Levitation Stories by Chloe Yu Nong Lin & P.M. Tummala

Two instruments from different Eastern traditions - the Chinese pipa and Indian harmonium - meld together in Levitation Stories, the electroacoustic, improvised sound world of Chloe Yu Nong Lin and
P.M. Tummala.

Chloe Yu Nong Lin moved from Taipei to Chicago in 2017 to study sound at the School of the Art Institute. In her music practice, she explores new possibilities with the pipa - a Chinese lute that dates back 2000 years running its tonal resonances through patch systems to coax unpredictable sounds and textures from an ancient voice. She became immersed in the city’s thriving experimental music scene, performing as both soloist and collaborator. In 2019, Lin and P.M. Tummala were introduced by a mutual friend and paired to perform as a duo for a concert in 2020 - one that never happened after the world paused.

Instead, they reconnected in Tummala’s studio a few months later, just a week before Lin moved back to Taipei. The quiet but heavy weight of 2020 hung in the air and this would be Lin’s final musical moment during her Chicago chapter. Perhaps there was a subconscious need to shed that weight as they sat in separate rooms of the studio, connected by headphones, and played together for the first time. With Lin’s pipa running through her patch system and Tummala’s harmonium outfitted with contact microphones and effects pedals, drones and melodies emerged, scattered percussion echoed, harmonics warped and receded - creating a shifting foreground that moves like dance, like passing ships, like a distant electrical storm. The recordings remained untouched for nearly five years. Revisited now, they reflect an intimacy born from distance and
time.