Plato III has shared, "Stay Sane feat. Bei Bei", a hypnotic new track along with a gorgeous video directed by Colton Van Til at Isamu Noguchi’s California Scenario, a sculpture garden based in the heart of Costa Mesa, 40 miles south of Plato’s (Ryan Silva's) home of Los Angeles.

The song’s meditative rhythm, constructed by producer Philip Odom (Ceremony, Militarie Gun), is graced by renowned Chinese Guzheng virtuoso and string player, Bei Bei Monter, better known as Bei Bei. The guzheng (“goo-jung” / 古筝) is a Chinese stringed instrument whose origin dates to the Qin dynasty – roughly 2,250 years ago for those keeping track, and can have as many as 26 strings.

Its classically major pentatonic tuning flourishes atop Odom’s dub-esque bass and sparse percussion, while Plato’s nimble verses softly bob and sway throughout, culminating with a hypnotic swirl that washes over the song’s coda, like waves across sand.

Speaking to the collaboration and deeper meaning behind the track, Silva shares:

“One of the world’s best string instrument players doing her thing on this. One of my proudest moments. I just try to stay out the way, but really meditate on the personal toll that capitalism takes on me in a consumer culture. It’s inescapable and casts a heavy shadow. Hard to defeat, we are left with trying to maintain.” 

It’s a form of survivalist mantra that is interwoven through Silva’s most recent works “I Want (Money)” and “Good Problems,” both of which will appear on his forthcoming / TBA album, due out Fall 2025.