Empty Valley | Field Recording Workshop and Performance

Empty Valley | Sound collection workshop and performance is Mute Sound Art Festival 哑声音艺术节 in 2023, initiated and curated by musician DAO. Three days of field recording in Yangshuo and an immersive music listening and sharing session in a cave near Yangshuo town on the last day.

空谷 | 声音采集工作坊与现场,是由音乐人DAO发起和策划的哑声音艺术节在2023的第一场演出。为期三天在阳朔山间的田野采集并在最后一天在阳朔的一个山洞中进行了一个全黑沉浸式的音乐聆听分享会。

On the first day of field recording , I collected the sounds of insects and birds chirping on the hills because the road in the mountains is very close, the recorder also picked up the sounds of cars and airplanes flying over.

在采集声音的第一天,我采集到小山上虫鸣和鸟叫的声音,因为山里公路很近,同时又收录到了汽车路和天空飞机飞过的声音。

On the third day of the performance, we moved the equipment into the cave. The sound in the cave was not as wet as expected, and the quietness made the high-frequency sounds particularly crisp. Every drop of water dripping from the stalactites is particularly clear. The first musician played the shakuhachi, which formed a duet with the sound of dripping water. The following performances were all electronic music. There was no light except for music equipment and laptops. The audience sat down on the floor and some lay down, we spent three hours immersed in the sounds.

第三天的演出,和通行的音乐人我们将设备搬进了洞里,洞里的声响并没有想象的那么浑浊,及其的安静让高频的声音特别清脆。钟乳石上滴下来的每一滴水滴都特别清晰,第一位演出的音乐人吹奏了尺八,和滴水的声音俨然成了一个静动交织的二重奏。后面的演出都是电子音乐,除了音乐设备和电脑,没有任何光亮,听众们洗地坐下也有躺下的,很沉浸的度过了3小时。

My performance is an improvisation performance of voice and electronic music. During the rehearsal, I found that the chopped loop of voice was particularly similar to the insect sounds collected on the hill. This also coincided with the sound workshop. In the cave, there was a very primitive atmosphere pushing me, so at the end of the part, I naturally burst out with a kind of distant call. This sound was wild but intense. Some listeners asked me if it was a kind of ritual singing. 

我的演出是人声和电子音乐的即兴演出,在排练的时候发现由人声的切碎的loop和在小山上采集的虫鸣声特别像,这也刚好和声音工作坊呼应了所以没有再使用这两天采集的素材。在山洞中,有一种很原始氛围在推进着我,所以在结束段落我自然而然迸发出一种类似遥远的呼叫,这种声音很野但又很激烈,也有听众问我是不是一种祭祀的唱腔。

There was not much conversation between people, the three-day journey was very quiet compare with my dailyl life, but it was extremely fulfilling.

三天的旅程没有说太多话和我平时的生活有很大的反差却格外的充实。

Release: Post-Oblivion 泯默集

I am very happy to announce my New EP just released in Dusty Ballz

Listen: Post-Oblivion

September 2019, during a residency exchange programme curated by the Lijiang Studio, Chunyang Yao set foot in Shiraoi, a town in Hokkaido historically populated by Japan’s indigenous people, the Ainu. A peculiar sense of inversion struck her. Being a Naxi artist emerging from the southwestern city of Lijiang, Yao had become accustomed to performing under a certain exotic gaze in China. Yet, dipping into the arcane, almost bygone lifeworld of the Ainu, for the first time she found herself to be the curious spectator upon another ethnic group, in whom she saw, with profound ambivalence, the shadow of her own people. This moment of entanglement reverberates on, slowly translating into a delicate resonance between two ethnic minority traditions, both struggling for the right to remembrance on the margins of modernity. If memory is audible, does forgetting make a sound? This question drove the making of Post-Oblivion. 

Unlike what the title suggests, listening to Post-Oblivion demands emotion. Side A of the cassette contains a composition in five movements, which is based on field recordings collected during Yao’s stay in Hokkaido; Side B presents a long-form improvisation of voice, noise samples, and synthesisers, the track gets its title “AyuDabuya” from the babbling of Yao’s daughter after she heard the recording. Respectively, the two sides showcase Yao’s unique artistic sensibility as a composer and as a vocal/electronics improviser. Together they also present an intricate landscape of sound, cut across by her multiple, overlapping identities: as a contemporary artist, a mother, a Naxi descendent, and a traveller in a foreign land. 

The Ainu and the Naxi share a pantheistic vision of nature, through which religion and culture are embedded in their environmental surroundings. In the Naxi Dongba script, to say “without a sound” takes four glyphs: a lead stone, a pair of horns, a waning moon, and quark. Likewise, instead of recording directly with the Ainu community, Yao gathered musical cues from Hokkaido’s natural soundscape — onshore breezes, a raging geyser, cries of the seagulls, and crows hovering above the seaside town of Tomakomai. She stitched them with a fragmented chant of the ancient Naxi proverb: “All food and clothing arise from the soil”, which weaves in and out just like her own wandering presence on the island. Post-Oblivion, as such, sings about loss but also perpetuity. Through nature’s own rhythm and harmony, it channels a roaring silence confronting colonial pasts and the politics of cultural memories. 

《泯默集》选录了姚春旸近年的创作,主题关于遗忘,也关于守望。磁带的A面是一套基于田野录音的组曲,其中的声音素材在2019年的丽江/北海道交流驻地项目中成形,B面则是一轨人声、合成器与噪音采样的即兴长篇,曲名“AyuDabuya”是拟音,来自女儿听后的牙牙学语。这张专辑中,姚春旸是当代作曲家,是纳西后裔,是母亲,也是跨越国界的旅者——这些身份倒影在声响的编织中浮显、交叠,相互映照,呈现出一种蜿蜒险峻的听觉地形学。 

作为从云南丽江走出的纳西族艺术家,民族性一直是姚春旸的创作母题,也不免将她推向被凝视者的相位;而踏进阿伊努人聚居的白老町,她意识到自己成了那个观看的人。在这意外的对倒中,边缘族裔的情感回响逐渐清晰。作为北海道的原住民,阿伊努人相信万物有灵,而纳西东巴教亦奉自然为神祇;近代以降,阿伊努族世代传承的文化记忆在长期的殖民同化制度下渐归湮没,更让她心有戚戚 。 “一切吃穿皆从土地里来”,她将这句纳西古谚裁切揉碎,洒在北海道的自然音景中。时空的褶皱在人声吟哦中渐次荡开,有怒涛惊啸、鸥鸟凄鸣,有乌鸦在海街上空盘旋。岛屿的咏叹亘古不变,冷漠而深情。 

在象形表意的东巴文中,“泯默” 呈现为四个字符的组合序列:铅块、兽角、缺月与奶渣;而这卷歌哭绵延的声音地图里,泯默是在自然的热望与包容之间奏出一个文明的休止符,是一念物哀中的寂美永恒。大地心脉搏动,遗忘坼裂无声。 

——————————————————————————– 

Dusty Ballz is a London-based label that releases Chinese underground music on cassette tapes. The term originates in an old Soviet joke, which somehow still speaks to the situation today. 

在历史悠久的长沙方言中,“蛋蛋沾灰”一词形容儿童玩伴之间亲密与共的珍贵情谊。Dusty Ballz致力于通过磁带介质呈现中国地下之声,在欣欣向荣的新常态下描画人类命运共同体的美好愿景。  

released February 19, 2023 

创作于广州,2020年(A面)与2021年(B面) 
Created in 2020 (Side A) and 2021 (Side B) in Guangzhou, China 
田野录音素材采集于北海道登别(A2)与苫小牧市(A3、A4),2019年9月 
Field recordings captured in September 2019 at Noboribetsu (A2) and Tomakomai (A3, A4) in Hokkaido, Japan 

人声、田野录音、制作:姚春旸 
Vocal, Field-recordings, and Production by Chunyang Yao 
混音、母带:Annalisa Vetrugno 
Mixed and Mastered by Annalisa Vetrugno 
木刻:铁梅 
Woodcut by Tiemei 
东巴文字翻译:王世英 
Translation (Dongba Script) by Wang Shiying 
感谢:丽江工作室、正杰、森永泰弘 
Thanks to Lijiang Studio, Jay Brown, Yasuhiro Morinaga

Review: Chinese female musicians in New music Scene

A review wrote by Fanfu Wu (吴凡夫)lately published in VersOne Distro.

This review covers three time periods, introducing and commenting on the works of representative female musicians in the three eras. Excerpt from Wu’s comment on AyuDAbuya

Listen AyuDAbuya

“Yao Chunyang, an experimental musician/sound improviser from the Naxi minority in Yunnan. It is an extremely rare combination of Naxi characteristics with electronic atmosphere, noise, sound art, and concrete electronic music. Yao Chunyang is not well-known to many domestic avant-garde music fans because of her ‘living in a safe and inner corner’ . The highly influential and legendary British avant-garde music magazine Wire had a report on her.

Although Yao Chunyang was with music academic background (Shanghai Conservatory of Music), in her music works, there is actually an ‘anti-academic’ aesthetic. At the same time, what is rare is that her music reveals awe of nature and wild yearning. Yao Chunyang’s pioneering temperament has a kind of wild fairy spirit.

This AyuDAbuya is actually her latest single album, only one but very long. In it, her unique Naxi voice is improvised, which is both natural and crackling with electric noise. In Yao Chunyang’s music, sometimes electricity and noise are part of nature. Although they are artificially produced, they flow freely without any affectation. After a long song, I can’t help but rush to the deep God Realm of the colorful cloud city – Yunnan.

云南纳西族出身的实验音乐家/声音即兴家姚春旸。是极为罕见的把纳西族特色和电子氛围,噪音,声音艺术,具体音乐这些类型相结合的奇人。姚春旸因为“偏安一隅”,并不为许多国内先锋乐迷所熟知。英国极具影响力的传奇前卫音乐杂志《Wire》对她有过专门的报道。

姚春旸虽然是科班出身(上海音乐学院),但在她的音乐作品里,实际上有一种“反科班”的美学。同时少见的是她的音乐里透出着对大自然的敬畏和野生式的向往,姚春旸的先锋气质里有一种野生的仙气。

这张《AyuDAbuya》其实是她最新发行的一个单曲式专辑,只有一首但时间很长。里面她独特的纳西族嗓音即兴,既天籁于自然之境,又交汇于电噪噼啪作响之中。在姚春旸的音乐里,有时电流,噪音也是自然的一部分,虽为人工制造,却流淌自在,毫无半分矫揉造作。一首长曲下来,不由得心神驰往彩云之滇的深处神域。

阅读全文 芭蕉异音 | 那些剑走偏锋的中国女性先锋音乐

Music Post-Oblivion Contributed in Cecilia Vicuña: Brain Forest Quipu

My new work Post-Oblivion participated in a installation art exhibition by Chilean artist Cecilia Vicuña in TATE Modern, London. The sound component of the exhibition curated by musician Ricardo Gallo.

Brain Forest Quipu is a contemporary art installation created by the Chilean artist Cecilia Vicuña. The work was first presented at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans and has since been featured in several international exhibitions.

The installation is comprised of various elements, including sculptures, wall hangings, and sound recordings. These works are inspired by the ancient Inca quipus, which were a system of knotted strings used to record information. Vicuña’s work plays with the idea of memory and how it is recorded and transmitted across cultures and time periods.

The audio component of Brain Forest Quipu was curated by Colombian musician Ricardo Gallo. It features contributions from 23 musicians from around the world who were invited to create works that were played continuously for eight hours over four sets of stereo tracks.

Overall, Brain Forest Quipu is a thought-provoking and multi-layered installation that combines traditional techniques with contemporary artistic concepts. It invites viewers to contemplate the intersection of history, memory, and culture in our rapidly changing world.

作品《民默集》Post-Oblivion参与了智利艺术家Cecilia Vicuña的装置艺术展,这个展览的声音由音乐家Ricardo Gallo策划,邀请了来自全世界各地的23位音乐家贡献出他们的作品在4组立体声音轨中持续播放8个小时。

Cecilia Vicuña是智利的一位跨媒体艺术家和诗人,作品关注于语言、地理、历史和生态。她通过文字、织物、绘画、录像和装置等多种媒介表达自己对于原住民文化、环境问题和政治权利的关注。

Vicuña的Brain Forest Quipu作品是一件非常著名的装置艺术作品,它由一系列的绳索组成,每个绳索上缠绕着不同颜色的丝线和羽毛等材料,形成了一个巨大的、类似于脑结构的结构体。这个作品寓意着人类与大海和自然的关系,同时又传达了对于南美印第安人的遗产和文化的呼吁。

Video: Invisible Wounds

Head to The Wire website to view an exclusive new video work by me, featuring a movement performance and footage of Boashan Stone Village near my southwest China hometown of Lijiang. 

Plus, Read Josh Feola’s interview with me inside the current issue of The Wire.

The music of this work will release on my bandcamp at Friday, stay tuned!

2018年美国教育部赞助的Found Sound China项目支持,我和摄影师阿云,老狗在宝山石头城进行采风。当时我们采集了大量的航拍素材,惊叹于村落与大自然之间的博弈。心心念着这些素材不断构思、尝试、否定到最后定稿,历时4年,终于于4月完成了这个音乐视频作品,并在The Wire Magazine发布。

宝山石头城,位于云南丽江城北110公里的金沙江峡谷中,因百余户人家聚居在一座独立的蘑菇状巨石之上而得名。这个村庄的奇特是山和河流塑造出了它的外墙,以俯视的角度观望它,它在大自然苛刻的条件下,强扭着驻扎了下来,它的状体扭曲并顽固,石头上的每户人家都有他们的故事,特别是那些艰辛与痛苦渐渐磨出属于这个村落特有的痕迹。

人,未尝不是如此,在复杂的社会环境中,存在,观察,挣扎,扭曲,放弃,治愈。每个个体都因来自身体或着精神的痛苦的洗刷磨出了自己的伤痕。它们不可见,不可说。

此作品音乐部分,将在本周五在bandcamp发布,敬请关注!

A Story about How did I prepare My Naxi Dress 我的纳西服装的准备

A Story about How did I prepare My Naxi Dress

我所穿的纳西服装是丽江以及周边的样式,塔城、香格里拉白水台、四川木里等都有纳西族,服饰都各有的不同。在百度词条里解释如下:

“纳西族女士服装上穿大襟宽袖布袍,袖口捋至肘部,外加紫色或藏青色坎肩;下着长裤,腰系用黑、白、蓝等色棉布缝制的围腰,上打百褶,下镶天蓝色宽边。背披’七星羊皮'”

更多https://baike.baidu.com/item/纳西族服饰

图片资料参见http://www.biftmuseum.com/nation/detail/27#

小时候我有过几套纳西服装,过三朵节的时候穿,那种新式的纳西族服装轻便明艳,后来大了越来越少穿,现在发觉想要找到一套老款式、有质感的却费劲儿了。从去年就拜托朋友和堂姐到处问,期间还了解了专门做设计款的纳西服装公司,都不太喜欢,配色现代,太舞台化。到春节的时候朋友推荐了一家,也不是最满意,但是就先定下,即在照片里的这套,也将在演出时看到。

纳西族服装的精髓在羊皮披上,它不但保暖,制作考究,而且羊皮眼、羊皮须和羊皮背带都饱含寓意,“披星戴月”体现纳西妇女的勤劳应该是大家很熟悉的释义了。这次我用到的羊皮披是找姑奶奶借的,老屋里外婆的披肩已经有些破损,可母亲因为一直不在丽江就没能找到合适做修补的手艺人。

腰间系的围腰我觉得最体现纳西族妇女勤劳的特点,纳西话叫卡达。儿时记忆中外婆穿着它做饭,编竹篮,灰尘弄脏了衣服就把围腰解下来掸灰。一天劳作下来就有一片污渍在中间,真是充满了柴米油盐的气息。

照片里的帽子纳西语叫谷姿,是纳西族已婚妇女戴的,我的奶奶戴谷姿,外婆戴蓝色解放帽。因为觉得市面上的谷姿不够有厚重感,母亲又在老家请二伯母亲手做了一个给我。

穿的布鞋出自堂叔之手,他因为制作布鞋的工艺被授予“古城区纳西民间工艺传承人”的称号。如果大家看到20世纪初期的纳西族妇女的服装照片就可以看到这种款式,这基本就是还原的老样子。

我在这次拍摄纳西服装之前,为穿好这套衣服跟父亲母亲视频了好几次。当我第一次戴上谷姿和耳坠的时候,父亲说“我感觉像看到了我妈,有点伤感。”…对父亲的反应我后来想想挺激动的。我把这些细节记录下来是因为这个作品耗时很久,一路走来靠了家里人的参与和帮助,它们如一小块块拼图,越来越完整,当有主干的画面显现出来时,我所构想的一些内容在家庭内部引起了共鸣,这是我以前创作没有的经历。

很多人听说我来自丽江总是问起怎么面对丽江的商业化,可我想反问一下现在还有哪个角落不“商业化”呢?我们都在变化,变得连套自己民族精致日常的服装都要花一些精力来找寻,但是老一辈的经验还在发散,就是看我们怎么去吸取,尽量把它搜集好吧。

我听很真

昨天一位可爱听众问我做出这样的声音是不是来自耳朵里的幻听,我当时觉得并没有。之后回到家非常安静,只有空调作响,我想如果要做一个作品描述此刻内心的满足和喜悦,制作出和空调发出的声音类似的音色一定是这个作品的动机之一。这不是幻听,是把能感知到的氛围声放大。回头想想比如Shining Cracks里的Sound Above Cloud,当时在99楼的高度,即使是在室内采样,但耳朵里就是能听到天空中有飞机飞过、地面的嘈杂涌上来的嗡嗡声音,当时我录下了两位舞者肢体移动的声响,在创作的时候用合成器做了一组非常迟缓延绵的长线条音色就是描述在99楼耳边回响的“天空”声。那些触发灵感的时刻往往是耳朵状态放松的时候,注意力一跟上就可以听到所处环境里的很多响动。描述氛围的声音于我就像按下照相机的快门,定格、真切。但当把所听到的声音转化为作品时就成了很自我的声音,我不知道这样于他人是否理解为“作者的幻听”。

ATTN之后的一点想法

 “一种肤浅的观点认为,怀孕的女人是一个安于满足,或者完全就是一个安于等待的女人。女人一直被人们认为是一种等待的动物:等待被要求,等待来月经,在恐惧中等待它的到来或是不来,等待男人们从战场上、从工作中回家,等待孩子长大,要不就等待一个新生儿的降生,或等待绝经期的来临。”

——上个月看到艾德丽安·里奇《为女所生》的书摘,一直在找这本书可惜断货,很遗憾不能联系上下语境准确了解这段话。下面两段是我之前写好的,之后看到艾德丽安的这段话“等待”这个词尤其刺眼,因为这份等待于我,也多少有些被动和无奈。——

这三年来,我的音乐动静减少了很多,因为2017年宝宝的诞生,而现在又继续在孕育一个生命。严重的妊娠反应和身体的各种不适应让整个人的体能和精神状态特别虚弱散慢,三年的大多数时候我都是在等候——孩子的出生、断乳、相对独立。孕育一个生命真是苦尽甘来,回甘绵长,苦忘得很快,即使那么辛苦,我决定再来一次。这一次,有了宝贝的陪伴,时间过得快了,精神也好了很多,在家人的帮助下,我有了一些时间和空间能投入到音乐里去。

当不得不把大部分时间关注在自己身体上的时候,“等待”让我体会到存在的“自然”状态。似乎我们的身体、生命中一切的存在和办事方式,如果能顺应自然的气息一切就有它的方向和生长方式。A Trip To Nowhere也在找寻一种自然的状态,不太刻意地表达,静候在自然行进中得到启发。这三年大片的“输出”空白,回过头来看却收获很大,毕竟有两个生命的诞生。孕育成了场修行,不是经历大风大浪的那种,而在一种接近静止、有些被动、有时无奈甚至压抑的“等待”中体会成长。

我想要永保内心的平静和笃定是不可能的,但是在需要的时候愿意放慢脚步,有条件给自己一个喘息是非常幸运的。那些被迫需要去等待的空白也是难得的体验,如能有一个近期小目标或者追求某件事的动力不变,自然而然属于自己的那种状态会来到。