For anyone old enough to remember the birth of the internet, the room in the house where that endearing, bulky desktop computer lived had a certain allure — not just from the faint glow of the monitor, but because it represented a portal beyond our physical reach with endless possibilities for community and connection. At the center of Phong Tran’s The Computer Room is a reverence for this domestic space, alongside the echoes of now abandoned online spaces, particularly games where entire worlds were built, then left to exist indefinitely.
The Computer Room is the second full-length album from the composer and electronic musician, who forms half of the violin and electronics duo MEDIAQUEER with Darian Donovan Thomas. Throughout the nine tracks of the album, Phong transports us back to the days of dial-up through the sounds of early synthesizers, which range from melancholic to ecstatic to warm, heartfelt nostalgia, even in the complete absence of acoustic sound.
Phong Tran
Here’s what Phong had to say about the video for de_dust2 from The Computer Room:
This was a map from CounterStrike that I spent a lot of time on with friends, but has long since been abandoned. There are servers still hosting games on this map, but few users who actually play on it. The video itself is a recreation of part of the map that distorts itself into abstract angular figures. Since digital artifacts like maps from video games don’t rust or decay with age, I wanted to show that abandoned element of it. The visuals were created with support from Scott Wollschleger and Metropolis Ensemble.
The Computer Room is out November 19, 2021 on New Amsterdam Records, and you can pre-order the album on Bandcamp.
About Phong Tran
Phong Tran is a Brooklyn-based composer, electronic musician, and visual artist. His works are heavily inspired by the sound of early synthesizers. Much of his work is made through late night Wikipedia dives while obsessing over things like simulation theory, abstract story structure, RPG’s, and vaporwave eccojams.
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