The yellow latex apron makes everything bead off, the hard plastic safety goggles blur my field of vision, rubber boots and gloves, electric rods in my hands – concentration commands the tones. My ears are covered by a massive headphone, amplifying even the finest detail.

A reconstruction of the environment, on the soldering board, with solder and the hot glue gun. An assembly on plywood, electrical tape, four rollers, four colors, fix the circuit paths. The crackling of the open cable opens the space, a cold short circuit in repetition becomes Hi-Hat, the plug can no longer be pulled out.

A static tension hovers in the room, exceeds the threshold and begins to switch on the instruments, exceeds the threshold and begins to flip switches and move buttons. A melody, a harmonious vibration. A static tension builds up in front of me and gently pushes me out of the field, out of the picture, towards the door.

A light pressure on the handle, pushes me out, closes the door, in repetition, a light pressure on the handle, pushes me out, closes the door, becomes a rhythm, transforms me into an observer, into a listener. My space completely encloses the other, a floating cell, transparent on all sides, no top no bottom. I wander along the walls, through Plexiglas I see the instruments, hear their play, they stage my outside. I look out into the music room, it encloses my space on all sides.

I move slowly, my field of vision is blurred, my hearing all the more concentrated, the finest details dance around my ears, form melodies, layer up into clouds drifting by, form the image of a city arises, a leaf falls from a tree sways, in the wind, an antenna, a white crane, a swan, a siren, a satellite. A helicopter slowly draws over the colorful patchwork. It casts a shadow, a darkening circling spot, quickly contracts, then expands, gets bigger, no sound, brief threat, I simply raise my gaze, above it, in wide heights, majestic paths cross. Everything becomes light. Airchina.

And now you find yourself in '82 / The disco hot-spots hold no charm for you / (...) / You catch the pearl and ride the dragon's wings


(ASIA, Heat of the Moment)

Airchina is weightless instrumental machine music, sometimes ghost-like anthropomorphized with a muffled voice or a synthetic choir. Airchina is playful-melodic electronic music by and for Today, which also draws on global ambient and pop designs from the late 1970s to the late 1980s. Airchina is a solo project by Nikolai Szymanski. Szymanski is part of the band Stabil Elite.

Credits
Text: Andreas Reihse
Image: Luis Nelson