IC-01 Hanoi

IC-01 Hanoi is the first instrumental album by New Zealand band Unknown Mortal Orchestra, released on 26 October 2018 through Jagjaguwar.^[3] It is the group's second album of 2018 after Sex & Food, released in April, and their first instrumental album.^[3] The album was recorded entirely in the city of Hanoi, Vietnam, and originated from sessions for Sex & Food,^[4][3] with frontman Ruban Nielson's father, Chris Nielson, also contributing instrumentation to the record.^[3]

IC-01 Hanoi
Studio album by Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Released	26 October 2018 (2018-10-26)
Recorded	2017
Studio	Phù Sa (Hanoi, Vietnam)
Genre	Experimental jazz[1] psychedelic rock[2]
Length	28:14
Label	Jagjaguwar
Unknown Mortal Orchestra chronology
Sex & Food (2018) IC-01 Hanoi (2018) V (2023)
Unknown Mortal Orchestra instrumental albums chronology
IC-01 Hanoi (2018) IC-02 Bogotá (2025)
Singles from IC-01 Hanoi
"Hanoi 6" Released: 25 September 2018

The first single, the nearly 10-minute ambient and freeform "Hanoi 6", was released on 25 September 2018.^[1] The album was promoted by a series of shows across Europe and the UK,^[5] as well as Asia and several in Mexico.^[6] It was followed by IC-02 Bogotá in 2025.^[7]

Music

The album has been described as a "sonic distillation of the band's influences in Jazz, Krautrock and the avant garde",^[1] as well as experimental jazz.^[1] It was influenced by the works of Miles Davis.^[1]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	66/100[8]
Review scores
Source	Rating
The Line of Best Fit	7.5/10[9]
Pitchfork	6.5/10[2]

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, IC-01 Hanoi received an average score of 66, based on eight reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[8] Reviewing the album for Pitchfork, Andy Beta felt that "Ruban Nielson throws off his habitually weighty themes and digs into a refreshingly raw, heady session of psychedelic rock", also saying that the album "presents a visceral, smoky, casual session that cooks together fairly tumultuous moods over the course of its concise runtime".^[2]

Track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Hanoi 1"	1:20
2.	"Hanoi 2"	5:12
3.	"Hanoi 3"	2:22
4.	"Hanoi 4"	3:48
5.	"Hanoi 5"	2:30
6.	"Hanoi 6"	9:48
7.	"Hanoi 7"	3:14
Total length:		28:14

Personnel

Musicians^[3]

• Ruban Nielson – guitar
• Kody Nielson – drums
• Jake Portrait – bass
• Chris Nielson – saxophone, flugelhorn, keyboards
• Minh Nguyen – đàn môi, sáo mèo, trống thanh

Technical

• Jake Portrait – engineer
• Kody Nielson – engineer
• Vu Pham – engineer, recording
• Ruban Nielson – mixing
• JJ at Golden Mastering – mastering