STEIM Radio #7: Slow-cooked pork, steamed shrimp dumplings and Mongolian hotpot……..A soundmix made by Takuro Mizuta Lippit with music from dedicated artists in experimental music and sound art working in East Asia.
While I cover my mouth to avoid breathing in the heavy smog, Yan Jun tells me that the underground scene in Beijing ended 10 years ago. "For me, living in Beijing is like training." Dajuin Yao treats me to the most amazing pork dish while his students at the National Art Academy in Hangzhou tell me with bright eyes about their brand-new hacker space. After hopelessly wandering through restaurants, shops, and people lined-up for mysteriously looking drinks, we finally find the Art & Culture Outreach bookstore. As we enter a small room filled with books, one-off art work and independent CDs, Dennis Wang cautiously approaches and says "Welcome to Hong Kong." Chung-Han Yao greats me with a big grin when I arrived for soundcheck at the Taipei Moca, he then returns to his serious look and points to a set of robot arms attached to acid filled test tubes and says, "That’s who you’re playing with."
In late 2011 and early 2012, I travelled to East Asia and had a chance to meet some dedicated artists and organizers in experimental music and sound art. This mix is made from works that I collected on this trip through swapping CDs with these people. Most pieces are intimate, harsh, and compressed reflecting a very personal audio space that they inhabit and work in. It’s a stark contrast to all the grand scale projects and cheap knock-offs we are so used to seeing coming from this part of the world.
Mixed by Takuro Mizuta Lippit
1. Gaoshou Gaoshou Gaogaoshou / Minkoku Hyakunen
2. Music for listening on the moon / Yan Jun
3. Auditory Scenes: A Morning in Mt. Davis / Edwin Lo
4. Eronz335 / Zhou Pei
5. Unhearable / Wang Chaugcun
6. Fugitive / Torturing Nurse
7. Signal to Noise / Samson Young
8. Para.dot / Dennis Wong
9. Cinnabar Red Drizzle / Dajuin Yao
10. Live at Santos Party House in New York / Xaio He
11. Toy Ships / Wuwei & Ulrich Morits
12. C / No One Pulse
13. PNF / Chi
14. Leili Fengxing / Shanghai Sound Unit
15. 2002/07/14 / Feng Hao
16. Evening has arrived / Cheewei
17. Dino the Superstar / Minkoku Hyakunen
18. Untitled / Chung-Han Yao
19. Frong Spraying / Goh Lee Kwang
20. Book of Hell / Zai Kuning, Otomo Yoshihide, Dickson Dee
21. Teryujin Harvest Festival / Minkoku Hyakunen
22. Live in Washington / Xaio He