Lesley Mok’s new album of experimental sonic vignettes seems to embody the philosophy that the journey is more important than the destination. The album feels like a series of random moments of sonic exploration, with a deep dedication to the spirit of improvisation. According to Mok’s Bandcamp page, transient is “a passage through affective zones—like a slow deliberate walk through a museum where its unknown sensorium unfolds itself to you.”
Following her jazz ensemble release, The Living Collection (2023) and dream brigade, the self-titled 2025 collaboration with pianist and composer Phillip Golub, transient sees Mok working as a true solo artist, using digital electronics, live improvisation, and studio manipulation to create an irresistible, otherworldly assemblage of sounds.
The opening track, “beserk”, begins with the buildup of clicks and static before random blasts of resonant percussion and a fusillade of synthetically treated drum fills put the listener somewhere in the vicinity of colorful experimental labels like Orange Milk or Hausu Mountain. It’s not that far off, actually. transient was released on American Dreams, the brilliantly unpredictable label founded by experimental artist Jordan Reyes.
There is a sort of light and shade to transient. For all the playful noise on “berserk”, there is a beautiful ambient calm to “midland”, as a gentle but insistent lo-fi static bed serves as a landing pad for sustained, ambient chords, giving off a feel of mild tension within a meditative setting. Likewise, the chimes and bells that dominate the appropriately titled “weightless light” take the occasional detour into atonal noise. Mok has an uncanny ability to create aural moods that can shift beautifully to new, unexpected ones. The sound on “transient” is a kind of soothing unpredictability.
There’s a sense that no real rhyme or reason is used at any given time; Mok seems to work very much on impulse here. The gentle, muffled notes of “caught by the tides” drift along for a while, playing with bits of melodies, before keening synth chords land on the track like an alien-filled spaceship. The variety of sonic textures makes for a unique palette, as on the gothic soundscape “in the funhouse,” employing spooky snippets of church organ against jazzy washes of acoustic percussion.
The one consistent element of transient, aside from its unique sonic choices, is probably its variety. While Lesley Mok has often benefited greatly from the spirit of collaboration, this quite literal “solo” album presents her unfiltered musical mind on a solitary, deeply enjoyable ride.