Sorry for the lack of updates. My grandmother passed away late last night and I’ve had family and friends come to town. I will be flying to Shanghai for the next few days and then back to Canada for another week. When I’m back in the Middle Kingdom, the entries will continue! For now, there’s a great article in the New York Times about the fledgling experimental music scene here in Beijing — after the recent debates in the comments section regarding good and bad international press, I think this article is a perfect example of the “good kind”, the kind that this country needs.
Doug Kanter for The New York Times
BEIJING — Down a short alley in the sprawling, tourist-mobbed 798 art district here — a complex of 1950s-era military factories converted into galleries and studios — is a tiny shop that serves as one of the centers of China’s small but thriving experimental music scene.
The store, Sugar Jar, is barely big enough to accommodate a half-dozen customers, and one wall displays all the essentials of the genre, from discs of abstract electronica and brutal noise-rock to anthologies with bold titles like “China: The Sonic Avant-Garde.” Playing samples from his stock, the proprietor, a lanky, soft-spoken man named Lao Yang, noted proudly that his store is one of the only spots in all of Beijing to buy much of this music.
Like Sugar Jar, avant-garde music occupies a minuscule niche in Chinese society, overshadowed by the larger and vastly more lucrative world of contemporary visual art. Only a few dozen musicians around the country make up this circle, but their work has begun to attract international attention, and over the last several years a steady stream of Western musicians, including Brian Eno and the New York guitarist Elliott Sharp, have visited and given their blessing…. continue reading.
Tags: 4. Elsewhere, beijing, beijing experimental music, beijing rock scene, buddha machine, china, fm3, new york times, shanghai experimental music
