Shelajit — Tang Dynasty

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“Ever since my early garage band days experimenting with music production, I knew I wanted to create a body of work that incorporated traditional Chinese instrumentation. Even before I understood why, I felt called to weave these sounds into the music I was making.

Growing up Chinese American, I believed I had to distance myself from my heritage in order to belong. Like many in the diaspora, I internalized the idea that fitting in meant leaving parts of myself behind. Ironically, the path to my greatest creative freedom led me back to the very roots I once felt I needed to hide.

Tang Dynasty, my debut album, is a tribute to my ancestors and to my own journey of reclaiming my lineage. It felt only right that my first full body of work honored where I come from before venturing into where I'm going. I needed to create this album for those who came before me—to acknowledge their sacrifices, their resilience, and the stories that were never spoken aloud. In many ways, this project became a gateway into my creative future: one where I no longer separate innovation from tradition, but instead build an entirely new sonic world from both.
There is so much of my family history that was left unspoken—stories carried in silence, emotions buried beneath generations of survival. Through this album, I'm giving those stories a voice. This is an act of remembrance, reclamation, and unapologetic expression. It's an offering to my lineage, and an invitation for others to reconnect with the parts of themselves they've been taught to leave behind.” -shelajit

For more of Shelajit’s work, explore:
Shelajit.com | Soundcloud | Bandcamp
Spotify | AppleMusic | Deezer | YouTube