#alice hui-sheng chang
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Listen/purchase: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Ting Shuo Hear Say
愛麗絲夢遊仙境 關於錯置、轉化、幻聽/象、解離與成為的體現。 This is an embodiment of displacement, transformation, hallucination, dissociation, and becoming. 請打開下方連結,和詩譜與插圖一起聆聽專輯 LISTEN with poetic scores and images with this link: drive.google.com/file/d/1ljQfdF5dhj3mIJ-o4Y_Wi-uzExkepMdD/view 00:00-03:09 I. 掉進兔子洞 Down the Rabbit-hole 03:09-06:55 II. 眼淚池塘 The Pool of Tears 06:55-10:03 III. 委員會賽跑與漫長的故事 A Caucus-race and a Long Tale 10:03-14:40 IV. 兔子派小比爾出馬 The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill 14:40-18:30 V. 毛毛蟲的建議 Advice from a Caterpillar 18:30-21:40 VI. 小豬與胡椒 Pig and Pepper 21:40-25:55 VII. 瘋狂茶會 A Mad Tea-party 25:55-29:17 VIII. 紅心皇后的槌球場 The Queen’s Croquet-ground 29:17-35:05 IX. 假海龜的故事 The Mock Turtle’s Story 35:05-39:35 X. 龍蝦方塊舞 The Lobster Quadrille 39:35-45:00 XI. 誰偷了水果塔 Who Stole the Tarts? 45:00-49:15 XII. 愛麗絲的證詞 Alice’s Evidence
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released May 14, 2023 2022年6~7月錄製於比利時布魯塞爾。 錄製於Q-O2駐村期間,受財團法人國家文化藝術基金會補助。 限地人聲即興與錄音:張惠笙 成音:Nigel Brown 詩譜:張惠笙 插圖與手作書:Lorraine Heller-Nicholas Recorded in Brussels, June-July 2022. Recorded in residency at Q-O2, funded by National Culture and Arts Foundation. Site-specific vocal improvisation and recording by Alice Hui-Sheng Chang. Mastered by Nigel Brown. Poetic scores by Alice Hui-Sheng Chang. Images and zines by Lorraine Heller-Nicholas. MORE about images www.heller-nicholas.com/28_alice.html
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Alice Hui-Sheng Chang, Taiwan
https://aliceandrosalind.bandcamp.com
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Music in November #iTunes #love #like #happy #vinyl #album #covers #records #CD #アナログ #音楽 #レコード #music #sounds #art #Alternative #Punk #Rock #Electronic #Dance #Experimental #Industrial #NewWave #Pop #Reggae #World #Ambient #Noise #Jazz #NewAge Alannah Myles A-Lin (黄麗玲) Andrew Paine Antara Annemarie Borg Aztec Camera Baccara Bad Manners Bauhaus Bee Gees Big Country Boney M Caroline McKenzie Catherine Deneuve Catherine Ferry Christopher Cross Clint Newton Current 93 Danielle Dax David Bowie D-Day Dead Can Dance Delphine Dora Dexy's Midnight Runners Echo & The Bunnymen Elephant Gym Elvis Costello Fats Comet G.E.M. 鄧紫棋 George Benson Huey Lewis & The News Ian Holloway Il Etait Une Fois James Jo Moutet Johnny Hallyday Joy Division Kajagoogoo Kate Bush Lee "Scratch" Perry Ludovico Einaudi Marco Lucchi Max Romeo Michael Mcdonald Michele Torr Nigel Brown, Alice Hui-Sheng Chang 張惠笙 & Yannick Dauby 澎葉生 Nurse With Wound Orchestre Symphonique Bel'arte Pefkin Potshot Primal Scream Rainier Lericolais Roxette Serge Gainsbourg Simple Minds Soft Cell Stelvio Cipriani Suming 舒米恩 Susan Matthews Sylvie Vartan Talking Heads The Beach Boys The Cars The Cure The Dream Academy The Jesus And Mary Chain The Smiths The Spinners The Stranglers The Verse The Vibrators This Mortal Coil Thorsten Soltau Tizzy Bac Twelve Thousand Days U-Roy U-Roy feat. Delroy Wilson U-Roy feat. Earl "Wya" Lindo U-Roy feat. Ken Boothe U-Roy feat. Mighty Diamonds, Sly & Robbie & The Revolutionaries Yannick Dauby / Kalerne Editions Yannick Dauby 澎葉生 Yazoo Yes Zz Top アラゲホンジ 阿爆 演奏曲 王笠人 桑布伊 皇后皮箱 謝金燕 小男孩樂團 雀斑樂團 孫盛希 張韶涵 田馥甄 拍謝少年 容祖兒 楊乃文 嵐馨樂團 梁心頤 梁心頤 (Lara) 林采欣 林文蓀 林宥嘉 橙草樂團 莊鵑瑛 袁泉 鈕承澤 魏如萱 吳若希 https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq4aho4hRMM/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=5cqyw6c50h5n
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asian meeting festival 2017 days2 at kyoto metro check out the full video https://youtu.be/0M5kxaRR-iU
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Date: SEP.19(tue).2017 20:00 - 22:00
CAST: Alice Hui-Sheng Chang (Tainan), Arnont Nongyao (Chiang Mai), C. Spencer Yeh (New York), Caliph8 (Manila), dj sniff (Hong Kong), Musica Htet (Yangon), Nguyen Thanh Thuy (Hanoi), Yii Kah Hoe (Kuala Lumpur), Yuen Chee Wai (Singapore), Kayu Nakada (Osaka), Takafumi Okada (Okayama), YTAMO (Kyoto), YOSHIMIO (Nara)
Place: METRO
Organized by The Japan Foundation Asia Center
https://ensembles.asia/
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Click here to listen to the installation piece, either streaming or as a free download.
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_ Hong Chulki, Alice Hui-Sheng Chang, Pineapple at Dogpig Art Cafe in Kaoshiung, 2010/03/07
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kind words for voices by alice hui-sheng chang and jason kahn!
http://dustedmagazine.tumblr.com/post/146063496957/dust-vol-2-no-11
kind words for voices by alice hui-sheng chang and jason kahn! was originally published on pan y rosas discos
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Dust: Vol. 2, No. 11
(Alice Hui-Sheng Chang)
Dust falls two weeks in a row with new music from Cough and Shawn James, voice-centered downloads from Karun and the duo of Alice Hui-Sheng Chang and Jason Kahn, and a rare Hailu Mergia album reissued on wax. Sonic Boom Six offer a studio-plus-live-set combo, Casino Time and Source Direct offer their beats up to the sun gods, and Kristin Þóra Haraldsdóttir digs deep into the grain of her guitar. Paragraphs, sentences, and syllables from Ian Mathers, Justin Cober-Lake, Patrick Masterson, Lucas Schleicher, Bill Meyer, and Jennifer Kelly.
Cough—Still They Pray CD/2LP/DL (Relapse)
Still They Pray by Cough
The only thing keeping Cough’s new record from being the perfect introduction to stoner/doom metal for the curious and uninitiated is the length. At 67 minutes for eight songs, it might literally be too much of a good thing until you’ve built up your stamina. Otherwise this is a solid, accomplished, and varied collection. The narrative on “Possesion” practically qualifies as a Sabbath homage, but the sound of the song is more like the early days of that band after they’d been buried alive for a few hours, while the instrumental “Shadow of the Torturer” spends just over ten minutes mutilating and refracting the heavy blues base it begins with. Both “Let it Bleed” and the closing, semi-ballad title track show that Cough are just as effective in a more reflective (and cleanly sung) mode, but the real highlight of Still They Pray is the ten-ton, bad-acid riffs found on “Dead Among the Roses” and the anthemic, Lovecraftian “Haunter of the Dark.” It’s hard to begrudge the band multiple ten-minute songs when the results are this consistently, thrillingly heavy, and so well put together it sounds simultaneously like a lost treasure from the vaults and something totally new. (http://www.relapse.com/)
– Ian Mathers
Shawn James—On the Shoulders of Giants CD/DL (self-released)
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Stepping away from his Shapeshifters, Shawn James steps away from both his metal influences and his “rock and roar” approach. For On the Shoulders of Giants James sticks to a traditional blues approach, leaning more toward the Delta, but with a little bit of Chicago thrown in. As the album title might suggest, he relies on tropes, but he uses them effectively, as on the opener, “Hellhound.” It's a dark and gritty album, meaning that you hear an attention to authenticity at times, but James sinks fully into his performances: the electric porch-blues of “Delilah” is as hurt as it is menacing. James has a unique approach to his delivery, nd while it's earnest blues, he carries tinges of metal and even '90s grunge in his baritone voice, creating his own niche. (https://shawnjamessoul.bandcamp.com)
– Justin Cober-Lake
Casino Times—Casino Edits #2 12” (self-released)
Maybe you’re looking for a little sunshine in your life. Maybe you walk around at the edges of the day looking for the light, for the way, for an answer, for the answer, thinking you might just stumble upon it out in the streets or the parks you rarely visit, or the broken pavement the city passes off as sidewalks. Maybe it’s hidden in a stranger’s face, or someone you thought was a stranger, or the smile of a mixed breed boxer (sure it is), or an elaborate new mural on the side of a weather-beaten building. If you’re looking, anyway, London’s Casino Times is here to help. The duo could hardly be called vets—the first of these white label edits was released in 2013, barely a year on from the “I Wanna Know” 12” that marked their arrival—and yet they’ve already made a lot of the familiar rounds, appearing on Rinse, NTS, the Boiler Room, and i-D. Following closely behind their debut LP, Familiar Circles for Wolf Music, Nicholas Church and Joseph Spencer’s passion for throwback disco and fringe electronics continues to glimmer here. Side A hardly moves, seven minutes of what basically amounts to three strikes of a soaring piano and some noodly electronics amid a handclap-powered 4/4. Bongos and a harder hitting snare marry funk guitar effects for some serious flavor on the flip. Yes, life is full of suffering. Maybe it’s always been this way and maybe it always will be, too. But you can’t stop looking for sunshine even in the dark of night. That’s when dance music works its most potent magic, after all. (https://www.facebook.com/CasinoTimesMusic)
– Patrick Masterson
Alice Hui-Sheng Chang/Jason Kahn—Voices DL (Pan y Rosas Discos)
Though the New York born, Zürich-based Jason Kahn has been recording and releasing music for at least 30 years, his first solo voice recordings didn’t see the light of day until 2015. Not that solo voice albums are all that common, but they’re definitely a surprise after more than three decades without them. The Songlines 2LP came first. For Voice followed a few months later. His third attempt, an album with Taiwan’s Alice Hui-Sheng Chang titled Voices, was made available earlier this year as a free digital download from Chicago’s Pan y Rosas Discos (give it a try here).
Hui-Sheng Chang and Kahn split their duos up across four songs that hover around 10 to 12 minutes each. The aesthetic focus is on the varieties of mouth sounds and vocal utterances a human is capable of: airy harmonies, grunts, squishy cheek noises, lip whines, animal shouts, and various moans that range from the barely audible to loud, persistent, and pained. There are a few moments of composed interaction, as on track two, where Alice and Jason line up long enough to produce dissonant harmonic fluctuations, but for much of the time they pursue individual paths, contrasting hums and held tones with short phrases and sharp expulsions. The music is challenging, but the tone is exploratory and unpredictable. Intermittent silences and the willingness to maintain uneven, sometimes ugly sounds suggests that Voices is less concerned with producing a final product and more focused on cutting a path. (http://www.panyrosasdiscos.net/)
– Lucas Schleicher
Hailu Mergia & Dalak Band—Wede Harer Guzo LP/DL (Awesome Tapes From Africa)
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What comes after a golden age? In Ethiopian musical history, the brief, glorious epoch of Swinging Abbis was followed by a time when songwriters had to pen paeans of praise to a thuggish military dictatorship or suffer mortal consequences. It wasn’t a bad time to be an instrumentalist, since melodies and grooves were harder to censure for a failure to tow the party line. So Hailu Mergia, the keyboardist who had already earned his place in the annals of African 20th century pop by penning “Musicawi Silt” (although he couldn’t have known it yet since the song’s years as an Afrobeat anthem still lay ahead), kept working steadily despite a dusk to dawn curfew. The solution for determined partiers was to simply stay in the nightclub until the sun came up. Mergia hooked up with Dalak Band, the house band of an upscale hotel that had a regular gig soundtracking such events, to make this follow-up to his incomparable Tche Belew.
Wede Harer Guzo lacks the punch and smolder of its predecessor. The Dalak groove was more relaxed than Mergia’s other favored ensemble, the Walias Band. But that poses no problem for Mergia. He holds the foreground, unspooling long, easy-going solos based on classic Ethiopian melodies. Ethiopian music doesn’t have a strong instrumental tradition, and Mergia’s playing evinces an appealing vocal quality that transcends the distortion that comes from rehearsal room recording and decades of less than optimal tape storage. Vinyl was already a dead format in Ethiopia by the time Wede Harer Guzo came out in 1978; this reissue represents its debut on that format. (https://hailumergia.bandcamp.com/)
– Bill Meyer
Karun—Indigo DL (East African Wave)
I haven’t been following the narrative closely enough to know, but I assume that Karun, like Jinku or Nv Funk, is in that orbit of continent-defying, digitally savvy youths out of Nairobi who got plucked from the Soundcloud depths by like-minded souls at The Fader. I don’t really care, to be honest. And you shouldn’t either after spending some time with Indigo, the Boston music school student’s debut EP, a digital-only beats-based affair that smartly capitalizes on contemporary R&B stylings. The wordless harmonies that make the bed of the intro resemble saxophones, it’s uncanny and striking. I haven’t heard voices sound quite like that in awhile. A few Skeme Music raps and Joseph Kiwango’s half of the “Need U the Most” duet offer a male counterpoint vocally, while production (mostly done by Jinku, incidentally) runs somewhere along the lines of later Flying Lotus, Supreme Cuts and that lot. There’s just no denying Karun’s voice, though—she’s as smooth and evocative as she wants to be wherever she wants to be (akin to Dawn Richard or Jessie Ware on “My Brother,” in particular). There’s nothing as emotionally affecting as her utterance on “Need U the Most,” that “we could’ve been something incredible.” Maybe so. But at least we’re not saying that about her musical career. Not yet, anyway. (https://soundcloud.com/eawavesound)
– Patrick Masterson
Sonic Boom Six—The F-Bomb CD (Cherry Red)
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Sonic Boom Six puts a millennial stamp on the polyglot punk: this is all-envelopingly diverse and inclusive, positively messaged, socially conscious music that you can, no, practically must, dance to. This two disc set includes one CD of new music and one of a show recorded at the Norwich Owl in late 2015. The first disc is enjoyable, layering sugary pop vocals over booming bass and dancehall rapid-fire verse. I am particularly enamored of “Drop the Bass (and Pick It Up),” though the self-esteem themed “Worship Yourself” has its own buoyant, multi-cultural uplift, and Madness-reminiscent “No Man, No Right” is a winner, too. The whole enterprise makes more sense, though, when you hear it performed live on disc two. Here the band exhorts moshers to “take care of each other” at the beginning of “Bang Bang Bang Bang,” asks long-time fans to teach newbies the words to old standards, and rides on each other’s shoulders out into the crowd. “There is no discrimination at a Sonic Boom Six gig,” the singer proclaims, “Everybody ‘All In.’” The F-Bomb contains a lot of genres, influences and issues, but what sticks is this tantalizing vision of punk rock utopia. (http://www.cherryred.co.uk/)
– Jennifer Kelly
Source Direct—The Crane (Alternate Version) 12” (Nonplus Ltd.)
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Exactly how it went unnoticed on some DAT tape or another for nearly two decades is probably the biggest mystery surrounding Source Direct’s release of “The Crane (Alternate Version).” The track (and its original version) should properly be credited to Jim Baker and Phil Aslett, as it was originally out on that duo’s label in 1996, though Aslett is no longer involved and hasn’t been part of Boddika’s ongoing reissue campaign. Following the original mix and an expected techno reworking from Inland and Function for the headlining 12″, “The Crane (Alternate Version)” is a one-sided plate cut in the name of Nonplus Ltd., a curiously little-utilized offshoot of the main imprint last stamped to Barry Manalogue’s “Analogue” 10” in 2011. Needless to say, it’s been awhile for all parties involved here. The original’s heavier drum n’ bass is offset in this mix by a head-tripping dub influence, at once airier and more enveloping than the straightforward percussion of the original. This’d be a good one to slip in on the back end. Provided you can find it, of course. (https://nonplusrecords.bandcamp.com/)
– Patrick Masterson
Kristin Þóra Haraldsdóttir—VDSQ Solo Acoustic Vol. 14 LP (Vin Du Select Qualitite)
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Amongst the axes ground by the Vin Du Select Qualitite label’s ongoing series of solo acoustic guitar records is this notion: there’s more than one way to pick a guitar. The series includes volumes devoted to rustic bliss, gnomic abstraction and savage anarchy, mostly drawing from deep wells of guitar culture. You’ll get none of that from Kristin Þóra Haraldsdóttir. She’s an Icelandic native and the guitar is not her first instrument; she’s primarily a violist in classical and folk settings, with sidelines in composition, orchestration and education. Her playing is assured, but never the point. Rather, she uses a solid, woody tone to give body to her melodies. Her pieces proceed with an unhurried pace and are grounded with a fundamental structural integrity. If Haraldsdóttir hadn’t recorded this record for VDSQ, I imagine she could have given it to ECM, but I’m glad that she hasn’t. They’d have slapped an extra layer of reverb on it, and this music needs no extra sheen. Exquisite. (http://www.vdsqrecords.com/)
– Bill Meyer
#dust#dustedmagazine#shawn james#alice hui-sheng chang#jason kahn#sonic boom six#Kristin Þóra Haraldsdóttir#cough#hailu mergia#dalak band#karun#source direct#casino times#bill meyer#jennifer kelly#lucas schleicher#patrick masterson#justin cober-lake#ian mathers
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A guided event along the banks of the Merri Creek that invites artists to contemplate the sonic, spacial and contextual qualities of this urban wilderness. With its pre-colonial and industrial history, its ruins, rocks and rubbish, Re::Set Merri Creek is an homage to forgotten corners. A bridging of worlds. A bridging of time. Resonant spaces. Re::set Merri Creek will be the third in a series of collectively run sound performance/presentations and site specific actions, each exploring divergent locations and approaches. Alice Hui-Sheng Chang Ben Byrne Boquillas Eamon Sprod + Collaborators Liz Dunn Geoff Robinson Nigel Brown ++++++ Initiated by Zoe Scoglio We will be meeting at the Merri Creek in Northcote on the grassy patch at the East end of Walker Street before walking as a group between sites. The event will be followed by a picnic for those who want to stick around. Please bring something to drink and some food to share. Please note that the Merri Creek can get dirty and muddy, it’s recommended you wear good shoes and clothes you don’t mind getting dirty. Monday 9th of March 4pm - 6pm $5/$10 suggested donation
#re::set#merri creek#performance#alice hui-sheng chang#ben byrne#boquillas#eamon sprod#liz dunn#geoff robinson#nigel brown
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Hundreds + Thousands 《萬象森羅》
郭奕麟 + 陸奇 ft.張惠笙
Daniel Kok (Singapore) + Luke George (Melbourne) ft. Alice Hui-Sheng Chang (Tainan)
In this collective experience of the visual, the sensual and the sensible, we consider what plants know, and catch a glimpse of a world where time is transformed, and humans displaced. Blending dance, experimental music, and installation, Hundreds + Thousands is an opera that attempts to reconcile the relationship between people and the natural world.
Over the pandemic, we came across numerous people who have developed deeply personal relationships with plants. Plants became our meditative companions even as we ourselves lived like potted plants during lockdown. As we were forced to slow down, some of us began to pay attention to minute shifts in light and air qualities in our apartments, changes in our bodily and thought patterns, new buds sprouting and old leaves withering.
In Hundreds + Thousands, we ask ourselves how we might be able to displace ourselves to catch a glimpse of the other. As this is a performance for people and plants, with people and plants, we wonder what kind of language is needed for us to listen, to see and to speak to/with plants.
For us, the title “Hundreds and Thousands” is a reminder of the overabundance of things that exist (in nature or man-made), the vastness of infinity, the great history of the earth and the universe in which humans are but a blip. What if we can ‘see’ together the times and spaces before the human epoch, or long after humans exist?
#performance#hundreds+thousands#luke george#daniel kok#alice hui-sheng chang#nigel brown#leeroy new#cloud gate theater#Thinkers' Studio
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Music in September #iTunes #love #like #happy #vinyl #album #covers #records #CD #アナログ #音楽 #レコード #music #sounds #art #Alternative #Punk #Rock #Electronic #Dance #Experimental #Industrial #NewWave #Pop #Reggae #World #Ambient #Noise #Jazz #NewAge African Head Charge Al Hansen Alain Savouret Amina Andreas Martin Andrew Chalk & Christoph Heemann Andrew Paine Antara Annemarie Borg Anthony Braxton Anthony Gnazzo Aphex Twin Apparitions Arne Mellnäs Aube Banks Bailey Bernard Parmegiani Brian Lavelle Carel Brons Carl Michael Von Hausswolf Caroline McKenzie Christina Kubisch Christoph Heemann Clint Newton Coil Creation Rebel & New Age Steppers Delphine Dora Dennis Brown Drew McDowall Dub Syndicate Echo & The Bunnymen ELpH Far From Answer Fats Comet Felt Forests 森林 Fun Boy Three Girls At Our Best Go Go Rise Haruomi Hosono I Mo Jah Ian Holloway Israel Vibration Junior Murvin Kate Bush KINYA Little Annie LOVE PSYCHEDELICO Marco Lucchi MATZKA METROFARCE Mika Vainio Modern Romance Nancy Sinatra Nichelle Nichols Nigel Brown, Alice Hui-Sheng Chang 張惠笙 & Yannick Dauby 澎葉生 Oval Palak Chawal, Benares, India Paliulius Pefkin Penguin Cafe Orchestra Peter Gabriel Phillip Fullwood P-MODEL Poly Styrene Public Image Ltd. Rainier Lericolais Roger Doyle Simple Minds Sorrow SPK Susan Matthews SWANS System 7 System F T. Rex Tackhead Takis The Orb The Royals The Sounds Unlimited The Sun Shot Band The Upsetter Thorsten Soltau Tommy McCook & The Supersonics Twinkle Brothers & The Trebunia Family Band Tyrannosaurus Rex U2 UNKEN REFLEX Volcano The Bear Wire Yannick Dauby / Kalerne Editions Yannick Dauby 澎葉生 アン・ルイス みつき 芦田愛菜 安妮朵拉 岡田有希子 河合奈保子 桑布伊 桑名将大 原子邦妮 広末涼子 守夜人 松たか子 松浦亜弥 松田聖子 森 光子 森下恵理 森高千里 増田けい子 中山美穂 中森明菜 丁丁與西西 陳建年 陳昇 美好前程 福永恵規 牧瀬里穂 堀ちえみ 矢口真里とストローハット 薬師丸ひろ子 李玉琴 鈴木雅之 茉奈佳奈 鄧紫棋 吳蓓雅 喵济功德会 https://www.instagram.com/p/BoYC8p9BZOe/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=qev4gzpgd9ku
#itunes#love#like#happy#vinyl#album#covers#records#cd#アナログ#音楽#レコード#music#sounds#art#alternative#punk#rock#electronic#dance#experimental#industrial#newwave#pop#reggae#world#ambient#noise#jazz#newage
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A special podcast prepared by Jacek Plewicki from the great music magazine Glissando. Here, he highlights some personal highlights, unreleased material as well as forthcoming gems, picks and special tracks sourced from the vaults of contemporary Polish sonic underground, including Piotr Tkacz & Alice Hui-Sheng Chang's 'micro' on isr no-number series.
#Polish Underground#Piotr Tkacz#Alice Hui-Sheng Chang#isr#no-number series#idealstate recordings#Jacek Plewicki
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Weave-Rob-Sound-Process-Roam: Curator’s Notes
I. HEAR, HEAR, LISTEN
When we think of the Dadaocheng today, many of us see it in terms of the past, as a place of history and tradition. We think of Japanese-built colonial architecture, the bustle of tourists at the Qing-Dynasty era Xia Hai City God Temple, the fabric vendors at Yongle Market or shopkeepers selling dried foods and goods on Dihua Street. These iconic images and scenes are often invoked to portray the soul of Dadaocheng. But as a musician fascinated with all aspects of sound, I feel there are other ways to tell its story. I asked Nigel Brown, Alice Hui-Sheng Chang and Yannick Dauby to do this project in Dadaocheng because they “hear” things we normally don’t. As artists devoted to the medium of sound, they specialize in capturing and manipulating this form of energy, and then transforming it into something new. Their work may not be “music” in a conventional sense, but it’s compelling in a similar way: It seeks to connect with a listener. In “Weave-Rob-Sound-Process-Roam,” a project that consists of this recorded installation piece (at URS 127 from Oct. 9 to 31) and a separate live performance (at Thinker’s Theater on Oct 15), you’ll hear familiar bits from the “orchestra” of life in Dadaocheng. But you should also expect the unexpected.
II. ROAM, SOUND, WEAVE
During September 2017, the trio made repeated trips to Dadaocheng, recording its streets, people and places while roaming the area on foot. Alice and Nigel also performed “in-site improvisations,” in which they created sounds to interact with places and objects they encountered. On Dihua Street, Alice gravitated towards empty spaces, such as stairwells and empty shops, looking for “gaps of human life.” She sings, yells, whispers and shrieks in rooms and even into objects such as an empty mailbox. This experimental music approach is not only about uttering sound – it’s also about interaction. She’s listening to how her voice becomes part of her surroundings. With these vocalizations, Alice says she seeks to connect “across time, culture, physical space – all the layers of space that are not physical.” Nigel is also interested in the nature of sound in relation to space, which he explores by using electronic and acoustic instruments that he either modifies or builds himself. On their excursions in Dadaocheng, he used the internal parts of a “de-constructed” accordion to create droning tones and hints of melodies. He also carried a DIY speaker and microphone that responded to physical objects by creating radio-like chirping noises. Watching Nigel point the mic at various objects on Dihua Street, accompanied by Alice’s vocalizations, made me think of sonar and echolocation. It felt as if they were mapping out signs of life in Dadaocheng through echoes and feedback loops. Meanwhile, Yannick documented all of Alice and Nigel’s improvisations and recorded scenes in Dadaocheng’s outdoors. On separate trips, he conducted oral history-style interviews with local residents, who talked about their lives and work. As a field recordist with a keen ear for the “pleasures” of sound, Yannick is sharply focused on details that capture a listener’s attention. In this project’s installation piece, you’ll hear sounds recorded in Dadaocheng that range from human to mechanical and strange to beautiful, intermingled with personal stories told by residents. When listening, there’s no need to try to comprehend what you hear beyond the immediacy of sounds or dialogue presented. Yannick’s studio-produced soundscape pieces tend to avoid linear narratives, for he wants us to lose ourselves in the moment of listening.
III. PROCESS, ROB, WEAVE
One thing that stuck with me during the production of this project is an observation made by Yannick, who has recorded thousands of hours of soundscapes across Taiwan over the past decade. The sound of Dadaocheng, he said, is like every other urban place in Taiwan: it’s dominated by cars and motorcycles. From a field recordist’s perspective, this makes it difficult to find unique sounds in Dadaocheng’s outdoor environment. We might heed this as a “warning” for the health of Dadaocheng as a community today, given its renewed developmental aspirations in recent years, which has echoes of gentrification in many cities across the world. New businesses, from high-end restaurants to boutique shops, have been popping up throughout the neighborhood, with many appealing to tourists’ appetites to connect with the area’s history. One of Dadaocheng’s first settlers, Lin Lan-tian, a Fujianese immigrant who fled there to hide from pirates (in Chinese, lit. “sea robbers”), would probably be happy to know that the home he built in the mid-1800s lives on today. The renovated house is maintained by his descendants and open for tours, with the first floor serving as a shop selling high-end Taiwanese teas. With its dark-stained wood floors and studio lighting, the place feels like a museum. It’s immaculate, beautiful, refined. Inevitably, though, some are left behind. I think of a wholesale rice distributor we passed by while collecting recordings on the north end of Dihua street. Dark and dingy, and lit only by a single florescent light strip, the shop front was basically an open garage, with a large, old rusted machine used for processing and packaging rice. Alice struck up a conversation with the owner, a gentle, kind man who looked to be in his 70s. Sweaty and tired, he was finishing work for the day. But he immediately took a liking to Alice, who displayed an instinct for connecting with people that any journalist or oral historian could learn from. He told her that his family has been selling rice in Dadaocheng for at least three generations. Business, he said, has only gotten worse with every generation. These sentiments and stories are not directly told in the installation piece or performance, but I feel they are woven into the fabric of the project, just as every sound is connected by gaps of silence.
IV. FEEDBACK LOOP
In watching “Weave-Rob-Sound-Process-Roam” come to fruition, I’ve come to think about Dadaocheng from two vantage points: the physical (buildings, streets, people) and the abstract (history, cultural significance, urban issues). I see the same duality in the work of these artists. They engaged in field recording and in-site improvisation (the physical) and then condensed those materials to conceive and create this work (the abstract). In both cases, the physical and abstract play off each other, creating an endless series of modulating loops. All of this is to say: this project, as a work of art – and more fundamentally a human activity – can be viewed as part of a never-ending cycle. In the cycle of weave, rob, sound, process and roam, an act of listening becomes an act of responding, which also becomes an act of recording, which becomes an act of creation… With you, the listener, the cycle continues. -David Chen, Curator Taipei, Oct. 2017
*** We’d like to thank the Tua-Tiu-Tiann International Festival of the Arts for their support of this project, URS 127 for providing exhibition space, and Lin Hsun-chen, Kao Yi-kai and Chen Yu-tse of Thinker’s Theater for their generous production assistance.
And we are especially grateful to Mr Shih Cheng-wen, Mr John Lee, Mr Titan Wu, and Ms Liao Hong-ye for generously taking the time to share their stories with us.
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聲音即興社交遊戲 2021 聽說聲音工作室
參與學校:台南市 - 大光國小特教班、新市國中資源班
文化體驗教育計畫補助:文化部、台南生活美學館
本課程以五個子題的流程重複,其中替換不同的創意想像與即興遊戲方式,建立並加深參與度與表達的穩定性,運用五種流程讓聲音表現、感官與身體表達更內外統合,個人創意表現可起承轉合,與認知融合並於團體中實踐,因特教與資源班多為混齡並綜合多種體智能,此課程針對多樣特殊學生不同口語與身體的發展,引導學生非語言的聲音表達,幫助不同發展過程的學生得以從即興遊戲中抒發自我,並更深入地相互聆聽彼此的呼吸、語調、表情等。
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聲音即興社交遊戲 (特教) ~110文化體驗教育計畫~聽說聲音工作室~
本課程以五個子題的流程重複,其中替換不同的創意想像與即興遊戲方式,建立並加深參與度與表達的穩定性,運用五種流程讓聲音表現、感官與身體表達更內外統合,個人創意表現可起承轉合,與認知融合並於團體中實踐,因特教與資源班多為混齡並綜合多種體智能,此課程針對多樣特殊學生不同口語與身體的發展,引導學生非語言的聲音表達,幫助不同發展過程的學生得以從即興遊戲中抒發自我,並更深入地相互聆聽彼此的呼吸、語調、表情等。
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