Reviews of Karkowski/Dickson concert in Shenzhen (updated regularly)

by lawrence

(Updated 13:33, Mar 2)

I’ll of course write about the Karkowski/LI Chin-sung concert later, in the meantime, do read Justin Mitchell’s blog post about it. Justin is a journalist from Hong Kong.

Metal Machine Music, by Justin Mitchell (proxy needed for Mainland Chinese readers.)


Southern Metropolis Daily’s report of the concert, click to view the readable version. An English translation is coming soon. Featured in the photo is the first performer HUANG Jian.


Karkowski on stage at OCAT, Shenzhen. The banner in the background reads “Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture: Forum”. Of course this is no forum except for my opening lecture on sound art (in China). ZK’s vintage Powerbook G3 is like a 18-year-old dog, gasping and shaking at the sheer volume of noise it produces. There is apparently some problem with its audio driver as it frequently stops playing any sound without any reason - this was what happened on stage the night before. The clueless audience of Shenzhen couldn’t figure out if it was the end of the show or it’s simply an “intermission” until ZenLu announced the thanks-for-coming-do-come-back-next-time message. Photo by SU Wei.


Karkowski with Dickson Dee (LI Chin-sung). ZK’s sound was overwhelmed by Dickson’s due to the reason stated in the above caption. Photo by SU Wei.


Dickson Dee’s solo with video (made by a Hong Kong video artist), which is kind of a game of synching: the screen was split in half, each contains vertically rolling image taken when travelling on a bus (?) in the streets of HK. The two roll and roll until they eventually become in synch. This is the piece Dickson performed in Vienna and Guangzhou last year. Photo by SU Wei.


Zenlu, the co-organizer of this concert, put on some ambient-ish sound which suffers from the murky PA system and the over-sized space. Photo by SU Wei.


Karkowski (centre) & LIN Zhiying (right)’s first session at Lawrence’s apartment in Shenzhen. The two are going to make an album together. At the left side is David Frazier - the author of the Wire article (see the post below), in the background is my 21-year-old piano. Photo by Lawrence. NEW!!! David’s account of the session (proxy needed for Mainland Chinese readers.)




15 Comments »

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  1. you know. i really like karkowski as a person. i admire his belligerance and “fuck you” attitude.

    but everytime ive seen him play, his computer craps out about 10 minutes into his set.

    his continued reliance on such an old computer is beginning to seem a bit lazy and a cop-out. imagine if you paid to see a show by some famous guitarist, and after 10 minutes his guitar broke and he simply stopped playing…

    most of my friends on the A-list of electronic music have two computers they use live just in case one dies. this allows them to keep the show going… some even use three laptops.

    now, if karwoski aims to only play short “fuck off” sets, then thats okay. but he should stop using his lame old G3 powerbook as an excuse.

    the randomness of a finickey computer is not really that funny. or interesting. and if he is trying to make some kind of statement about who is really in “control” of computer music - the human or the machine - then his fans should stop idolising him and realise that its the machine in control… not the man…

    Comment by zhao — February 27, 2006 #

  2. Thanks for the link Lawrence! I’ll return the favor…

    Comment by Justin — February 27, 2006 #

  3. I just happen to be working on a new album with Lin Zhiying at Lawrence’s place in Shenzhen and Lawrence shows me this commentary. So Christiaan - I have a few things to answer to you about it.

    It is not true that everytime you have seen me performing my computer crashed after 10 minutes. In fact at Nuit Blanche festival in Paris I was performing non stop for 11 hours .

    Why my computer somtimes crashes is because I use very complex patches that run CPU to it’s absolute limit. I do not perform safe just playbacking some audiofiles and lame loops. In fact on my present tour in China I use new generative patch written for me by Peter Castine in Germany. It’s something like 188 layers of probabilistic distribution (markov chains) controlling all compositional parameters you can think of. It’s a complex stuff man - not a lame loop from Buddha machine.

    I often play short sets because I perform something between 60 - 80 concerts per year and usually artists playing before me just do too long sets. I am usually last and often I need to wake up audience. I also think that LESS IS MORE- I prefer audience to want my concert to be longer rather then feeling that it was too long.

    Finally - I do not use my old G3 powerbook as an excuse - where did you get that idea from?
    What do you know about real randomness on the computer? Come to my lectures in Beijing and I can teach you something about it. Please do not make such naive comments about things that you know nothing about.

    Comment by zbigniew — February 27, 2006 #

  4. ha! now its getting interesting!

    LESS is INDEED MORE! i have no problem with short sets. i play short sets all the time… if i knew this was your idea, i would have no problem with it and would not have questioned the shortness…

    but from my viewpoint it is not obvious that the goal of your performance is brevity. it seems the set is often limited by the computer. and this impacts the music…

    if your patch is pushing the limits of the computer, why not upgrade your processor? 60-80 gigs a year should pay for a new computer… wouldnt that allow you to make even more complex, more random music? why limit yourself to an old G3?

    and, in fact, i do know a bit about randomness and computer composition. im certainly not an expert. nor a practitioner… and while im not nearly as “famous” as you, it dosent mean i just started doing this music yesterday…. so please spare me your attitude that i “know nothing” about this subject…

    thanks also for your comment about the “lame” buddha machine… i’ll add it to my list of celebrity endorsements!

    see you soon in beijing. i’ll be opening for you with a short set of “lame” buddha loops!

    Comment by zhao — February 28, 2006 #

  5. nothing but truth about meself: I HATE loops and people who use buddha or god’s name.

    Comment by Wenhua — March 1, 2006 #

  6. This is my last comment to this thread.
    First of all reading again the review of concert in Shenzhen (original post of Lawrence) I think that his description is not really accurate. My solo set was perfect for me - I did not have any problems with my computer or anything. But I had problem in my collaborative set with Dickson - my computer just stopped playing - location module error (could not find sound manager). It has got nothing to do with my patch. Just some spooky system error - these things sometimes happen and nobody can explain why.
    Generally I must say that I have computer crashes on maybe 5 out of each 100 concerts I do and I think this is a very good ratio. Actually if I count all the sets (solo and collaborations) - I did something like 30 concerts in China until now and had problems with my computer only 2 times. It is uncorrect to say that brevity of my sets is caused by my computer - it’s bullshit - brevity of my sets is caused by my decisions. I do crash sometimes because I always do things in real time on stage and when one does it, ONE TAKES RISKS. I think that maybe Christiaan does not have much contact with people who are willing to take risk in concert situations. The big problem with all laptop performers now is that 99 procent of them play only soundfiles (pure playback) which is totally safe and totally boring. They do not even need to be onstage - could just as well send cd and have somebody press play button on cd player. These playback musicians do not need to perform with computers at all because the only thing they use on computer is space bar. If you gonna go and hear some people who do things onstage with computers In Reak Time (like Peter Rehberg, Florian Hecker, Kasper T Toeplitz, Helmut Schaeffer etc) you will see some crashes. It is just inevitable.
    Finally - my processor is 500 MHz fast and all my patches are designed for this speed. If I had G4 with 1.6 Gigaherz processor I would ask programmers to develop patches for this speed. So using newer and faster machine absolutely does not reduce any risk. In fact my old G3 has much less crashes then many of my friends who use latest G4 models. I just do not think Christiaan that you understand these things and you should not comment on something you do not understand. It is quite ignorant attitude.

    Comment by zbigniew — March 1, 2006 #

  7. “I HATE loops and people who use buddha or god’s name.”

    so you hate most music then? rock, classical and western traditional music, african drumming, indonesian gamelan and even traditional chinese composition is nothing but reptitive loops. long or short, most classical compositions are a loops. rock drumming and guitar work is a loop. african and indian percussive work is easily recognisable as a series of evoloving loops. all the songs i play on gu qin are long drawn out loops with codas and repeated motifs…

    nothing wrong with hating most music. i have many friends who hate most all “composed” music and only listen to hardcore improv. but most people who profess a hatred of “loops” fail to realise that the vast majority of music, like breathing, is a repetitive act.

    so if a chinese person uses a Chang Fo Ji (or nian fo ji, if you from the south) do you hate that device, or only if its name is translated into english? or do you hate the use of the name buddha in a marketing context? what if its a traditional herbal cure / tea called Fo Shou? or a chinese resturant called Fo Ta Qiang?

    Comment by zhao — March 1, 2006 #

  8. I don’t mind swear words at all, in fact I use them a lot myself. But just now my father called to inform me about my mum’s worry:

    “Why did the guy named ‘zhao’ say ‘fuck you’ to you, did you do something bad to him?”

    ^_^

    (DISCLOSURE: My mum, contrary to most of the Chinese people of her age, is not only English-literate but also quite geeky - she knows DOS commands and used to be in the IT business for almost 10 years.)

    Comment by lawrence — March 1, 2006 #

  9. nice one re your mum!! did you explain that it was not a “fuck you” to you but a description of a quality i find desirable in people. its a good thing!

    re ZK. i guess i can only admit that i made a comment based on incomplete information. the few times i have seen ZK, he did have computer problems. add to that the blog comments about his computer failing, and i made a comment based on my empirical knowledge and lawrence’s observations. perhaps the sample group was too small, as ZK says he has only had around 5 failures in 100 gigs. nevertheless, his belief that i dont know performers who take risks with their equipment is just completely off base…

    its good to have the actual artists comment about their own work on forums such as this. no subsitute for first-hand opinion from the artist.

    Comment by zhao — March 1, 2006 #

  10. Thanks for clearing things up, Lao Zhao. I guess this is much more convincing than the futile attempt I made via telephone, ha.

    Comment by lawrence — March 1, 2006 #

  11. TBC. here we talk about your (fm3) simple loops.

    second, when you mention those “Classical” stuff, where is your Post modern, modern or avant garde value system standing? It’s fine that your idea of music is nothing but loops. But, indeed, many people disagree with you.
    Please do not use the old theory or samples to justify your laziness for three years. This is the worst excuse.

    My 7- month- old son loves “hide-and- seek” loops, is your taget audience among that age?

    Comment by Wenhua — March 1, 2006 #

  12. “My 7- month- old son loves “hide-and- seek” loops, is your taget audience among that age?”

    actually. YES! for at least 3 years, zhang jian and i have told reporters that we make music for “young kids and old people.”

    at the louvre in paris, our audience was mostly old french people. they were some of our favourite shows over the past few years.

    and some of our biggest fans are parents who gave their children buddha machines as toys. it exposes young children to music that is not normally considered “mainstream” and it introduces kids and parents to new ideas about how we consume sound…

    “laziness for three years”

    i dont understand this… why three years? if you mean the history of FM3. then its six years since we started.

    “But, indeed, many people disagree with you.”

    who for example?

    Comment by zhao — March 2, 2006 #

  13. […] This usually comment-free blog has seen a surge of discussion lately, do read Christiaan Virant (ID: zhao)’s defense of FM3 and Buddha Machine as well as the bicker about randomness/control in laptop performance between him and Zbigniew Karkowski (ID: zbigniew) here. Also not to be missed is this “what is a valid Global Ear article (on The Wire)” discussion. And perhaps now it is helpful to remind you, dear readers, that there is a feed for the comments of GNO available for subscription. The URL of the feed is: […]

    Pingback by Global Noise Online » Something’s going on in the comments — March 2, 2006 #

  14. for kid …
    that’s fine. maybe you should join “Laptop for Every Kid
    ” project , here is the link http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,69615-0.html?tw=wn_politics_3
    your loop will be a bigS hit for that.

    about the name:
    first of all, you switch the core (heart) of “da fu ji”. how can you keep their names.
    basically, you ‘re stealing and cheating.
    i suggest you change the name to 装神，弄鬼 （zhuang shen or nong gui), or just FM3. that ’s the only way to clearify your non-buddha (anti-) action.

    who:
    I guess that you want to see some numbers. how about a voting post for FM3.
    the title: FM3 loops are Lame or not?
    1, Lame
    2, Lamer
    3, Lamest
    4, Not of above
    people can vote !!

    OK. after all, you should thank me to give you a lot of time for a publicity.

    Comment by Wenhua — March 2, 2006 #

  15. […] According to Altmusic, the first track of the EP is the live recording of his 17 mins on the Zbigniew Karkowski/Li Chin-sung concert at OCAT, Shenzhen, Feb 25, 2006. (Photos and reviews of the concert here.) The second track will be used by Li as sound material for his next album. […]

    Pingback by Global Noise Online » Zenlu live @ OCAT, Feb 25, 2006 available for free — March 7, 2006 #

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