G E M    L E E

An Independent Catalogue 音乐目录

Music is a physical event. Sound waves moving through space — and, on entering the body, becoming perception, then feeling, then something the body knows before the mind names it. This lab works at that boundary.

Every piece here begins with craft: timbres shaped, silences placed, the arc of sound through time considered. Released into the world, it carries many possibilities. Among all that it might reach — one intention. That the world is beautiful. That everything encountered is new. That what is present is already whole.

— after Chan Master Sheng Yen, Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Association

The rest — what opens in you when the sound arrives — is yours.

随身听  ·  Walkman
Press play, leave it on
随心 · Easy Going
40 tracks · all-day companion
Featured
Seven Works · MMXXVI
Catalogue №026
YearMMXXVI · 2026
PiecesSeven
FormPiano Nocturne
众里寻他千百度,蓦然回首

美丽的意境

Gravity · In the spirit of John Barry's Somewhere in Time (1980) and the Jane Eyre theme (1970)

A fire at midnight. A lake so still it carries the moon undisturbed. A window, long after everyone has gone to sleep. Seven nocturnes for piano. The melody, each time, reaches upward — arrives at a note that doesn't quite belong — waits — then descends, one step at a time. Seven rooms. One sound.

PianoNocturneFilm-Inspired
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Catalogue №003
YearMMXXVI · 2026
PiecesSix
FormMulti-Instrument Ensemble
步履不停往前走

步履不停

Still Walking · Bùlǚ Bùtíng · Inspired by Hirokazu Koreeda's film (2008)

Six pieces for multi-instrument ensemble. An ordinary day, already becoming memory even as it happens — 物の哀れ, the beauty of impermanence. To feel it is not to grieve. It is to be awake. Life is not a destination. The harvest is not the point. The path moves forward — and the walking itself is the whole answer. Still walking.

EnsembleCollaborationFilm-Inspired
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Catalogue №013
YearMMXXVI · 2026
PiecesOne
FormJazz · Vocal · Memorial

The White Road Ahead

For Lee Sutton

He rode his Harley-Davidson alone on Highway 5 in a snowstorm — Seattle to Portland. Cold, wind, snow, the road entirely his own. He said it felt like happiness. Joyful. A West Coast Cool Jazz trumpet on the white road ahead.

JazzVocalMemorial
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Catalogue №010
YearMMXXVI · 2026
PiecesSeven
FormInstrumental · Marimba & Pan Flute

Trees

Seven observations from a walk through old-growth forest. A tree that has been standing for two hundred years. The water rising through the wood. The light breaking through the canopy. The presence in ancient trees that has no name. Seven complete moments — a footstep, a color, a silence, a small wry recognition at the end.

InstrumentalMarimbaPan Flute
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Catalogue №006
YearMMXXVI · 2026
PiecesSeven
FormNylon Guitar · Vocal & Instrumental

寂静的朋友 (I)

Silent Friend (I) · Inspired by Ildikó Enyedi's film (2025)

Seven pieces for nylon-string guitar, voice, and strings. A ginkgo tree in a German university garden, witnessed across three lifetimes: 1908, 1972, 2020. The music does not retell those stories. It inhabits the same silence.

Spanish VocalsNylon GuitarFilm-Inspired
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Catalogue №016
YearMMXXVI · 2026
PiecesEleven
FormJazz · Piano Trio · Working Music
滚动是一种自由

滚动

Rolling · Working Music Three

Something starts rolling and doesn't stop. Not urgency — more like a river that knows where it's going without being in a hurry. Piano and archtop guitar, mostly without drums. A rolling left-hand feel, continuous and forward. Eleven pieces for working hours and quiet afternoons.

JazzPiano TrioWorking Music
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Catalogue №018
YearMMXXVI · 2026
PiecesEight
FormCool Jazz · Trumpet & Sax
潇洒,是一种装作没事

面对人群

Facing the Crowd · West Coast Cool Jazz · Inspired by Wang Xiaoshuai & Zhang Chu

Eight pieces about the face you keep while walking through a crowd. Two voices alternate: a dark trumpet (the inner — lonely, unwilling to be seen) and a suave alto sax (the surface — composed, pretending nothing's wrong). The mask goes down, and back up. By the fifth piece it comes all the way off; then, slowly, you stand and walk on. In homage to Chet Baker and Paul Desmond.

Cool JazzTrumpetSaxophone
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About This Music 关于这些音乐

These albums are made for sharing. Listen freely. Pass them on. If the music finds its way into your life, that is enough.

If you use these recordings in a film, documentary, or serious commercial project — please write to me at nongming66@gmail.com. We will agree on an appropriate amount, which you then donate directly to Dharma Drum Mountain Seattle Center (法鼓山西雅图分会). If you cannot reach me, you are welcome to contact the Seattle Center directly.

A credit to “Gem Lee” is appreciated but not required.

Concept, lyrics & arrangement by Gem Lee / Audio synthesized via AI / nongming66@gmail.com