Oliver Cong was waiting for the bus when it started raining heavily. He quickly sought refuge in a nearby chapel, and it was there that the idea for his album was born. Inside the chapel, he was reminded of the scent of Mauritius, where his father was from, mixed with the pillars of damp wood and the ritualistic frankincense.

As the rain continued to beat violently on the metallic church roof, the road outside became filled with angry drivers honking their way through the streets of Hong Kong. These sounds, familiar to Cong, echoed through the sacred architecture like a piece of nostalgic happening.

Inspired by this experience, Cong decided to compose a series of works featuring the eclectic sounds of his city. He was also influenced by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto, whose exercise of restraint and Eastern philosophy led Cong to explore the ambient sounds that made up his daily life. He experimented and reconstructed these sounds with familiar instruments. In "Tropical Church," listeners will experience music composed of piano, ambient electronics, shakuhachi, Chinese yuan, guzheng, and spoken words, which Cong believes represent his feelings for home—Hong Kong. To him, home is an old church that harbors a myriad of unspoken emotions, flowing from the West to East. It holds a complex history within its damp pillars, the sounds of the city, and the footsteps of everyday people that enliven the streets.

Most notably, the first track, "I am afraid of," features voice recordings of anonymous strangers describing their deepest fears. Cong was deeply touched by these answers, as they revealed common fears of death, love, and being alone, shared by all.