RESO show tomorrow

by Ben

Quick blurb to let everyone know about a show going down tomorrow night in Shanghai called RESO: Reconstruct the Experimental Soundscape of Ourselves. It’s being organized by Mai Mai 卖卖 from the noise rock band Musclesnog (with whom Torturing Nurse’s Junky sat in on vocals and guitar last weekend at Live Bar). Mai Mai will be debuting his solo side-project, Asthma Writers Union, and also a duo project, Porn Moon Twins. Also on the bill is Dominik 多多, a British sound artist who was last in town about two years ago and played a NOIShanghai gig at that time. I’ll also be performing a set of vocal improvisation and Max/MSP futzing, inspired by this brief, impromptu collaboration with Yan Jun 颜峻 at the last NOIShanghai show in January.

Date: Saturday, April 12, 7:30 pm
Venue: Mecooon (aka Downstream Garage) 下河迷仓
Address: Long Cao Road, lane 200, number 100, building 3 (next to the former Yu Yin Tang).
龙漕路200弄100号3楼（育音堂原址隔壁）
Cover charge: 20 RMB (includes free CD for first 50 audience members)




NOIShanghai 2nd Anniversary show this Saturday

by Ben

NOIShanghai XIII will take place this Saturday, Jan. 19, 2008, 2:30 pm, at Live Bar in Shanghai, 721 Kunming Rd., near Tongbei Rd., way up in Yangpu District.

The program includes Torturing Nurse, Wang Changcun, and Runar Magnusson from Iceland, now living in Denmark. Runar was also in China a year ago and played some gigs with Dickson Dee in Shenzhen and Guangzhou. Looks like they’re playing again in Shenzhen tomorrow.

Thirteen concerts organized in two years (see list) is not a bad track record!




Got me a Headache

by Ben

Kinda late notice, but Headache is playing tonight at JZ in Shanghai, 10pm, and I can’t wait! I caught these guys about two years ago at Number Five on the Bund, back when that was a place, and they put on a great show.

Headache is put together by the active Hong Kong-based American bassist Peter Scherr (who writes the tunes), and also features Briggan Krauss on sax, Tony Scherr (Peter’s brother) on guitar, and Jim Black on drums.

The big draw for me is Briggan Krauss, who used to play in Wayne Horvitz‘ quartet Pigpen in Seattle. Briggan had already left Seattle for New York by the time I arrived in 1996, but he used to come back frequently for reunion gigs. Last time he was in Shanghai we chatted for a bit, and he gave me two CD’s of his electronic compositions (”Objects” and “Systems”), and they’re quite assured, a pleasant new perspective on someone I had previously known exclusively as a sax player.

I thought the improvised new music scene was the most vital thing going on while I was in Seattle, nurtured by Cornish College of the Arts (which Briggan Krauss attended, and where John Cage invented the prepared piano) and spurred by the infusion of guys like Wayne Horvitz and Bill Frisell, two alumni of John Zorn’s Naked City who moved to Seattle seeking a less frenetic pace of life. Once I heard Bill Frisell sitting in with another of Wayne Horvitz’ quartets, the Hammond B3-led Zony Mash, and when Wayne called a Zorn tune (”Sex Fiend,” included on Zony’s first album Cold Spell), Bill complained, “We’re not in New York anymore, we don’t have to play that shit!”

Briggan Krauss, Tony Scherr, and Jim Black are all active in all kinds of projects, including NY-based Sex Mob, who I saw play once at Seattle’s venerable Crocodile Cafe.

Headache has already played around China a bit, continuing on to Hong Kong, Chongqing, and then Beijing on Christmas, full details on Peter’s website.




Change in Mini MIDI programme

by lawrence

Lin Zhiying 林志英’s performance has been re-scheduled to 19:10 of the first day (May 1). RandomK(e) - the artist that was originally assigned that time slot - will play on May 2.

[See full schedule of Mini MIDI 2007 here.]




Mini MIDI 2007: May 1 - 3

by lawrence

Mini MIDI, the offsite/experimental arm of the annual MIDI Festival in Beijing and one of the two major nationwide new music/sound art festivals in China, is coming again on May 1. Kudos to curator Yan Jun, who managed to keep it going for three years.

I’m forwarding this schedule from Super Sonic China, with a bit of format adjustment. The concerts will take place at Haidian Park.

May 1

pm2:20 Dead J
pm3:10 Zhou Risheng 周日升
pm3:50 nara + Xiao Wei
pm4:30 Tieguanyin Duo 铁观音二重奏 (Yan Jun 颜峻 + Wu Na 乌娜)
pm5:10 Justin Zhong Minjie 钟敏杰
pm5:50 Jackson Garland (USA)
pm6:30 Wu Quan 武权
pm7:10 Lin Zhiying 林志英
pm8:00 Jan Jelinek feat. Kosmischer Pitch (Germany)

May 2

pm2:20 Wu Fei 呉非
pm2:50 RandomK(e)
pm3:30 Andrew Pekler (Germany)
pm4:20 Jan Jelinek (Germany)
pm5:10 10 (Japan/Korea)
pm5:50 SULUMI
pm6:30 Portalenz (Japan)
pm7:10 Hanno Leichtmann (Germany)
pm8:00 Fish and the Bedroom Riot (Taiwan)

May 3

pm2:20 Zafka (Zhang Anding 张安定)
pm3:00 Walnut Room (Feng Hao 冯昊 + Li Zenghui 李增辉)
pm3:40 Ma Fei San 麻沸散
pm4:30 Bokusatsu Shoujo Koubou
pm5:10 iLoop
pm5:50 Wang Fan 王凡
pm6:30 Xiao He 小河
pm7:20 TronOrchestra + SAM2 + SomeMoreSams +
pm8:00 FM3 + Special guest




Free concert at Videotage, Hong Kong

by lawrence

Hong Kong-based experimental label Lona Records will present a concert titled “Take Off Your Headphone and Turn to 10″ on Jan 20, featuring seven local acts, Splinter vs Stalin from Italy, and two young musicians from Shenzhen (Zenlu and Huang Jian). Details.

Lona Records, just like Little Sound of mainland China, is very much into the idea of releasing a lot of three-inch CDRs. I took this picture in Kubrick bookstore, Yau Ma Tei on the first day of 2007. The ones with the yellow background and a red filled-in circle in the middle is from Torturing Nurse.

Lona 3-inches at Kubrick




2pi Festival 2006: Lineup and website

by lawrence

Here you go, eighteen units to be fit into ten hours, that’s averagely 30 mins each. So this is our own “Jujikan”. :p

1+1+1 (Fuzhou)
Alessandro Bosetti (Germany)
Audrey Chen (US)
Ben Houge (Seattle/Shanghai)
Dajuin Yao 姚大钧 (Berkeley/Taipei)
D!O!D!O!D! (Hangzhou)
Jimu 积木 (Hangzhou)
Chiang Liwei 江立威 (Taipei)
Li Jianhong 李剑鸿 (Hangzhou)
Lin Zhiying 林志英 (Guangzhou/Shenzhen)
Livescope (Hangzhou)
Torturing Nurse (Shanghai)
Tsai Hsin-yuan 蔡欣圜 (Taipei)
Wang Changcun 王长存 (Harbin/Shanghai)
Wang Fan 王凡 (Beijing)
Zafka 张安定 (Beijing)
Zhong Minjie 钟敏杰 (Guangzhou)
Ronez 周沛 (Guilin)

The official website is here (bilingual).




Some recent gigs worth checking out

by lawrence

S H A N G H A I

NOIShanghai Free

NOIShanghai Free

Time: 19:00, Nov 11, 2006
Venue: Gin Gallery, G/F Building #3, 50 Moganshan Road. 明净旨水艺廊，莫干山路 50 号 3 号楼底层。
Entrance: Free

Artists:

A free installment of the continuing NOIShanghai concert series curated by Torturing Nurse’s Junky and XU Cheng.

—

NOIShanghai VI

NOIShanghai VI

Time: 19:30 - 21:30, Nov 23, 2006
Venue: Yu Yin Tang, #100, Lane 200, Longcao Road, Shanghai. 育音堂。上海市龙漕路 200 弄 100 号。Tel: +86 21 6436 0072
Entrance: 30 yuan (about $3.5)

Artists:

The sixth installment of NOIShanghai series, with returning cellist Audrey Chen, Shanghai-based American Ben Houge and new face Bosetti.

—

NOIShanghai VI+

NOIShanghai VI+

Time: 21:00, Nov 24, 2006
Venue: Live Bar, 721-12 Kunming Road, Yangpu district, Shanghai. 上海市杨浦区昆明路 721 号 12（通北路口）。Tel: +86 21 2833 6764
Entrance: 30 yuan (with one drink)

Artists:

  • Audrey Chen (USA)
  • Alessandro Bosetti (Germany)
  • Ben Houge (Seattle/Shanghai)
  • Torturing Nurse (Shanghai)

Same lineup, different stuff.

—

T A I P E I

Sheng Jiao - a cross-strait sound art event
聲交：兩岸聲音藝術交流大匯演

Time: 20:00, Nov 15, 2006
Venue: The Wall, B1, #200, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Wenshan district, Taipei City 116. 這牆音樂藝文展演空間 116 台北市文山區羅斯福路四段 200 號 B1 (羅斯福路-基隆路口，百老匯影城地下室) Tel: +886 2 2930 0162
Entrance: 300 NT (about $9)

Artists:

YAN Jun is the first Mainland Chinese sound artist to tour in Taiwan.

—

2pi Festival 2006

Time: 14:00 - 24:00, Nov 25, 2006
Venue: Loft 49, Hangzhou

Entrance and artists to be announced.

Currently the most important large-scale experimental music festival in China and the only opportunity to listen to all the major experimental musicians/sound artists in one go. We encourage you to support them.




Waterland Kwanyin #73

by lawrence

Tomorrow night at Waterland Kwanyin (venue: 2 Kolegas): Kaspar Konig and The Lowest Summer. As you probably can tell, the latter is another spin-off of the former Shanghai post-rock band Prague. The lineup is Zafka (laptop, keyboard, guitar, voice), 5355 (bass) - the two members of A Lower Summer who played two gigs at 2 Kolegas and D-22 more than a month ago, Lee (guitar, effects), Lisa (keyboard) and Shizi (drum).

So here you have the family tree of “Prague and related”:

  • Prague (Zafka, Lee, Lisa, 5355, Mobby)
  • A Lower Summer (Zafka, 5355)
  • The Lowest Summer (Zafka, Lee, Lisa, 5355, Shizi)
  • Zafka

The style of The Lowest Summer will be very different from the narrative, noise ambient-oriented one of A Lower Summer. According to Zafka, the latest embodiment of Prague souls is “low-key, ambient and psychedelic”. You’ll probably find more kinship to Prague in The Lowest Summer than A Lower Summer.

And of course, The Lowest Summer is only one drummer away from Prague (Shizi instead of Mobby).

If you can’t make it tomorrow night, they’ll have one more gig in D-22 next Friday (Nov 17).

And here’s Konig’s bio as provided by the organizer:

Kaspar Konig

Kaspar Konig (NL -1975) is an industrial designer, musician and composer of modern soundscapes. His desire and his performing bring our daily objects to life!

With manipulating the outside as well as the inside of the objects, there is a lot of new sound world to hear and see. By circuit bending and transmitting object behaviours he triggers himself to become loose. The objects have the tendency to become alive and the he prefers to leave them that way!

His performances take place in Berlin, Zürich, Barcelona and Athens where he composed for several dance performances and theater pieces in small and independent theaters, galleries and concert spaces. Also workshops about circuit bending, soundbikes and performing belong to his main objectives.
In this concert he will introduce his newest instrument, a manipulated shaving machine.
And furtheron we’ll listen to Berlin bits, bytes and beats!

Addresses:

2 Kolegas: Qiche Dianyingyuan (Drive-in Cinema), north side of Dongfeng road, 300 metres west of Dongfeng Bridge), Beijing. Tel: +86 10 8196 4820

D-22: 13 Chengfu road, Wudaokou, Beijing. Tel: +86 10 6265 3177

# Both gigs start at 21:30 (official), or shall we say 22:00 (de facto).

# Waterland Kwanyin is a weekly sound art event curated by critic/musician Yan Jun in Beijing.




Qianhai Guanyin #7

by lawrence

If you go to Chinese Jazz pioneer LIU Yuan 刘元’s “East Shore Jazz Cafe” 东岸吧 tonight at 21:30, you’ll catch this guy’s performance:

Sun Dawei featured on Modern Weekly

(Modern Weekly issue 410. Click on the image to view better.)

This is one of the on-going Qianhai Guanyin concert series in Beijing, held every Wednesday at East Shore. Info from the organizer:

Qianhai Guanyin#7

Nov 1st, Wednesday, 9:30pm

First half

1. sulumi
2. LIman

VJ: Zhi Qi (hao bu hao)

Second half: free improv

Venue: East Shore Jazz Cafe, Di’anmen Wai Street, west to the post office. (地安门外大街地安门商场南一百米，邮局西侧，东岸Jazz Cafe)
Tel: 8403 2131

Artists’ bio:

SUN Dawei (aka Sulumi, Panda Twin)

Started to learn guitar in 1997, Sun Dawei formed and joined bands like “Xi Guan” and “Underground Baby”. He wrote some songs for bands and many times appeared at live shows. Since the year 2000, Sun Dawei began to compose electronic music and has produced many important electronic music compilation albums afterwards. He also envolved in the incidental music for film and theatre. Sun Dawei has released several albums for himself under the name of “SULUMI”, he is famous for the pure Gameboy sound and IDM.

LIman

Started to make music by using computer in 1999, Li Man’s music was shinning in the “V.A Landscape” compilation album under the name of “Dr. fg” and “Dr. feelgood”. Since 2003 till now, his style moves from ambient music to dancing music. He started to produce minimal dancing music and is also involved in DJ promotions. His relentless digital notes have formed his own aesthetics of minimal.




[Restored post] Review of the Boven Records live, Aug 26, Taipei

by lawrence

Translation of sound artist and owner of Recorderz CHIANG Liwei’s review of the gig at Boven Records, Taipei on Aug 26. The original Chinese-language version is here.

Please pay attention to this name: TSAI Hsinyuan 蔡欣圜, promised to be the next big star in the scene.

Recorderz live at Boven Records
Text: Chiang Liwei, translated by Lawrence Li.

Tsai Hsinyuan live at Boven Records
Ms. Tsai Hsinyuan. Photo by Liwei.

(More photos)
(Video)

The gig at Boven Records on Aug. 26 was very sucessful. Everyone delivered a good performance, and the newer generation of Taiwanese sound artist showed their potential. Here are some thoughts about the Recorderz musicians.

Wolfenstein’s Kef

I always have a great deal of expectation from Wolf’s performance, especially after the crazy, stalwart gig at Nanhai a while ago (the rhythm was challenging Autechre). This time at Boven, he did a live remix of his new CD Napoleon’s Kef. There was nothing new in the electronic noise of the first two minutes, but just when you thought you’re getting used to it, Wolf san took a sudden turn and played a light-hearted, weird little piano tune sample, inducing laughter among audience.

For the whole set, he was just teasing your ear like this, you can never expect what will come next, you must follow him attentively. The velocity-tuning sought order among chaos, the manipulation of sound was top-notch, and the freaked-out percussion arrangement and the essential explosive ending all contribute to a wonderful set. During the process, all kinds of absurd images flashed across my mind: Kenshiro (in Fist of the North Star) in sailor’s costume, or the misfortuned big bad wolf in Tex Avery’s cartoons. What a pure and extreme auditory rhapsody!

Hey Wolf, the two lives make a CD. :-p

The magic-glove of Tsai Hsinyuan

Tsai Hsinyuan is the new blood that surprised me at Nanhai Shasheng 3. The fine art-majored, 24-year-old girl has never played with music software until one and a half years ago. And after one term in Dajuin Yao’s computer music course at Taipei National University of Art (whose students include the ultra-active group i/O), she already wrote a Max/MSP patch for her custom-made infra-red glove controller. But what surprised me is not her capability to write a patch, but the sheer energy and beautiful structure of her sound - a rarity in the toyish-interactivity-centric scene nowadays. The first half of her Boven set was filled with loud, stormy sounds, which had won her the laurel of Miss Noise (laugh), but it’s too bad that the equipment this time was not powerful enough, shielding the energy in Tsai’s sound. Just when I was expecting the noise to continue in the latter half, Tsai switched to the new materials she had prepared for this show. The messy, tired-down ending of Nanhai Shasheng 3 was replaced with a stronger structure, more subtle texture and appropriate amonunt of looping. With all these merits, her exquisite magic-glove is not that important.

Thanks very much for Node Culture, LI Chin-sung, Lawrence English and Spencer of Boven. Spencer’s attention and cordial support for non-mainstream music in all these years are indeed touching.

Related: Bibi’s review of the concert (English)




[Restored post] Gig in Shanghai Sep. 3

by lawrence

Infinite Scape

Infinite Scape

When: 16:00, Sep. 3, 2006
Where: Yu Yin Tang (#100, Lane 200, Longcao Rd., Shanghai)
Artists: Melanie Velarde, Ben Houge, JIN Shan Torturing Nurse, CHEN Wei XU Cheng
Entrance: 20 yuan

Melanie Velarde, a female sound artist interested in the spatial and semiotic properties of mostly existing sound, has been using sound from field recordings and digital processing to produce audio/sensual textures that can be experienced within a defined space usually in form of sound and video installations. Having been based in Melbourne, Australia for several years, she has exhibited amongst others at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, The Centre for Contemporary Photography, Platform Gallery, First Floor Gallery, West Space Gallery as well as at numerous public sites, such as a laundry mat, shop window, subway station or hotel. She is currently developing a collaborative project with the Brain Science Institute in Melbourne, that will involve sound generated by brain activity data for installation as well as composing the soundtrack for 2 new short film projects.

Ben Houge is an internationally active American composer and audio designer, currently based in Shanghai, China, whose work reflects the way people make connections in the digital age, finding points of convergence between different streams of information.

Born in Tonglu, Zhejiang province in 1976, Jin Shan is the co-founder of 2pi Records, an independent experimental label based in Hangzhou, China. He has released two CDR albums Tong Lu and Fen Shui in 2003 and 2005 respectively, both under the alias of p.s.o. In 2003 and 2004 Jin co-organized and performed in 2pi Festivals. In November 2004, he participated in a video exhibition named Enclosure (Quan Di) in Bai Ta Ling, Hangzhou. In December 2005, Jin participated with a video installation in GIFT Comtemporary Art Exhibition in Hangzhou, China. In Janurary 2006, he participated in KUNSTRADIO’s radio art project “Frequency Post” which was curated by Andrew Garton.

CHEN Wei is a sound artist and the co-founder of 2pi Records, an independent experimental label based in Hangzhou, China. He played in the avant-rock group Second Skin before starting to pursue his career as a sound artist. In 2003 and 2004 Chen co-organized and performed at the 2pi Festivals, which has since become the most important experimental music festival in Mainland China. In 2005, Chen, together with JIN Shan, started to perform as a multimedia duo named “Livescope.”




[Restored post] WU Quan CD Release Concert

by Dajuin

Video/sound artist WU Quan will perform live at his CD release party this Friday at Sugar Jar Records, Beijing. The new CD is titled Standing with An Umbrella in Floating Dust (打著傘在浮塵中站立).

Standing with An Umbrella in Floating Dust

Time: 8:30 PM, Friday, August 25, 2006
Location: Sugar Jar Records, 798 Art District (opposite Galleria Continua)
Admission: 10 Yuan (limited to 20 persons)
For reservations, call: 6433 1449 or 6640 6620

Sugar Jar Records website: http://www.sugarjar.cn




[Restored post] Wang Fujui to Present New Work in Taipei

by Dajuin

Fujui Wang

Fujui Wang - veteran Taiwan sound artist, founder of the zine/label “Noise Taiwan,” and Chief of Digital Art Labs, Center for Art & Technology, Taipei National University of Art - will present his hour-long new work Exterminating Lights and Paralyzing Sounds on 8/26.

Directed and performed by Fujui Wang
Text by Anes Kuo

Time: 19:30, 8/26 (Sat)
Place: Guling Street Experimental Theatre
Admission: Free

Information in Chinese here.




[Restored post] Wolfenstein, Tsai Hsinyuan, Lawrence English, DJ Dee in Taipei

by Dajuin

Boven Records live

Wolfenstein (XIE Zhongqi), TSAI Hsinyuan, Lawrence English, and Dickson Dee (DJ Dee) will perform on 8/26 at Boven Records in Taipei. Wolfenstein will showcase his brand-new CD release Napoleon’s Kef, and TSAI Hsinyuan (a graduate student at the Graduate School of Art and Technology, Taipei National University of Art) will show off her self-made infra-red hand controller sound system (with Max/MSP/Jitter).

Artists: (in order of appearance)

Wolfenstein (Taipei)
Tsai Hsinyuan (Taipei)
Lawrence English (Australia)
DJ Dee (Hong Kong)

Time: 8:00 pm, 8/26 (Sat)
Place: Boven Records
B1, 437, Section 5, Chungshan N. Road, Taipei
Phone: (02) 2883.8362
Admission: TWD $350

Chinese information here.




Pic of the Day

by lawrence

Yong / He: Zafka + Chu Zhiyong

(Left to right) CHU Zhiyong (aka 5355), Zafka (ZHANG Anding) & Bai Tian at Waterland Kwanyin, Beijing, July 25, 2006. The Chinese characters seen on laptops compose the title of the new work by A Lower Summer - temporary duo of Chu and Zafka, both member of the Shanghai-origined post-rock band Prague. The characters - Yong in the right and He in the left - are better known as the name of The Lama Temple, or Yonghe Gong, one of the most famous sightseeing spots of Beijing.




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