1000 REVOLUTIONS A SECOND
Of all Chinese cities, the ambiguity of contemporary China is perhaps most manifest in Beijing. Beijing is the city where more McDonalds can be found than in
New York and where a hospital with 1000 beds can be built in less than 8 days. But Beijing is also the city where the authorities, as in the rest of China, still prevent individuals from sending or receiving visual and audio recordings without their interference. Finally, Beijing is the city where in 2003 China’s first festival for electronic music took place, Sounding Beijing 2003. Dajuin Yao was the initiator of Sounding Beijing. This sound and multimedia artist is the driving force behind the new movement in Chineseelectronic art. He founded the label Post-Concrete, which he used to release the compilation China, The Sonic Avant Garde. For the first time, IMPAKT now presents China’s electronic music in the Netherlands, in co-operation with the Belgian label (K-R AA-K)3. Apart from the aforementioned Dajuin Yao, performances will be given by Wang Changcun and FM3.
DAJUIN YAD
Dajuin Yao is not just an organiser, but also a gifted musician. At the moment he is concentrating completely on electro-acoustical music and sound art. He focuses on what he himself calls ‘cultural listening’. During the last years he has been working on the algorithmic modulation of traditional Chinese music and opera and on emotional sound art.
WANG CHANGCUN
Wang Changcun is the perfect example of an unknown young electronic musician who burst upon the public through the Sounding Beijing 2003 festival and the compilation CD China, The Sonic Avant Garde. Changcun is a sound artist of 25 years old from Harbin, China. He is one of the key figures in the Harbin Sound Unit and he organised the Project Date, in which artists from various cities were invited to record one minute of their daily lives during a week in September.
FM3
This duo is far from typical for Chinese sound art but, nevertheless, it cannot be missed out. The group consists of the Chinese Zhang Jian and the American Christiaan Virant. They have been making music for around five years, which is very long in the context of this movement. They work with cutting edge software and use old Chinese instruments as source material. This results in meditative, minimalist soundscapes with a distinct Chinese character.