’ by tracing back three fictional scenes in New York in the Jazz era, ancient Japan in the 17 century, and Paris in 1920 to reveal three layers of desires： to be vividly portrayed intensity in sharp contrast of cold atmosphere; the suppressed emotions beyond the expression, and the illusions at the edge of sunlight and shadow.
About The Submitted Categories
Our levels of meditation are determined by other fields of self-exploration. “The Realm of Desire” reveals an alternative approach to the traditionally defined new age and ambient music, attempting to deepen its meaning and enrich another layer of aspects. The whole album explores how “bi-themes” compositional styles, derived from most categories of classical and Jazz, can break the line of music compositional structure. Further, Yang Zhang developed her style of harmony progressions by blurring the line between jazz music, all genres of film scoring, and contemporary classical music and how it organically connected to the texture, sound design, and melody.
Let's go back to the past......
Track 1 "A Scent Of Time Ash" (Trumpet Version):
At the beginning of the Jazz era in New York, the hidden intensity began to surface when desires interfaced with the combination of depression and suppression, and time could only add density traced by a scent of ash.
Track 2 "A Realm of Desire" :
Only in the sphere of desire, the moonrise and sunrise can appear at the same time. Retracing to the 18th century of Ancient Japan, Asian culture has a long-standing history of suppressed emotions, further, it has been converted and evolved into a variety of art forms. This track was inspired by the formality of Kabuki and evolved the hidden layer of expression with the female vocal, which interfered with dynamic harmony progression and textures.
Track 3 "The Spring Pulse of Paris":
The poetry layer of warmness awakens us to another revelation of emotions. Another vintage tone was set in Paris in the 1920s when raindrops were still clinging around the street corner, and our faces were flecked under the sun.
Track 4 "Monochrome Waltz":
A vintage style of the waltz is danced within the monochrome color setting, intertwined with another scene reflected in 1930’s Shanghai. This combination of French and Asian vintage styles accents the layer of implicitness in the shadow, reflecting when hidden expressions interfered with illusions.
Track 5 "Lost Time Remains" :
When ticking back the time clock, we desire to even grasp a faint hope that slips away by time and remains in the air. This track sets the tone of the “New Romance” style by blending poetry tastes from Tango, film noir Jazz, andalternative Pop, and laced with the origin of analog sounds.
Track 6 "Past Life Lover":
A dialog between our past and present, represented by a conversational “bi-themes”
About Yang Zhang
The 45th Telly Award silver-winner composer Yang Zhang is versatile in a broad spectrum of music categories, and deeply entangled in every aspect of composition and production. Benefiting from her strong foundation of classical and contemporary classical training, she evolved her artistry. She identified her artistic voices through a series of style-blending, cross-field musical works, ranging from ambient, new age, electronic, all types of film scoring, alternative, and instrumental to any newly defined music genres.
Her recognition in 2024 includes 21 winnings/nominations, spanning from her Telly-award-winning score and futuristic video “Live Coding For Everyone”, the original music featuring Asian abstract sounds which won the 2024 Cannes World Film Festival for “Best Original Song”, to the technical aspect, recognized by the 2024 Berlin Indie Film Festival for “Best Sound Design” and the 2024 Bridgestone Film Festival for”Best Animation Video”.
“My passion for exploring each aspect of the compositional and music production world is so profound, each note and a new repertory to present those elements has always intrigued me. To explore its hidden message, and further, every intriguing detail has become my motif to immerse myself in the music production and composition world.”
Credits
Video Director
Yang Zhang
Video Producer
Yang Zhang
Composer
Yang Zhang
Personality/Presenter
Yang Zhang
3D Motion Designer
Lucas Machado
for "Scent of Time Ash (Trumpet Version)"
for "Lost Time Remains"
for "Lost Time Remains"
for "Lost Time Remains"
for "Lost Time Remains"
for "The Undertone of Ocean"
for "The Road To Wutumeiren"
"The Touch of The Surging Tide"
"The Lord Of The Flame"
Album Credits
Music is composed, produced, arranged, mixed, and mastered by
Yang Zhang
Featured performer, Alto Saxophone,
Baritone Saxophone, Alto Flute, Flute,
and Sopranino Recorder player:
Will Vargas
Shakalute player:
Shih-wei Wu
Xylophone and Marimbaphon:
Mike Deutsch
Cello:
Liu Wei
Background Vocal:
Muqing Tana
Recording studios:
Mike Deutsch studio; Will Vargas Studio; Shih-wei studio; Hugo Tomas Studio
Mixing Studio:
Mercury Orbit Music Publishing Studioa
Gratitude
Thank you to each incredible individual during this music creation journey musically and non-musically! I value music creation as our deep level of self-exploration, this album was inspired by a philosophical point of view and converted musically by covering some musical approaches that haunted my mind but didn’t have a chance to further its exploration. I want to express my deepest gratitude to everyone who encouraged me and motivated me from time to time to make a completion.
Acknowledge
I want to give a special acknowledgement and thanks to my peer and colleague Daniel Fisher, who I met at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards in 2022 and became my friend. We witnessed each other’s growth in the past two years, and his incredible assistance has lighted up my journey to FYC since last year.