There is a hypothesis that "our world is a musical masterpiece that continues to be played, and at the beginning of human memory, the music begins to sound, high and low, no matter how many chapters it goes through, it will not stop, and everyone is the composer of this masterpiece." "In the eyes of Murray Schafer, a Canadian composer, music educator and environmentalist, we are living in this wonderful world of sound.
In this unprecedented winter, we invited Sarah Song (Yespai Gallery), a new generation of new media artists and tech expressionists, to create a sound visualization on the cover. A graduate of the Hong Kong Baptist University School of Film and the Department of Computer Arts at Goldsmiths College, University of London, Sarah's art often combines the natural world, sound and visual communication. She is involved in different media, and constantly explores the intersection of natural and digital media technologies in her works, looking for the poetry of people's ordinary lives. Inspired by the principle of infrared imaging, the cover work "Love Spectrum" converts a musical signal of "love" into a digital image symbol, presenting a temperature world that is invisible to the human eye, hoping to let the viewer feel the infinite radiation of love.
Illustrator Aki Jiang paints the theme work "Sound Walk" in this issue of Weekend Pictorial
As early as the 1970s, Schaefer coined the term "sound walk" and spearheaded a "World Soundscape Project" (WSP), which is dedicated to studying the relationship between people and the sound environment, and also hopes to examine and preserve those special soundscapes that are on the verge of disappearing due to the rapid development of industrialization and technology. At that time, young composers and communication students who participated in the project visited cities and villages in Canada and Europe to conduct soundscape research and field recording practice, which attracted widespread attention from the world.
Nowadays, the sound movement has become a global event, and people are attracted to it for different reasons, some people see it as a meditation practice, training themselves to pay more conscious attention to the various sounds in the environment to achieve the effect of healing themselves, while others hope to get closer to the answer they want in the unknown by going out of the house to explore things that have not been understood in the outdoor world.
The essence of sound is simply vibrating air, which helps us to go back to memory and find the veins of life from the cracks of time. In this issue, we dig into stories about sound in our explorations. With the romance and dedication to passionate things, independent music producer and acoustic space designer Li Xingyu painted a beautiful picture of sound, by grasping the sound in life, depicting life, but also understanding life; sound artist Yuri Suzuki through the design of exquisite objects and continuous exploration and creation of the field of sound, is making sound accessible with its unique concept; World DMC Competition China champion Cavia with faith in sound, Creating every musical experiment, vowing to carry out electronic music to the end. I hope to enlighten the viewer from a different perspective, and there is music in times of trouble and sorrow, and there is a pure dream.
He and his friends "evaporated" for 15 days, carrying daily necessities and equipment on their backs, and rented a boat into the Amazon rainforest to explore the sounds of nature. As if that wasn't enough, he endured the heat of more than fifty degrees Celsius and focused on catching the sound of the sahara desert wind and waves. With his romance and dedication to passionate things, he paints a beautiful picture of sound. Rather than using music to open his mind, he knows better how to grasp the sounds in life, describe life, and understand life through it.
Whale Circus, Photo: Gai Shutong
Six years ago, Mr. Lee lived in a rental house, a place where, in his words, "people's anxiety is reflected in the noise of the city." The sound of renovations, the sound of horns coming from the road full of vehicles downstairs, he was woken up by all kinds of noises early every morning, and coupled with the pressure of work, he also became a member of the anxious urban people. "At that time, I wanted to run," Li Xingyu thought of the Amazon rainforest he had visited two years ago, "and I felt that there was no mobile phone signal, and there was no such urban noise, special peace." ”
Li Xingyu, Photo: Erchu
At that time, Li Xingyu was already quite active in the music production industry. Graduated from the Recording Engineering of the Communication University of China, he has done acoustic design for architectural spaces, formed bands, made albums, and acted in musicals. In 20014, he launched the Whale Circus, which has released six albums by the end of 2021 and ended another round of national tour last December.
If you only look at these, Li Xingyu is a musician who has grown up smoothly, and his bold, imaginative side has been able to stretch out in more of his sound projects. Also in 2016, Li Xingyu founded the 52Hz Sound Museum, and the "Amazon Sound Seeking Project" was the first project. The rainforest is a very different place from the urban space, Li Xingyu told The Weekend Pictorial, "We yearn not only to see the green forest or the lake, we also yearn to get a quiet space there, so that everyone can get rid of the anxiety of the city." ”
Li Xingyu traveled to the Amazon rainforest to collect sounds
At the same time, this is a process of deep post-disenchantment, the living conditions in the rainforest are very difficult, "go in and be bitten dozens of bags every day, and then face these beasts every day, there is no air conditioning, it is really not an environment suitable for human habitation, the so-called beautiful nature A lot of imaginary things are built by us." ”
The process of sound collection provides a channel for Li Xingyu to go deep into a certain environment, bringing a more macro experience than watching. Only by having experience can we form our own understanding and reach the stage of creation. Li Xingyu put together the sounds of insects, birds, running water and instrumental music collected from the rainforest to produce the "Amazon Trilogy" series released in 2018.
Li Xingyu traveled to the Sahara Desert to collect sounds
Li Xingyu does not only focus on collecting natural sounds, in his opinion, "urban systems and natural systems are two different types of sound stored by the earth, and if you look at one type alone, you will ignore the beautiful parts of the other system." "So he focused on a new sound-seeking project, Xinjiang." I grew up in Xinjiang Village, and when I was a child watching Xinjiang people, I especially loved to eat lamb kebabs. Then when I studied traditional Chinese music, I found that many chinese instruments actually came from Xinjiang, which made me think that these things have such a magical connection. "The study of Xinjiang has been continuous for two years, from 2018 to 2020, almost the whole of Xinjiang has been circumvented," and various people went to the village to find these interesting people to record, listen to their stories, and then learn from them to play musical instruments. ”
Li Xingyu plays music with locals in Korla, Xinjiang
Unique concepts, ingenious ideas, he used sound to construct a new artistic aesthetic. From a child with reading and writing difficulties to a DJ who released several dance music albums, to today's artist who studies everyday physical vocalizations, step by step, Yuri Suzuki is making sound accessible through exquisitely designed objects and continuous exploration and creation of the field of sound.
Yuri Suzuki, Mark Cocksedge
Sound is a wave generated by vibration, a wave phenomenon that propagates through a medium (gas, solid, liquid) and can be perceived by human or animal hearing organs, but for us today, it is often the easiest to ignore, and it is difficult for people to concentrate on a long period of sound waves. This intrigued Yuri Suzuki, a sound artist, designer and electronic musician who said, "Organically speaking, hearing is the closest sensory to the brain, and it can actually be more effective than vision." But hearing needs to be carefully designed because it is completely invisible, often difficult to confirm in effect, and therefore not well explored. ”
Tracing the ancients' quest for music, the Early 20th Century French musicologist J. Jules Combarieu writes in his book, "Music is the art of thinking with sound. "Today, artists around the world not only explore sound at a purely conceptual level, but also invite the public to participate in interaction in a contemporary context, breaking down barriers between sound, noise and music, and studying the relationship between sound and people and the impact of music on people's psychology. Yuri Suzuki is one of these practitioners.
Yuri Suzuki, Rima Musa
Recalling his childhood, Yuri Suzuki has been particularly sensitive to sound since childhood because of a mild dyslexia, and is also curious about anything that combines with sound. Out of his love of music, he tried to be a professional DJ and composed 10 dance discs, but the negative working environment made him finally leave. He then worked at the Japanese art institution Maywa Denki, an experience that led to a keen interest in music and technology.
In 2005, he moved to London to study product design at the Royal Academy of Art, and near graduation in 2008, Yuri Suzuki brought his graduation work, Tube Map Radio. This is a "radio circuit diagram" printed on a circuit board, and from the point of view of the components alone, each individual is a famous landmark in London, and if connected to it, it becomes a topological unfolding subway line, and the work is finally collected by the London Art Museum. In the same year, Yuri Suzuki set up a personal studio in London and began to focus on product development, sound design and consulting.
Tubemap Radio project artwork, Hitomi Kai Yoda
"Music is written in Japanese as 'Yomi', which is a combination of 'sound' and 'happy.'" In Yuri Suzuki's eyes, every work should provide a pleasure for people, especially for children, and the "OTOTO Sound Synthesizer" should be born from time to time. As a work originally designed for children, the core of OTOTO lies in the PCB synthesizer, in fact, it is a pocket circuit board, as long as it is connected to a conductive object, friction can make a sound, from solid to liquid, connect anything to the synthesizer, any touch will make the device sound, even if you do not understand the knowledge of music theory, there is no professional equipment, you can pick up the daily gadgets as far as the eye can see to create a wonderful little song. "Sound can be perceived and recreated by anyone, and I hope that more and more people will realize this and try to change it even if they are constrained, maybe it will be the next opportunity." Today, the work is in moma's permanent collection.
Ototo project artwork, Dentaku
Since Yuri Suzuki has been living in the UK for a long time, he has been in home isolation during the epidemic and maintained social distancing, and one day, he suddenly thought, when physical isolation gradually causes psychological distance, can people connect people's long-awaited connections through the network? Led by the Dallas Museum of Art, Sound Of The Earth : The Pandemic Chapter was born. In this time of change and uncertainty, Yuri Suzuki hopes to create a public platform for the public to express and share experiences and feelings of difficult times.
"Voices of the Earth: Epidemic Chapters" project artwork, Pentagram_YS_DMA
Transforming from DJ to designer to sound artist, Yuri Suzuki sees it as a "natural transition." From life, but also from love, he flexibly uses sound and technology, combined with his own design brain hole to create a piece of work, so that the world is full of colorful colors and infinite fun. In the future, Yuri Suzuki also wants to extend to more public art, he told Weekend Pictorial, "In the real environment of mass life, in fact, many sounds have not been well designed, I hope to make everyone realize that good product design can provide people with an 'answer'." ”
"For the audience, live bands are self-expression, and DJs are two-way communication." Cavia, who has a "musical fan" since childhood, began to collect records at the age of 13, practiced Scratch at the age of 20, and won the world DMC competition in China in two years. In his life creed, he wanted to carry electronic music to the end.
Cavia, who presents the possibilities of music in multiple capacities, unlike other DJs, in addition to still holding the record of the youngest champion in the World DMC Competition in China, he is also one of the founders of the famous Shanghai club "Lóng" and the DJ teaching studio Endtro Studio, in his words, "found the most delicate balance between ideal and reality".
Cavia's fate with electronic music dates back to her childhood, and her father has always loved to listen to classical music, a box of cassettes into the tape recorder, pressing the play button, the voice is turned up, sitting in the living room in the afternoon and listening repeatedly, the usual projects of childhood made Cavia in the early years have a musical dream. "I don't know when I paid special attention to the accompaniment in each piece, through the interpretation of modern electronic instruments, those melodious melodies can continue and amplify every note, which is wonderful." Then, in college, he originally wanted to form a band to play music, but when he happened to be at a music festival, he heard the DJ Shadow on the stage playing samples from the songs, and the sounds of the old records could be fused into a unique new work, and Cavia was fascinated and seemed to have discovered another way to play sound.
In 2008, with extraordinary talent and unique musical taste, Cavia won the World DMC Championship in China through the scramble and beat-juggling competition, representing chinese DJs in the DMC World Finals that year, and still maintains the record of the youngest DMC champion. Cavia has also begun to join Shanghai's oldest electronic music organization Antote and the acclaimed new team SHFT, frequently performing with major stars and well-known DJs.
The high integration of electronic music is due to the fact that it is the music produced by digital simulation, which abandons the limitations of musical instruments for making music, and also expands the imagination space and transformation space of sound. In Cavia's mind, electronic music has always been considered to be the most extreme school of sound pursuit, "We already have the hardware foundation and related technologies that can create timbre, but no one knows how many kinds of sounds can be produced, which is full of endless possibilities." ”
In music, Cavia does not rely solely on existing musical materials, in his opinion, a good DJ should pursue different sound media and find a suitable musical style in creation. As a result, he often went to sparsely populated places to collect materials, collecting the sound of rainwater lapping against the eaves and sweeping the leaves of the morning road, and Cavia's songs also exuded a unique temperament. "Each sound represents a natural phenomenon or way of life, and it is because of these renderings that the picture can be re-outlined and restored in the listening process. And these materials are only yours, and it is likely that you are the only one in the world to integrate them into your work, which is also a precious private record. ”
"I often ask myself, what do you do with music? But sometimes life will give you the answer when you are most confused, when you collect sound material and put it into a work, when you successfully hold a performance with a sense of atmosphere, when you are seeing more and more new forces emerging, you are more determined, I am the one who wants to carry electronic music to the end. For the future, Cavia has always maintained a relaxed and relatively positive attitude, and even opened a new underground club "Lóng" against the wind during the epidemic, making music, starting classes, setting up studios, unlocking his new skills one by one with multiple identities, and leaving again for another destination in life.
Executive Producer — Carrie Cao
Planning, interviewing, translating, editing — Yorick
Written by Carrie, Yorick, Xiang You, Jing Yu
Photo courtesy of Lee Sing-woo, Yuri Suzuki, and Cavia
Cover Design — Song Sharan Sarah Song
Illustration Design — Aki Jiang
Graphic Design — Wood Valley