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)

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!

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.

[See full schedule of Mini MIDI 2007 here.]

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

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.

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).

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:

• Torturing Nurse (Shanghai)

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

—

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:

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

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

—

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:

• TSAI Hsin-yuan 蔡欣圜
• XIE Zhongqi 謝仲其
• Liwei 立威
• Pisces Iscariots (YAN Jun 顏峻 + Dajuin Yao 姚大鈞)
• YAN Jun

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.

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.

(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.