Gian Manik shares his ‘Knock on the Door’ mix, produced from lockdown in Melbourne and premiering on AQNB today. The Australian artist is a prolific painter and occasional DJ who also released his 2018 ‘RAGA’ mix through the site, named after the Indian classical melodic mode meant to generate a soothing, mild and relaxing mood.
That compilation was a very loose interpretation of what exactly “soothing, mild and relaxing” means to Manik, with its combination of classical and noise music elements in the likes of Christian mystic Hildegard von Bingen’s liturgical chants and Exocet’s brutal terrorcore. This clever use of contrasts continues on ‘Knock on the Door’, which the artist describes as “spooky paths and portals with percussive breaks to scare off anything unseen in the distance.” Here, an opening angel choir and door-knocking sound effects eventually turn into eminent minimalist Steve Reich’s ‘Clapping Music’, a YouTube tutorial recording for sight-reading, and the brooding industrial electronica of Shanghai’s Fuxing Tapes. This often juxtapositional sonic pastiche very much complements Manik’s art practice, where his paintings take seemingly disparate cultural and aesthetic references to create strange, playful and oddly alluring visual compositions.
Track listing:
A Choir of Angels (slowed down 800%)
Sound Effect – Knock on the Door
Solo Clap – Solo Clapping Klatschen One Hand
Wojciech Rusin – Radiation
Steve Reich – Clapping Music
The Do Re Me So Challenge
Ossia – Dub Hell
Chris Watson – El Divisadero
Pitch Perfect – E1
Fuxing Tapes – 鬼压床
Tymon – Woodsman**
