SoiSong - xAj3z (Color Vinyl) 2xLP

Label: Dais

Release Date: May 30th, 2025

Limited edition clear-smoke vinyl.

SoiSong was a dazzling, short-lived collaboration formed in 2007 by Ivan Pavlov (CoH) and Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson (of Coil). Fusing Pavlov’s visceral digital precision with Sleazy’s decadent, whimsical sensibility, the duo created something wholly singular—refined, cryptic, and emotionally resonant. Based primarily around the Eastern Pacific Rim, they named the project after the Thai word for "two" (song), a nod also to the shadowy sois (alleys) of Bangkok’s red-light districts.

Their debut and only full-length album, xAj3z, is a bold, genre-defying work: a digital-era jazz hallucination where tropical heat and laser beams pulse through zeroes and ones. Both playful and profound, the album operates within its own uncategorizable genre—light years removed from commercial trends, yet strikingly of its time. Artificial vocalists sing alongside live drums, noirish jazz collides with South Seas melodies, and computers emit warmth like analog instruments. This is entertainment for a digital tomorrow, deeply felt and meticulously crafted.

xAj3z is less an album than a musical language—sometimes lyrical, sometimes alien, sometimes darkly humorous, but always tuned to an emotional frequency far beyond genre. “Our songs, like Angels, are largely Mathematical,” they wrote. One of the record’s most compelling elements is its use of artificial vocalists: beautiful, uncanny voices that seem to speak in tongues. Created with input from collaborators Han Li Chiou and Yuu Soijinsan Omiya, these vocals straddle the line between the poetic and the meaningless. As Pavlov observed in 2025, “the voice is nothing else but an instrument that operates with syllables... Regardless of how poetic it might sound to a human ear, that sequence remains completely meaningless.”

For Christopherson, SoiSong was a natural evolution: “I wouldn’t say that SoiSong really resembles anything that’s come before... But if you know and appreciate what we both did before, that knowledge brings more understanding to what we do now. It’s a progression from the past to the future.” The original liner notes list Christopherson as providing “melodic primitives and vocalists,” while Pavlov handled “instruments and Pentium jazz processing.”

Among the highlights of xAj3z is “Dtorumi,” a breathtaking piece of pseudo-jazz and spectral trip hop, featuring gated drums, submerged bass, and haunting syllabic vocals—a masterstroke in post-90s Warp-style electronica. The Eastern Pacific influence is unmistakable on “J3z,” where chirping digital birds, harpsichords, upright bass stabs, and glittering synthetic seas recall the dreamscapes of Susumu Yokota.

New to the Dais Records reissue is “Lom Tum Lai Kwee,” a reimagining of a previously live-only track. It’s a psychedelic marvel of stereo trickery, step sequencers, and swelling sub-bass that blooms into bells, twinkles, and horns—channeling the widescreen majesty of Tangerine Dream in their imperial era.

The album closes with “Ti-Di-Ti Naoo,” originally titled “Thai Olympics Anthem” during studio sessions. A modest piano is gradually joined by live brass and strings as the titular non-lyric—“ti di ti naoo”—echoes through the imaginary concert hall. It’s the sound of a performance space transitioning from soundcheck to sublime.

When xAj3z ends, there’s warmth, like sunlight touching the edges of a new horizon. It’s a parting vision of future possibilities—open, boundless, and beautifully strange.