“Please Pick It Up” wraps up two duets conceived, played and recorded by Jia Xiao and Yifan in late spring (April 3 at Ming Room, June 8 at trigger). The title is derived from the action of making a phone call, which appears on Side A, serving as the medium and operation of producing and transmitting sound. Jia Xiao and Yifan opened the microphones and receivers of a landline telephone and cellphones to the air—the air of certain spaces the two creators inhabited—a living room extended a balcony, a construction site outside a window, the inside of an ultrasonic cleaner.

For Side B, Jia Xiao and Yifan blew “electronic” winds, movements of the air, into glass bottles and to the pickup of a guitar. These sounds transported them away from wherever they were, whether it was the bathroom while practicing alone or the closed venue while performing. It feels like they were crafting a mirage; rather than breaking into an illusion that would inevitably shatter, it’s about crafting. 

The air carried Jia Xiao’s and Yifan’s sounds back and forth, the reverberations and disturbances telling them that to be silent is impossible, even if they wished for it. Otherwise, what would you all be hearing? In all compositions, or even in more situations, they automatically talk to themselves or others, what the air lets them do, lending its voice.