MADLANDS Yang Bao

• Yang Bao (b. 1991):
• 1 Bao: The Riddle 03:42
• 2 Bao: Baby Beast 03:39
• 3 Bao: Hold Your Breath 02:57
• 4 Bao: Madlands 02:53
• 5 Bao: Human and I 04:35
• 6 Bao: Cyborg 03:21
• 7 Bao: Red Crescendo 03:47
• 8 Bao: First Run 03:02
• 9 Bao: Leap 03:18
• 10 Bao: Infinity Tower 02:34
• 11 Bao: No One's Game 02:57
• Total Runtime 36:45

Info for MADLANDS

MADLANDS marks the PENTATONE debut of pianist and composer Yang Bao, offering a stunningly beautiful and audacious journey into what it means to be human amid the rising tides of artificial intelligence and ecological upheaval. Written for piano, six strings, and a palette of analog synthesizers - including the Korg PS-3300 and MiniMoog - Bao's eleven compositions reimagine identity and belonging in a world where human, machine, and nature co-exist in delicate, suspenseful symbiosis.The album opens with a powerful trilogy - The Riddle, Baby Beast, and Hold Your Breath - where classical form meets electronic sound, creating a visceral, futuristic landscape. Across works such as Human and I and First Run, Bao blurs the boundaries between organic and artificial, past and future, transforming music into an immersive, living environment. Drawing on his visual art practice, Bao pairs this sonic vision with his striking artwork, reflecting the duality between the visible and the invisible.MADLANDS is an album for the future - a contemplative, bold, and deeply human exploration of consciousness, connection, and the fragile beauty of a world in flux.

Yang Bao, piano & synthesizer
Jeeihn Kim, violin
Licheng Chen, violin
Lindan Burns, viola
Seoyeon Koo, cello
Griffin Seuter, cello
Soren Davick, double bass

Yang Bao
(b. 1991) is a New York-based installation artist, pianist, and composer who works in sound sculpture, performance, video, and painting. Renowned for his large-scale stainless steel sound sculptures and Infinity Music compositions, Bao transforms landscapes and architectures into monumental super-instruments. His site-specific works harness time and chance to create evolving, multidimensional visual-soundscapes, reimagining sound as a tangible force that reshapes our perception of space and time. Through a minimalist approach, he visualizes sound as physical forms, creating an experiential synthesis of the arts.

His groundbreaking sound sculpture complex, HYPERSPACE, permanently collected and exhibited at The Donum Estate in California, stands among the world’s largest sculpture collections. This dynamic installation blends Infinity Music with natural elements such as wind, sunlight, and rain, merging sound and visuals into a fluid, living experience. He has been awarded the Maria Manetti Shrem Composer Prize, Forbes China’s Most Influential Young Artists, and Robb Report’s Young Artist of the Year. His artworks are in the permanent collection of the Long Museum and have been commissioned by DIOR, Louis XIII, and Devialet. Bao’s solo shows include: MADLANDS (Long Museum, Shanghai, 2024), Hear A Century Ahead (Former British Consulate, Shanghai, 2021), Late Night Savage (Cc Foundation, Shanghai, 2021).

A Juilliard and New England Conservatory-trained classical pianist, Bao studied under Wha-Kyung Byun and Bruce Brubaker and has performed with prestigious orchestras worldwide, merging classical mastery with his original compositions. He recently premiered his composition First Day on Mars: Piano Fantasie at Carnegie Hall in New York and his orchestral composition Sol: Piano Concerto at Festival Napa Valley in California. He also performed Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with Maestro Long Yu and China Philharmonic Orchestra at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing.

Booklet for MADLANDS