Some artists arrive in your day the way dawn light hits a city window—quiet, unexpected, but instantly transformative. Hong Kong Stingray (aka Chet Delcampo) is one of those discoveries you want to hold close, yet can’t help but share with pride. His music sets the tone for the whole day—mysterious, cinematic, and strangely comforting.
The first track that pulls you into his universe is “Films Shot on Trains” (feat. Philip Stevenson), extracted from the deepest shades of red -LP pt.1, a piece that feels suspended between memory and motion. It doesn’t resemble anything else—its melancholy drifts like a long exhale, wrapped in a voice that lays itself over you like a veil. It draws you inward, inviting you to lean back, slow down, maybe even sit by a fire and let your thoughts wander.
Trying to pin Hong Kong Stingray’s sound to a single genre misses the point. It’s jazz bathed in shadows, soft-rock brushed with dream-logic, experimental but warm, avant-garde yet deeply human. That ambiguity is exactly where the magic lives.
The second track we heard, “An Iris” (feat. Mol White, Karl Blau & Philip Stevenson), from leans more into soft-rock terrain but never loses that Stingray mystique. It carries the same cinematic quality—like fragments of scenes pulled from films that never existed. The experimentation is subtle but unmistakable, and every layer feels intentional, textured, personal. You can find it in this project: the deepest shades of red -LP pt.2.
Part of the allure is the world behind the music. Chet has released five LPs plus a constellation of EPs and singles under both Chet Delcampo and Hong Kong Stingray. Across the years, he’s collaborated with a wonderfully eclectic cast: David Lovering from the Pixies, Kid Congo Powers (Gun Club, Cramps, Bad Seeds), Joel RL Phelps, among others. His bunker-like vintage recording studio in Philly feels like the perfect origin point for this sound—underground, glowing with analog grit, filled with curious characters and restless creativity.
Today he continues to build an entire ecosystem of collaboration around him with Philly musicians like Karl Blau, Heyward Howkins (Opal Eskar), and Birdie Busch. And as he leans deeper into film score work, it becomes even clearer: Hong Kong Stingray is shaping atmospheres, crafting scenes, sketching entire emotional landscapes.
Dive into his world now on BandCamp.
