“Phong transports us back to the days of dial-up through the sounds of early synthesizers.”
(I Care If You Listen)
About the Album
Released November 19, 2021 on New Amsterdam Records
The Computer Room is the second album from Phong Tran, a Brooklyn-based composer, electronic musician, and early synthesizer enthusiast. Alongside Darian Donovan Thomas (Moses Sumney, Arooj Aftab), Tran also forms half of the synth and violin duo MEDIAQUEER. On The Computer Room, Tran, inspired by the din and noise and grind of experimental electronics, longs for the computer room of his youth—where hours were joyfully lost behind the glow of his screen.
Despite its cold, digital form, Tran’s childhood computer became a true friend. And as his machine warmed, so did something inside Phong Tran—a feeling of finally being connected, of finally finding a community, even if that community existed virtually, countless miles from his computer room.
Recent Reviews
“The Computer Room is a thank you to the internet community of my youth, the friends who pushed me to get better at something, even if it was playing computer games. Because if I didn’t push myself then, I wouldn’t be pushing myself now with my creative work.”
Phong Tran
A frequent creative collaborator and production assistant with Metropolis, Phong Tran has helped many of our digital projects come to life, including Biophony, House Music, Metropolis Radio, Eternal September, and Flame Keepers.
WATCH: In partnership with Metropolis Ensemble and Scott Wollschleger, Phong Tran has produced a series of videos alongside the album.
Project In-Depth
A coming-of-age album, The Computer Room is inspired by simulation theory. As a longtime gamer, as someone who controlled virtual worlds for hours on end, Tran would obsess over the notion that we’re living in a computer simulation. To transport listeners to the internet world of his youth, Tran sampled old YouTube simulation theory interviews, improvised with myriad synthesizers, and painstakingly produced nine nostalgic vaporwave tracks.
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peer2peer
Party Quest
de_dust2
Empty Market
Build Order
Slime Tree
./f a
Guild
bsod
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Notes by Phong Tran
I began thinking about how much of my life has been shaped by virtual spaces. I began seeing those bygone virtual spaces—games and forums—in a physical way. They’re like ghost towns from a pre-MySpace internet; these sites still exist, but no one visits them anymore. I miss them. As a closeted gay Asian kid raised in white suburban Georgia, the computer room was where I could escape, where I could be anything I wanted to be, and, eventually, where I could accept who I was in reality.
The Computer Room is loaded with longing. It’s my emotional exploration of the internet and electronics. Nothing on the album is truly acoustic. But even without any recorded sounds, I wanted to invoke heavy human emotion through it all. The same way I felt a human connection through my computer screen.
I wouldn’t experience that feeling again until I moved to New York and found my chosen family of artists. The Computer Room is also a thank you to the internet community of my youth, the friends who pushed me to get better at something, even if it was playing computer games. Because if I didn’t push myself then, I wouldn’t be pushing myself now with my creative work.
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Composed and Produced by Phong Tran
Art Design and Video by Phong Tran
Mastering by Andrew Noseworthy
Live Version and Music Videos co-commissioned by Metropolis Ensemble (Andrew Cyr, Artistic Director) and Scott Wollschleger
Physical albums produced by slashsound in Detroit, MI (Adam Cuthbert & Daniel Rhode, Executive Producers)
Phong Tran
Composer
Phong Tran is a Brooklyn-based composer, electronic musician, and visual artist. His works are heavily inspired by the sound of early synthesizers and the noises and grinds of experimental electronics. Much of his work is developed through late night wikipedia dives while obsessing over things like simulation theory, abstract story structure, Dungeons & Dragons, and vaporwave eccojams. Phong actively performs in MEDIAQUEER, a synthesizer and violin duo formed in 2018 with Darian Thomas. MEDIAQUEER is currently in residence at the Sō Percussion Studio. Phong’s solo work has been released through people | places | records and through slashsound. More »