In electronic music, sound does not emerge solely from machines. Sometimes it is shaped by
gravity, flowing water, and the slow passage of time. For Ambient and Drone music, these
gradually evolving environmental sounds are often among the most essential sonic sources.

Located in Yilan, Lanyang Hydropower System  is one of Taiwan Power Company’s most
important hydroelectric systems in eastern Taiwan, drawing its energy from the Lanyang
River watershed. The Tianpi  Power Station began operation in 1921 with three generating
units, while the Yuanshan Power Station was completed in 1941. As electricity demand
increased alongside the development of the Yilan region, Japanese planners harnessed the
abundant rainfall and dramatic elevation changes of the upper Lanyang River to establish a
network of hydropower facilities. Following World War II, the system was taken over by
Taiwan Power Company and remains in operation today.

Unlike large reservoir-based power plants, Lanyang operates as a classic run-of-river
hydroelectric system. Through diversion weirs, water channels, regulating ponds, and
penstocks, natural elevation differences are transformed into electrical energy. In many ways,
hydropower does not create energy, it converts gravity into electricity.

The Tianpi Unit, located in the mountainous area of Yuanshan Township, centers around
Tianpi Lake, a natural lake later integrated into the hydroelectric system as a regulating
reservoir. While its calm surface appears to be part of the surrounding landscape, it plays a
crucial role in storing water, stabilizing supply, and regulating flow. Here, wind, water,
vegetation, and hydraulic infrastructure merge into a distinctive acoustic environment. Unlike
the steady low-frequency hum of a thermal power plant, Tianpi resembles an Environmental
Drone shaped by the rhythms of the natural world.

The Yuanshan Unit serves as one of the key sites where potential energy is transformed into
electricity. Water rushes downhill through penstocks, enters the turbines, and drives
generators into motion. Here, the forces of nature are translated into energy through
engineering, revealing the physical process behind every electrical current.

If a thermal power station can be imagined as a giant oscillator, then a hydroelectric plant is
perhaps better understood as a monumental metronome driven by gravity itself. Water,
landscape, and time all participate in the formation of sound, giving Lanyang a unique sonic
character that exists somewhere between natural environment and infrastructure.

Here, electricity is not merely a source of energy, it is a continuously flowing environmental
sound.