Though this is my sixteenth year living in the U.S., I vividly remember while I was preparing for the TOEFL exam in Taiwan coming across a saying that stuck with me: When you start dreaming in English while you sleep, it means you’ve learned to speak the language. Of course, we don’t always clearly remember our dreams—but I’m pretty sure that even now, I still dream in two languages. I continue to use two distinct forms of logic to solve the equations of my life. I have two standards of taste for food. I move back and forth between two cultures, values, and societies in parallel time as if there were two moons in my mind—each with its own tendencies and tides.
I’m currently gearing up for my 5th album release “OVER the MOONs” this fall via Endectomorph Music. This set of music is written for an Octet ensemble features myself on vibraphone with effect pedals, Alex LoRe on alto saxophone, Anna Webber on tenor saxophone, Matt Mitchell on piano, YingDa Chen on guitar, Marty Kenney on bass, James Paul Nadien on drums, Shinya Lin on the self-developed sensor devices for electronic processing with Max/MSP which allowing real-time gestures to interact with and control sound processing. The majority of the compositions were written in February 2024 during my time at the Ucross Residency in Wyoming, one of the most inspiring and carefree creative periods I’ve ever experienced. Jeffery Allen, a writer friend I met during my residency, introduced me to the idea of Dual/Double Consciousness — the feeling of having two identities housed within one’s mind. This concept captured the feelings I’d been having regarding my Taiwanese and English identities, and when I began writing music for this album I wanted the music to capture these colorful conflicts while embracing the sweet chaos of it all.
Unlike my previous albums which featured a stronger focus on storytelling, OVER the MOONs presents a broader creative concept. It plays with layers—through soundscape, counterpoint, color, rhythmic push and pull, new approaches to instrumentation and timbre, mixed styles, and puns that blend Mandarin and English.
Here I want to bring up a few examples that how I translate the duality and layers into the compositions.
“Two Moons” is a center piece of the album where I’m trying to deliver multi-layers of sounds that mimic the double images of moons. The song starts with separating the Octet into two sonic outputs that run in their own orbits. While the guitarist is laying out some folklike sounds with vibraphone flying free on top, two flutes and piano are playing an angular melody together in its own time.
As the music goes on, the two sonic worlds gradually find parallel directions and eventually converge towards one big sky.
“Olfactory Memory” is a ballad that features the group-comping spontaneously behind the main theme. I always feel I have a sensitive sense of smell. When my smell recalls certain events, time, or people, a pandora box opens slowly and I am soaked in memories before I even realize. I wanted to capture this feeling of diffusion. On the score, there are some suggested harmonic/rhythmic elements written for horns and piano and the musicians can make their musical choices to float around the main duet melody played by Vibraphone and Guitar.
The third one I would like to share is the song “Pieces Peace” which was already released digitally in late June. “Pieces Peace” (碎碎平安）is an idiom in Mandarin people often use during Lunar new year. It means breaking stuff will lead you to good luck. I really like how the words play with the translation to English as the languages often play a big role to my double consciousness. The composition is made by fragments – a group of serial notes. I puzzle around them, cycle in various ways, chop it off, and re-build.
As the picture you can see: Group 1 is my start-up series of notes. And Group 2 and Group 3 shares the same interval structure with Group 1 but starting with a different note. Group X is the variation of Group 1 to add a bit unexpected fun to it.
In the beginning of the song, the motive melody goes one counter-clockwise cycle.
At the very end, one of the counterpoint voices plays down the clockwise cycle. And lots of adventurous things happen in the middle.
You can take a listen to find out!
At last, I would like to share with you the composition “Tomorrow” to present another use of layers which feature an important and special element of this album – live-electronics processing. The composition is written rather simple with the counterpoint of few voices.
In the beginning of the song, the tracks of these parts becomes the components for the electronics’ improvisation, and it adds another dimension to the acoustic sounds. I want to invite you to listen to these fun experiments when the album comes out on October 17th, 2025!
About the Author:
‘Like the best fiction, it’s entirely enveloping’ – Downbeat
Recent Nominee of Downbeat Rising Star of Vibraphone, New York based Taiwanese vibraphonist Yuhan Su’s five records release as a leader including OVER the MOONs(2025, Endectomorph Music), Liberated Gesture(2023, Sunnyside), City Animals(2018, Sunnyside), A Room of One’s Own(2015, Inner Circle Music) and Flying Alone(2012, Inner Circle Music) have received widespread approval and numerous music awards, including ‘Best Instrumental Composer Award’ at the Golden Melody Award in 2024 and ‘Best Album of the Year’, ‘Best New Artist’, ’ Best Jazz Single’, ‘Best Instrumentalist Award’ from the Golden Indie Music Award in Taiwan, and ‘Best Release of the Year’ by All about Jazz and Downbeat.
In 2025, Yuhan is selected as the residency commission artist of the year at the Jazz Gallery and the member of M3 (Mutual Mentorship of Musicians) cohort 7. In past years, Yuhan has performed and toured around the world with different projects including Vijay Iyer’s group, Amir Elsaffar’s Rivers of Sound, Greg Osby Sextet, Matt Mitchell Quartet, Brian Krock’s Big Heart Machine, Miho Hazama’s M_Unit, Webber/Morris Big Band, Quinsin Nachoff Quintet, Jason Yeager’s Septet, Eugenia Choe Trio and more. Yuhan was awarded the Creator Fund by New Music USA in 2024 and also named as Top 25 Best Vibraphonists in history by U Discover Music. Yuhan is currently endorsed by Ludwig-Musser Percussion, Resta-Jay Percussion and Alternate Mode Inc.