In 2019, Figure had been shooting the low absinthe band for several months, and the shooting was just completed when the epidemic began. After that, this independent band experienced various difficulties and changes such as the cancellation of the tour, the change of members, and the move from Lanzhou to Chengdu, but it also fulfilled some of the long-cherished wishes of lead singer Liu Kun: to form a big band, to do better live performances, to help more young people on the road of music... He once said, "The music itself is the only force that keeps the band going."
On the band list of "China Is So Beautiful", low absinthe is a highly anticipated one. Music fans would love to see what kind of story this representative of Northwest music will experience in the beautiful scenery and cloudy Yunnan. For the members of the band Low Absinthe, all the "wandering" is for the same direction - to find a musical home.
Written by | Guo Xiaohan
Editor | Xu Jing
Proofreader | Zhang Shuai
Listing |FigureVideo
"China is So Beautiful" episode 8 trailer
Author | Guo Xiaohan |▼
Phoenix feathers, phoenix feathers, sound beautiful and magical.
Fengyu, a quiet Bai town in southwest Yunnan, is more than 20 kilometers away from Dali, at the junction of the origin of the Cangshan Erhai Sea, with beautiful scenery, long history and outstanding people.
Following in the footsteps of "China Is So Beautiful", the folk rock band Low Absinthe from Lanzhou embarked on a musical journey to Fengyu. The "Retreat Hall" created by Feng Xincheng, the founder and former executive editor-in-chief of New Weekly, and the hermitage of rock star Sting former drummer Michelle, are hidden in this small town that Xu Xiake once named "Peach Blossom Garden".
There are also those simple and naïve villagers, in the fields, in life, in addition to labor, from the depths of the soul to sing from the depths of the soul.
What is music? It is a period of time carved down by musical notes. Traveling through these times, walking in the secret place closest to man and nature, customs, history and art are full of vivid and vivid colors; everyone has their own story; all innocence, adventure, patience, abandonment, exploration... They all have another meaning and value.
Time has shaped her life beautifully
On the first day of fengyu, a group of low absinthe bands, lead singer Liu Kun, drummer Wen Feng and guitarist Sange walked aimlessly on the street. The town is quiet and calm, the White-walled gray-tiled houses of the Bai people are neat and sturdy, there are not many vehicles and pedestrians on the old cobblestone roads, and people carrying baskets to buy vegetables have walked by one after another.
After eating the chicken bean flour on the side of the road, the musicians met two grandmothers in their eighties, selling their hand-embroidered insoles and small crafts in the sun. A few small tigers with eyes, ears and tongues, lively and vivid embroidery tigers attracted everyone's attention. Liu Kun talked with the old man and asked them if they could sing, and a grandmother casually sang the nursery rhyme "A Crab", and the old sister next to her whispered in agreement, humming some songs without lyrics. The voices of the two are simple and clear, with the shyness of a girl, but also the tenacity of going through vicissitudes.
The two old sisters had known each other for more than fifty years. Together in the sun selling handmade small goods, holding hands with each other when talking, as if holding hands since girls' lives, sitting together to accompany each other. Their simple singing greatly touched Wen Feng, a modern drum player. "They interpret what music is, and we're just listening — music is time for them, two people singing all their lives," he says.
Such a chance encounter, so that the band seems to have found some kind of clue, maybe they come to Fengyu's line, what they want to find is the music in life, and the time in music.
In another grandmother's yard, while doing her work, she told her own story - she had not read any books, married at a young age, and her mother-in-law's family had only one thatched hut, and her life was hard. But she casually sang "A big river" is still clear and magnificent, and singing "Dali March Good Scenery" is also very bright. Grandma smiled, and the wrinkles on her face stretched out. "This is my destiny, singing when I am happy, singing when I do things..."
"Live to understand!" Wen Feng sighed that although grandma experienced hardship, she understood the "power of happiness" and "time has shaped her life to be extremely beautiful".
Confirm your own worth by your own wishes
Finding those hidden connections between music and life – after the encounter with the grandmothers, the low-bitter wormwood's musical journey has a clearer direction.
Shi Wenqing, a local guide, introduced them to the culture and history of Fengyu town.
Shi Wenqing was originally a postman when he was young, and in the process of delivering letters and writing letters to people, he came into contact with the genealogies of many local families and began to study and collect. Obsessed with these ancient and vivid histories and cultures, he plunged into them to study them, regardless of worldly gains and losses, and would even be told by his wife that he could not earn back the money for washing powder...
In his own yard, he set up a "Anglai Collection". The people in the village come here to sing, tell stories, and gather during the agricultural leisure season. The courtyard was very lively, the big brothers played the three strings, sang the Bai tune, full of breath, Liu Kun listened with great interest, and could not help but play the tambourine to join them. In the modern rhythm and rhythm, the singing of this big brother who built the wall is more sonorous and powerful.
Wen Feng said that this is the "blues", life itself is open, rock and roll comes from the heart.
The origin of "blues" as rock 'n' roll is itself created outside of work. The plucked accompaniment of the three strings as string instruments, the singing of the strength and narrative sense of the Bai big brother, and The impromptu drumming of Liu Kun make a field singing with the rhythm of blues and blues and something deep into the heart, and also peek into the origin of the birth of rock and roll.
Being with nature and living with it is the ideal way music is.
Shi Wenqing was obsessed with the culture, history, writing, and music of his ancestors' wisdom, and in the process of sorting out and passing on these cultures, he found the value of his own life. Wen Feng commented on him: "Selfishness is sometimes a positive word, that is, to find one's own value and confirm one's own value by one's own wishes. Such 'attachment' and 'obsession' seem naïve and precious in the current era of confusion and anxiety."
Find yourself in nature with music
Haruki Murakami said, "Those who reunite will meet again." In Fengyu, the low absinthe band reunites with Wen Feng's long-time friends, the French drummer Michel and his wife.
Michelle is a world-class drummer who has played drums for the police band Sting and participated in the world's top concerts. Now this simple couple chooses to receive old friends from afar in a few old houses in the mountains that have not yet been renovated.
Their compound has not yet been completed, and the household debris has not been neatly packed, or even electrified.
"I'm going to start my music." Michelle casually tapped the bucket, teacup and table feet. They also collect the sound of water and wind and the sound of insects flying, make tea from water sources, collect wild fruits from trees to replenish vitamins, and play and live with great interest.
Michelle shipped yamaha drums from France that had been used in cooperation with Sting, but they were randomly placed in the clearing between the woods. He says it's his way of connecting with nature.
When music is connected to nature, the wonders of music become more explicit and great. From playing for a superstar at a concert for 10,000 people, to playing for herself in the mountains, Michelle has undergone a huge shift in her musical philosophy. He began to let go of frustrated or happy distractions in music and found his true self in the process of renunciation.
The life and music of the Michelles are something else on a spiritual level. Liu Kun said: "At this moment, discussion is superfluous, and it is enough to calmly taste it."
Choose the land of the gods to find, home and journey
Bypassing these occasional and necessary "gardens where the paths fork", the low absinthe band came to the last destination of Feng Yu's trip, that is, the "regression hall" of Mr. Feng Xincheng, the master brother of Lanzhou University, together with lead singer Liu Kun and Zhang Yue, artistic director of "China So Beautiful" and founder of Figure.
Feng Xincheng has been doing media for more than thirty years, traveling the world, reading countless people, and the insight of art culture and the world has always been very keen. In 2013, he was then the executive editor-in-chief of New Weekly, who planned a special issue in Dali, and a local friend gave him a jar of local honey. This jar of honey made Feng Xincheng choose to stay in Dali.
Honey is the essence of natural flowers, and it is also the most sensitive crystallization of heaven and earth and climate. At that time, Dali was still in the original ecological stage, with a certain foresight and the romance and ambition of a poet, Feng Xincheng resigned from the work of executive editor-in-chief and built his own courtyard collection in an orchard in Fengyu - the Regression Hall.
The Retreat Hall has four courtyards - the old master, the young master, the three treasures, the four phoenixes... There is also a gazebo called to come to the pavilion (stop) and tell people to stop appropriately, slow down, and sit down.
Now that the grass and trees are lush and the pears are already sweetly ripe, Feng Xincheng grinds a cup of coffee for himself every morning and starts a day of immortality.
However, it is not a story of a literati living in seclusion and escaping from the world, he is carrying out an innovative practice of "cultural rural construction", nurturing and developing art, culture and music from this land, giving culture and life another meaning and possibility, and strengthening dreams with reality into a belief and practice.
The practice of sealing the new city did not receive much support from media peers and friends in the art circle at that time, who called the new city "the ambitionist in the retreat hall". The local inhabitants were open to nature to accept and welcome him. Every day when Dali's rice is ripe, the "Fengyu White Rice Harvest Festival" is held, and everyone celebrates the joy of the harvest with singing, reading poetry and improvisational drama.
The stage of the harvest festival is set on a golden rice ear, which is not "earthy" at all, and it is extremely foreign - it is a "return to the basics" with aesthetic ability that is extremely scarce in China.
Local artists also agreed with and responded to the concept and planning of the new city, and Zhou Zhengchang created a piece of land art on the river, "White Colt Crossing the Gap", with eight white horses running freehand on the water.
"Land art is the art that grows out of the earth," Feng Xincheng said, "If these horses can be lit up at night, Fengyu has a night view mode, and there will be new possibilities and hopes."
In the description of FengxinCheng, we know the origin of Fengyu: Fengyu is located at the junction of Cangshan Erhai, the land of Shenhui. Here, the countryside is beautiful, life has the most primitive and vivid rhythm, just like the hometown of all things, all life has the possibility of nurturing and developing, the same is true of rural construction, and the seeds of idealism are the same.
"Through others, to oneself" Low Absinthe found what they were looking for in this fengyu journey, and Liu Kun realized at the moment when this journey was coming to an end that "music is the foundation of my life, my life, my heart, are all with music."
Towards the end of the trip, Low Absinthe sang the band's classic song "Morning Twilight" in the mountains, singing for every innocent and brave person:
Dear ones!
Our hearts are like mirrors,
Sing in lightning, youth.
On December 18, 2021, the white horse of the "white colt crossing the gap" finally lit up at night, the passage of time has a poetic and vivid appearance, and the rural construction of The New City has some real hope.
And music also lights up one beautiful place after another in our lives, guiding us to see a richer and broader world, as well as a more authentic and comfortable heart.
You see, China is so beautiful.
The large-scale outdoor music documentary program "China Is So Beautiful" is broadcast on Straits TV, Southeast TV and Tencent Video at 21:00 every Thursday night, and figure is co-produced. Full version of the musical character story, please pay attention to the show.
－ END －
Copyright Figure Studio
All rights reserved, please do not reprint without permission
Please leave us a message to get content authorization