IRA DOT | IN BLUE TIME

In Blue Time, the debut LP from Toronto-ish duo Ira Dot (Eddy Wang & Ryan Akler-Bishop), is an ode to all things blue: the shade of melancholy, of ocean water, of the body’s maze of capillaries. Marrying Wang’s metaphysical, confessional vocals with Akler-Bishop’s eclectic production, the record is an intimate whisper from a beloved friend, peppered with cosmic crescendos and gargantuan choral sections.

These are songs of non-belonging, songs that wrestle with the concept of hyphenism, born between clear-cut labels of both genre and national identity. The record embraces the estuary between Chinese traditional and Western contemporary genres, examining different manifestations of melancholia, especially racial melancholia: a theory on how racial trauma and subjugation produce conditions of loss in diasporic people of colour, who incorporate that loss into their very self-understanding. The album stages Wang’s ambivalence of feeling “not Asian enough,” as if his being has lost some essential yet unplaceable component of China.

Written and arranged by Eddy Wang
except 6, with poem by Fan Wu
Produced by Ryan Akler-Bishop
Mixed by Eddy Wang & Ryan Akler-Bishop
Mastered by Alastair Cavanagh
Additional Engineering by Prince Nifty
Cover Art and Liner Notes Drawing by Vicky Huang
Album Rear and Liner Note Design by Benjamin de Boer
Coordination by Julian Yi-Zhong Hou