My debut EP, Tango-Études, was actually an accident—I had finished recording all of Telemann’s 12 Fantasias for Solo Flute but didn’t like how things sounded, so I scrapped it all and picked up the Piazzolla. What I didn’t mention then was that I re-recorded everything I’d scrapped shortly after putting together that EP, that it was all done in my bedroom because all the studio sessions really drained my budget, and that I sat on those recordings… for about three years.

A classical music album? Recorded entirely in a bedroom? It’s entirely possible but certainly more easily said than done. Recording in the comfort of my own space gave me a lot of freedom to let loose, at the cost of well-designed acoustics. The amount of engineering needed to polish the sound of the recordings to a standard acceptable by the modern ear was quite staggering, and it definitely took me a long time to trust my own skills enough to engineer everything myself. Listening back to the drafts from when I first put everything together, there’s a light-and-day difference in quality—we should all be glad you’re listening to the version I’m releasing now.

In the three years’ time, I’ve gotten to learn more about music production and engineering, be at peace with the peaks and valleys of the creative process and the natural imperfections of art, and come back to music by… becoming a DJ and producing dance music (lmao). So this is likely my last classical music album for the foreseeable future. Music to me has always been more than about one instrument, one genre, or one specific thing. This is the last batch of recorded material that I’ve yet to release into the wild, and it feels great to be able to conclude my classical music era with a full-size work that allowed me to use every “musician muscle” to make. Anyway, I do hope that this album does Telemann justice and that y’all will find some of these tracks cute or interesting. Baroque is probably my favorite period in classical music so creating this album did feel like home.

Shoutout to Jordan for once again creating the album cover artwork! The last one ate and so did this one. You have the mind of a master-, master-, you have the mind of a mastermind… what’s that? I don’t know but you’re so creative like that <3

Thank you also to the countless musicians on YouTube posting production and engineering tutorials. Engineering this album was HARD. I definitely couldn’t have picked up everything myself and made a product I was happy with without them.

It’s admittedly a bit unusual for a classically-trained flutist to DJ in clubs and bars and make Ariana Grande bootleg remixes instead of auditioning for orchestras, but this is what keeps music fun for me and I wouldn’t have it any other way. To that end, I would like to thank my family, friends, and everyone who understand and support what I do and how I do it. This album is yours just as much as it’s mine.

— Yibiao Wang aka yibs