Maggie Menghan Chen

Heavenly Creatures : an AQNB music & art compendium

23 March 2021

Heavenly Creatures is AQNB’s fourth release of new music and visual works compiled and curated by our London and Los Angeles-based team.

Heavenly Creatures takes its title from the 1994 dark biographical drama and queer cult classic film of the same name, with a nod to Los Angeles party Heav3n and its championing of a post-PC Music sound—born online and spread across communication networks the world over. Featuring music by young producers from across the internet, the compilation’s heavily-filtered, DIY DAW tracks present an online-but-intimate hyper-emotionality by artists addressing life, love and loneliness from the perspective of a pop-appreciating electronic underground. Together with visual art works that express digital modes of intimacy, it’s a space of vulnerability and introspection built on a melancholic sub-frequency that’s carried forward by the hopeless romantics and baby angels that inhabit it.

Music by:
blackwinterwells
Aj simons & umru
lei
heavn
oakscreen
BLOODZ BOI 血男孩 & bod [包家巷]
8485
kuru
dylann
luvox
reserv

Visual works by:
Adham Faramawy
Carlos Sáez
Maggie Menghan Chen
Tissue Hunter

Cover artwork by:
Alejandra Muñoz

Acknowledgments:
Steph Kretowicz, AQNB editor
Jared Davis, AQNB associate editor
Matt Dell, AQNB music editor
Caroline Heron, AQNB managing editor

Isaac Treece, mastering

CD edition of 50.
Packaged in clear jewel case with on-body printing on exterior and disc.

All physical purchases come with digital download.
First shipment begins April 15 within Europe and May 15 for Americas / ROW.

Maggie Menghan Chen dives into the realm of dreams & finds its restorative value through her ‘深水 Undercurrents’ performance

3 December 2020

Maggie Menghan Chen performed ‘深水 Undercurrents’ at Beijing’s X Museum on October 31, with the trailer for the live show (strobe warning) premiering on AQNB today. The Beijing-based artist & S/ash collective co-founder shared the uplifting ‘Body Building Exercise’ video back at the beginning of European lockdown in March, with music by felicita.

The London-born producer and composer returned to score the two-hour long show, featuring Chen herself, along with Kong Kong Du and Lawrence Dong, and comprising chanting, asana practice and dance. Also including marimba by Wang San, jewellery from Eva Wu Yang and costumes by fellow S/ash co-founder a1jewel, is described as “an invitation to a gathering and healing process that encourages the audience to build a private experience through active imagination.”**

Maggie Menghan Chen’s ‘深水 Undercurrents’ performance was on at Beijing’s X Museum on October 31, 2020.