The Birth of a Star: Between Cultures, Emotion, and Dreams
Yingtuitive truly is, as the name suggests, a universe shaped with an intuitive touch: under the stage name Emmanuel Sow—like a bouquet gathered from the places Hannah Chia has visited. Letters to Self 寫情書 is their album of emotions, transient spaces, and moments that belong only to oneself. This album carries a sound texture where ambient, electronic, club music, and Southeast Asian roots intertwine. Between emotions and dream, a map woven with the weight of piano and the trembling textures of gamelan rhythms.
Songs: Each One a Letter
The standout tracks of the album may open slowly, but each holds an entire soul within—Pandan, Blue, Do U Forget a Feeling?, Exhibition…
*Pandan: The lightness of angelic piano flows like a memory filled with nostalgia.
*Blue: Through dense reverb, it stretches emotion into the waters of a cold morning.
*Do U Forget a Feeling?: A track created for the first time on Ableton, a moment of discovery that unites old and new in sound.
*Exhibition: Bass textures reminiscent of grime and rhythmic depth evoke the modern paranoia of being watched.
Each song chases after a feeling; some resemble a memory, some reflect an emotion—clear yet branching out like an inner notebook.
Cultural Fusion: A Voice and a Search
Hannah Chia brings both the delicacy of classical piano training and the traditional gamelan colors of Singapore into the work. Field recordings featured throughout most of the tracks create a cultural memory stretching from East to West. A writer from Boomkat describes this album as “an audible diary,” “a sound blending cultural languages with sincerity and a powerful stance.”
Echoes from Critics
The Guardian highlights the album as “filled with electronic twists written in dream logic.” It notes that songs like Pandan, Blue, and Do U Forget a Feeling? wander through emotional landscapes, while Exhibition creates a grime-like atmosphere with its bass. The album drifts between pieces with a touch of melancholy, sometimes like the freshness of morning.
Mixmag Asia points out that the album was released under the Third Place label, emphasizing how ambient and Southeast Asian roots are woven together in a single work.
On Stage and Beyond
Yingtuitive is known for meditative mixes on radio platforms such as Noods and NTS. They also DJ at underground venues like Spanners and Offtrack. These performances are both an unconscious dance and an inner breath.
Conclusion: Melody Turned into Letter
Letters to Self 寫情書 is not just a music album—it is a journey. Like a “letter” that softens cultural divides into a gentle inner flow, building great meaning from small melodic fragments. With this project, Yingtuitive weaves together both the search for identity and musical aesthetics. The listener is invited into a world that stands at the edge of dreams; where it’s not about what you feel, but that you feel
