2pi Wrap-up

by Ben

[Continued from December 12 post…]

Chung-Kun Wang 王仲堃 from Taipei had the most impressive apparatus of the festival. After his set, he was hounded by audience members taking pictures and asking for explanations of just what exactly he was doing. I can’t say with any authority how it worked, but his contraption comprised 3 bottles filled with different levels of water connected to hoses that played them as pipes with compressed air. When I, too, snuck up to the stage for a peek after his set, I caught a quick glimpse of a Max patch on his laptop. It was an incredibly subtle performance, and in that space, following such boisterous shows from other acts, I’ve got to say it fell a bit flat, but listening to the recording later on revealed a lot of details I had missed the first time. It’s definitely a unique area of activity; I haven’t heard anyone else perform this kind of computer controlled acoustic sound in China.

More on one or the other of his blogs.

Chung-Kun Wang’s Max-controlled water/sound contraption

The subdued mood was broken when a noisy street party broke out at the back of the room. Justin Padro’s virtuosic snare solos (from New York via Beijing), Li Tieqiao’s 李铁桥 saxophone (from Beijing via Norway), and Sun Mengjin’s 孙孟晋 vocalizations (from Shanghai) created a jubilant atmosphere, and as the musicians riffed off each other, they processed from the back to the front of the room, gathering audience members around them en route, clearly having a good time.

Wang Changcun 王长存 (originally from Haerbin, now living in Shanghai) played very briefly; he evidently also felt that the small sounds from his laptop weren’t being accurately reproduced and curtailed his set. His musical material was striking in its simplicity, nothing but piano samples, focusing attention instead on the algorithmic procedures behind them, the same kind of textures he explores on his brand new CD Déjà visté.

I’m afraid I missed most of Chung-Han Yao’s 姚仲涵 set. I heard later that he only played for eight minutes, since at one point the sound stopped unexpectedly, and he decided not to continue beyond that point. But from the buzz I heard in the background and the crowd of people gathered around the stage, I gather it was something similar to what he does in this clip.

And to my regret and embarassment, I don’t have much illuminating to say about Yan Jun’s 颜峻 set either, as much as I had been looking forward to it. The subtle sounds that he started seemed a continuation of the ambient ideas he recently explored with Zafka and 718 on the recent Music for Shopping Malls CD, one of my favorite new albums. I was lying on the floor, the light was dim, it was getting late, it had been a long day, the soothing sounds started, and the next thing I knew everyone was applauding and the show was over! Next year I’m bringing a thermos of coffee. Anyway, better to get his own account on his web site.

The final act scheduled was the man himself, Li Jianhong 李剑鸿, and although he didn’t bust out the fog machine and lasers like last year, his performance struck me as more nuanced and varied than in the past. His solo guitar performance actually started out quite mellow, with lots of space and contrast, before building up to his more customary, all-enveloping sound, bringing the festival to a rousing finale.

Li Jianhong resting from his labors

Afterwards, like last year, there was a chance for any of the performers who felt led to improvise together as an epilogue. The most interesting bit was at the very end, when it was down to 4 vocalists: Yan Jun’s overtone throat singing grounding the group, while Alice Hui-Sheng Chang created sustained tones as reference points, and itta and Li Zenghui chased each other in bursts.

The event seemed to be quite a success overall. The turnout was good, and the weather was better than last year, with people arriving from all over (lots of folks like me hopped on the new express train from Shanghai to attend) and staying until the bitter end. Afterwards a bunch of artists and hangers-on went out for a tasty meal with beer and conversation flowing past 4am.

Lots of performers and attendees have posted their own (more punctual) synopses on their various blogs and web pages, with pictures, video, and commentary. Here are a few additional links (in addition to those already mentioned):

Lu Tao’s blog：http://ltrichard.blogbus.com/logs/11181276.html
Hong Qile’s blog： http://hongqile.blogbus.com/logs/11114493.html
Anikijo’s blog： http://anikijo.blogcn.com/diary,12204334.shtml
Anikijo’s photo gallery： http://picasaweb.google.com/anikijo/5th2pifestival
Yan Jun： http://www.yanjun.org/blog/2007/11/28/%e4%ba%8c%e7%9a%ae%e5%bd%92%e6%9d%a5/
Junky： http://www.artyouth.org/blog/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=878&blogId=9
Wang Changcun: http://www.post-concrete.com/wangcc/
Chung-Han Yao: http://www.yaolouk.com/
Chung-Kun Wang: http://blog.roodo.com/aquen or http://wangchungkun.blogspot.com
Some of the performers from Taipei were also involved in the Lacking Sound Festival: http://lsf-tw.blogspot.com/
And of course the official 2pi site: http://www.2pi-records.com/festival2007.html

You can listen to the whole show at Sonoan Radio: http://www.sonoan.com/

I’m looking forward to next year!




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