Liner notes: Lihla's spellbinding 'Socha' (ASIPV047)
The story behind the release
Liner notes are printed on a piece of thick card inside each of our vinyl releases.
See here for some background on the intention and format. I am publishing Liner Notes from existing and past releases here on Substack for all to enjoy.
Artist: Lihla
Title: Socha
Format: 12” transparent black smoke + digital
Available now
Artwork:
As you can likely hear from this record, Socha is a very personal album to Lih, so it made sense to include a depiction of her in some shape or form.
“I tried many versions of the artwork that used landscape or abstract patterns, but with the storyteller as a central voice to the album, it felt important to have a face. There’s a beautiful book called the ‘Anam Cara’ where John O’Donohue writes about the face as the intersection between the infinity of the outer world with the hidden infinity within each of us. Maybe that’s why we are so fascinated with looking at each other”.
Lih was interested in creating an “unreal” version of the storyteller in the music. This storyteller never existed in the physical world until she was printed onto this LP -
“existing only as resonance before this, she is the weaver of memories, the forgotten. The narrative of shadow”
To help achieve her goal, Lih looked to AI image generation, which enabled her ambition to come to life -
“Using AI to create images or artwork is a bit like casting spells. You still have to create the right nuances, the right poetry, for the algorithm, for it to work.”
Story:
Lih originally sent me 3 tracks from the album, which was initially titled ‘42’.
Upon listening, I immediately asked if Lih had more to accompany the initial tracks, and the rest of the album started to come into existence. At first, we had enough music for a 2LP but, through numerous conversations, we decided to focus more on a 12”. Through this process, we worked together to sequence the right music that still portrayed the very strong concept Lih had in mind.
Over this short period, I have gotten to know Lih as an amazing multi-disciplined artist and live performer, and am very proud to present such a personal piece of work from her on the label.
Insight:
The title and each track title have very defined meanings and reasonings for existing on the album, as illustrated through the ‘Ikigai’ found on the back of the LP. Ikigai (ee-key-guy) is a Japanese concept that combines the terms iki, meaning “alive” or “life,” and gai, meaning “benefit” or “worth.” When combined, these terms mean that which gives your life worth, meaning, or purpose.
The Ikigai is a representation of how this album overlaps and the relationship between each of the meanings behind each track.
“Music has always been a safe space where we allow ourselves to drop the template narratives. We all agree to allow the world to go quiet. We allow ourselves to go quiet. And all the chatter within and without just hushes and we come together. And for the tiniest blip of our existence we just breathe together, dream, remember who we were. To give in to the moment that will never exist again. The title SOCHA speaks and gives place for the hidden vulnerabilities in others” - Lihla
Press:
Mixed by Sebastian Lee Philipp (Die Wilde Jagd) and mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri @ Black Knoll Studio, we had a dream team going into the press on this record. We knew with such long side lengths and this style of ‘quiet’ music you can hear a pin drop at times, so getting a press that didn’t unfurl surface noise at some point would be tough, but we are very happy with where things ended up. You may notice some added noise levels at the end of the B-side, for example, as this side clocks in at 22 minutes, which is the absolute maximum many engineers would recommend. So we thank you for your understanding. And to repeat the words of Lih once more:-
“for the tiniest blip of our existence we just breathe together, dream, remember who we were. To give in to the moment that will never exist again”.