2pi 2007 in Review

by Ben

Better late than never, here’s a quick rundown of this year’s 2pi Festival, which took place in the Cici Gallery 凡人乐野 of Hangzhou’s Loft 49 arts complex.

Like Beijing’s 798 and Shanghai’s Moganshan 50, Loft 49 subsumes a bunch of art galleries and shops fashioned out of former warehouse space, although this year the swath of small shops, restaurants, and massage parlors lining the narrow streat leading to the complex had been reduced to rubble, making this out of the way spot far to the north of Hangzhou’s West Lake even trickier to find.

Things got off to a bit of a late start, as bands were sound-checking up to the last minute. I didn’t realize until it was too late that New York-based artist Kim Cascone’s contribution was a video piece running silently at the front of the room, so I’m afraid I missed it. A lot of artists this year incorporated video in some capacity, so this was actually a good way to kick things off.

First up, following introductory remarks by Li Jianhong 李剑鸿 and Yan Jun 颜峻, was 12 Dog Cycle from Taipei, a collaboration between Alice Hui-Sheng Chang 张惠笙 and Australian Nigel Brown. Their set began with breathy vocalizations from Ms. Chang, and Mr. Brown quickly joined in with a steady, minimalist pulse on accordion (rapid pumping of the bellows with some of the keys taped down); at times I had flashbacks of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians. Mr. Brown added a shaker to the pulse after a bit, while Ms. Chang’s voice faded in and out. Then the pulse suddenly stopped, and Ms. Chang collapsed into a sequence of coos, squeaks, and shivers, while the unvoiced accordion mingled its breath with hers, and then Mr. Brown started using a laptop to layer sounds in again.

[Note that my coverage will get steadily less detailed as the day progresses…]

Next up was Shanghai’s harshnoise superstars Torturing Nurse, now performing as a threesome: founder Junky, longtime member Xu Cheng 徐程, and new frontwoman Jia Die 蛱蝶. I’ve seen these guys perform a lot around Shanghai, and I’d say this was one of their more balanced performances. Junky was manipulating a contact-miked piece of sheet metal that very directly translated his always effusive gestures into sheets of sound, while Xu Cheng manipulated an array of stomp boxes and gadgets in a rat’s nest of wires, all of which was hooked up to a television display (relayed to the overhead projector) that flickered in proportion to the sounds’ frequency, as Jia Die screamed her heart out. The show ended with her and Junky flailing in a pile on the cement floor, exhausted. Visceral as the sound was, several artists who followed complained that the speakers were roached following their high-velocity set, though it took me a while to determine if it was the speakers or my ears, since I mistakenly left my ear plugs in Shanghai.

Junky has posted some clips from their set.

Following Torturing Nurse was Walnut Room 核桃室 from Beijing, comprising Feng Hao 冯昊 and Li Zenghui 李增辉. Their set started off with some drama when some rarified sound manipulation device with a bell for focusing sound that Feng Hao had brought along with him wasn’t working properly, so he smashed it, while Li Zenghui was testing his microphone by screaming into it. After Torturing Nurse’s aggressive set, I think everyone assumed this as part of the performance, but in fact what followed was a bit more mellow. Li Zenghui went through the entire saxophone family during their set, while Feng Hao coaxed a range of sounds from his guitar by bowing it, accompanied by sounds from his laptop that felt part of the same universe as his solo CD.

Looks like I’m going to have to post this in installments, as I still have more notes and photos and links to sort through, and I suppose that makes it more readable than one monolithic post anyway. More to come soon, and with pictures!




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