Composer Spotlight: Lia Ouyang Rusli
To celebrate the North American release of Neo Sora’s dystopian techno drama HAPPYEND, Brooklyn-based musician and composer Lia Ouyang Rusli curates a lush selection of tracks for this month’s Composer Spotlight playlist. Set in near-future Tokyo, the film follows students coming of age under intensifying surveillance and authoritarian control, its sonic world rendered through shimmering synths, dreamy piano, staccato strings, thumping rave energy and airy production. As a schoolyard prank begins to unravel and reform the fabric of a close-knit friend group, the neo-futuristic narrative deepens into a haunting reflection on identity and resistance in the digital age. Happyend marks Neo Sora’s debut feature film, following his direction of the concert film Opus, which captured his father, composer Ryuichi Sakamoto’s, final performance before his passing from cancer in March 2023.
Beginning with Happyend’s powerful opening theme, Rusli’s spotlight playlist weaves ambient, experimental, and electronic textures into an otherworldly 80-minute mixtape of sonic influences and underground inspirations – from the genre-bending sounds of Yves Tumor, Delroy Edwards, SOPHIE, and Arca to the ethereal film scores of Jóhann Jóhannsson, Animal Collective, Fatima Al Qadiri and Alex Zhang Hangtai. The mix also includes selections from Rusli’s own film scores (Problemista, Bruiser) alongside the dark and dancey anthem “no good” from her solo record, You Are Always On My Mind, released this past year under her moniker OHYUNG.
“songs of mine, songs that i love, dark and bright moods, memories from my life collected and linked through an intangible cinematic aura”
– Lia Ouyang Rusli
Listen to the playlist on Spotify or Apple Music below and don’t miss HAPPYEND, now playing in theaters.