Commissioned by Unheard-of//Ensemble, “Underneath//Emptiness” is inspired by the sound heard in Hong Kong MTR/ New York Subway trains and stations, two of the world’s busiest underground transit system. I have always been fond of sounds heard underground, perhaps it was influenced by one of my childhood favourite, Haruki Murakami’s novel “Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World”. The novel is about two parallel worlds, it was written in the year I was born, and I am now right at the age of the narrator in the novel.

I always wonder if there is another civilisation underneath our surface world.