By Jocelle Koh

What happens when one of Taiwan’s most progressive contemporary experimental electronic acts interacts with the work of a Taiwanese electronic music pioneer?

Listeners to Mong Tong’s new ‘open source’ EP Sun Moon Darkness 明日音, which samples from the works of electronic/rock music pioneer Lim Giong 林強 and Luca Bonaccorsi will soon find out.

While electronic music continues to be a niche genre in Taiwan and throughout Asia, critically-acclaimed electronic duo Mong Tong have made waves for the way they deconstruct Southeast Asian history and culture to create out-of-this-world textures and sonic experiences that strike a deep resonance with listeners worldwide.

As for Lim Giong, who pioneered independent culture through his introduction of Taiwanese dialect to the pop scene before becoming one of Taiwan’s earliest experimental electronic acts, he has teamed up with Luca Bonaccorsi on EP Bioerosion 時間浸漬 , which Mong Tong’s Sun Moon Darkness draws on in the spirit of open culture licensing.

Creating a different universe of sounds in this mesmerising LP which highlights the duo’s superpower of transcending time and space while grounding us in sounds and textures that threaten to be swept away by the sands of time, we dug deeper with Mong Tong to unpack the various layers of their project, and their vibrant philosophy on what it means to tell stories through the acts of creation and collaboration.

1.You guys have always been deeply rooted in the experimental electronic genre, however in your latest EP “明日音” you have started to explore something called “Future Folk”. Can you describe what Future folk” is to you?

MT: This aesthetic—what we call “Future Folk”—is neither nostalgia for the past nor a collage of exoticism. Instead, it is a form of folk creation that looks toward the future. Folk culture is no longer a sonic specimen preserved in a museum, but a cultural state that continues to evolve.

2.Given the use of the word “folk” in this new concept you’ve created, I’m curious to know what you guys define as “folk” in the context of music. 

MT: Folk music should be rooted in everyday life and grassroots culture, often emerging from amateur creation and oral performance—for example, the saxophone buskers commonly seen at temple squares or in parks in Taiwan, or even karaoke bars. In short, it is not a system that has been formalized or “canonized” by academic institutions.

3.This album is very special as it samples deeply from a previous open culture project of Lim Giong and Luca Bonaccorsi. Is this the first time you guys have sampled so thoroughly from one source to create something transformative? What was the process like?

MT: Yes, it was a very special experience! Before this album we did a couple of remixes which were mostly based on sampling the original sources. So when the first demo of “Sun Moon Darkness” (the single) came out, Lim Giong told us it sounded more like a remix song than a new piece. After that we made a totally different production among whole album, shifting all the sounds we used and making them unrecognizable from the original songs.

4.For listeners who aren’t sure what “open culture” is, could you explain what this means for your latest album? By making it an open culture release, what do you hope this means for listeners interacting with your work?

MT: Open source culture is a collaborative, transparent, and community-driven approach to development, emphasizing shared responsibility, knowledge sharing, and meritocracy where anyone can contribute to freely accessible code (like Linux or Firefox) to build innovative software together, valuing contribution over hierarchy. This album, for instance, everyone can have their own remix or even “remake album” according to the source we provided to everyone for free! 

5.Open culture is still a very progressive concept especially today when there are quite rigid restrictions around what is considered intellectual property and ownership. How does this concept resonate innately and support Mong Tong’s vision and creative process? 

MT: We encourage you to remix the music, edit the visuals, share them with friends, or publish them on your blog or podcast, helping the music and imagery reach a wider audience. Through sharing, the work may inspire others and spark new creative ideas, collectively infusing the world with boundless creativity.

6.Through the songs in the album, you explore culture as something that is constantly changing and transforming, incorporating the sounds of many traditional instruments but sampled and chopped in different ways. How do you believe this lends to continued preservation of eastern tradition? 

MT: The history of electronic music in Taiwan is very short, thus the knowledge or sound designing are very limited compared to the western music. However, folk instruments and their musical logic don’t always follow traditional music theory. Only people who truly live on this land—through generations of practice and shared experience—can keep these sounds rooted in their local identity.

By using modern music technology like sampling, we’re able to bring out and re-express those uniquely local sounds.That’s exactly why we do what we do.

7.How was the creation process for this album different to any of your previous works?

MT: Not many differences, we mainly use skills like sampling, granular synthesis, and tons of effect pedals. We tried to use real pedals instead of VSTs or plugins, creating the analog warmth on every instrument.

8.You involved other collaborators such as 百合花 & Dawang Yingfan Huang 黃大旺 on this project as well. What was it like communicating your vision to them while allowing yourself to be inspired by the original works created by Lim giong and Luca Bonaccorsi? 

MT: Usually, once we choose a collaborator, we give them 100% trust and don’t interfere with how they create at all. Of course, at the beginning we explain what we’re working on and why we want to collaborate with them, but the outcome is always unexpected.We really love this kind of free, surprise-driven way of creating.

9.You guys have always had the unique ability to create new soundscapes, even ones that sound extraordinarily human and often organic with your experimentations with electronic music. How do you believe electronic music could support connecting us back with our history, roots, and shared humanity? 

MT: We believe that electronic music, as a medium, moves freely between reality and imagination. Within this space, it holds endless possibilities to create what we understand as value and the future. Because of this, listeners can easily sense what we are trying to express through our music.

10.Is this mode of creation (open culture) going to be something you will continue to explore moving forward? What’s next for Mong Tong in 2026? 

MT: Actually every year we release one “pop”single on Bandcamp and they are always free to download! Next year we will tour with the new album from Japan to the U.S., so see you in your city!

Listen to Mong Tong’s latest EP ‘Sun Moon Darkness’ available on all streaming services and available to download to share on your platforms or to remix however you like!