In January 2019, hanggai band group photo. (Photo/Courtesy of respondents)
The band, which is equally national and global, seems to want to present endless possibilities musically, as they interpret the team name on their album Introduction to Hangai – "an ancient Mongolian word that means a world of blue skies, white clouds, grasslands, rivers, mountains and woods." ”
Hu Richa, the lead singer of hanggai band, opened a can of Sapporo beer and drank it on his back. The Shenyang girls immediately erupted into a scream of the scene. Experience told her that the song "Wine Song", which has always been the "climax" of Hanggai concerts, is coming.
Hanggai's timing on stage at the 2019 Fuji Rock Festival in Japan wasn't perfect. A sudden typhoon has just hit Niigata. When the group arrived, the Yuzawa-cho Naeba Ski Resort was full of muddy puddles, like a "post-disaster reconstruction site", but "Sake Song" still caused the whole audience to sing and swing on a large scale.
"Hanggai is not the first time to come, and the Japanese version of "Wine Song" has long been launched, so to be precise, fans of the two countries play together in the tune of this song."
Before that, Tuantuan responded to the compatriots in the crowd with "Hanggai Cow B", and the Japanese audience cast a puzzled gaze, which made her feel amused: "It is as if she is leading a mysterious religious ceremony." ”
On November 20, 2017, Hanggai Band released the EP "Hanggai Spirit", "Forged into steel in the vast grassland, with lofty ideals" These two sonorous and powerful lyrics are the best portrayal of hanggai spirit.
"The results are satisfactory." Referring to the tour born from the new album "Hang Gai and Brass Pipe", the evaluation of captain Iliqi is very honest. In nearly an hour-long interview, he spoke slowly, thought hard, and exercised restraint on grand questions and labels.
For example, when the topic progressed to "the Chinese band that performed the most performances overseas", the end of the earpiece fell into a brief silence: "Well... Not necessarily, there may soon be other bands surpassing this record. ”
In 2015, this national rock band, which is well-known in the independent music industry, "went out of the circle" as the champion of the second season of "China Good Songs". For the public, who are accustomed to listening to Dedema, Tengger, and Burenbayar, the combination of the horsehead, the Taubshur (a two-stringed Mongolian plucked instrument), the Humai and the "three major pieces" of rock and roll brought a new imagination of Mongolian music.
But Hanggai hopes to present far more possibilities than that, as they explain the team name in the album "Introduction to Hanggay" -
"An ancient Mongolian word, it means a world of blue skies, white clouds, grasslands, rivers, mountains and woods."
"Whether a work is successful,
The performance practice and audience feedback are up to the task"
After working with conductor Tan Dun on the "Symphonic Rock" project, hanggai band tried to incorporate brass instruments into the music / Bruno Pego
Tuan Tuan has not been exposed to many forms of music, but standing in the first row closest to the speakers, she is still keenly aware of the fresh blood brought by brass instruments. "In fact, Fuji Rock is quite small and fresh, in contrast, hanggai things appear hardcore, and it is painstakingly done at first glance."
Tuantuan's intuitive feelings are not unfounded. In 2017, Hang Gai and composer and conductor Tan Dun jointly completed a performance project called "Symphonic Rock", constantly changing colors and jumping overhead lights and screaming one after another, which once plunged the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall into a livehouse-style carnival atmosphere.
After that, Hang Gai approached Tan Dun's student Bi Jianbo and tried to find a more convenient way to disseminate the unique audiovisual effects in the performance.
In March 2019, hanggai band performed live. Hanggai Band has a wealth of overseas tour experience, their live appeal is strong, has always been highly sought after by music fans. (Photo/Courtesy of respondents)
This is the opportunity for the birth of "Hang Gai and Copper Pipe". Hanggai and jazz wind orchestra parts have been recorded in Canada and the United States, and one instrument is equipped with three or four microphones to get the most satisfactory sound from different positions...
However, the ultimate goal of the meticulous work is to cut out the complexity: remove the heavy strings in the symphony, keep only the saxophone, trombone and trumpet, and after several adjustments, achieve the "shock of serious music" in tuantuan's mouth.
"It's not the noise and irritability of ordinary rock scenes that shock people's hearts and livers, but it's inexplicably harmonious."
Agent Wen Ning has another consideration: "The establishment is light, there are few people, and it can be spread out in a small field, so that it can go to more stages and let more ordinary music fans hear." ”
In his dictionary, change must be the nerve that is always tense, and several groups of industry leaders take the initial works of the group to "The Summer of the Band", which makes him feel "slightly unicyed":
"The vitality of a rock band is still manifested in whether they have the consciousness to explore new things, whether they can make different attempts, rather than always holding the songs of more than a decade ago, and there is no change at all."
In March 2010, Hanggai released the album He Who Travels Far.
Hangai's choice of subject matter follows the same principles, although those repertoire, uniformly defined as "Mongolian folk songs", are in fact often separated by centuries and thousands of kilometers:
"Golden Bracelet" comes from Qinghai, while "Bojulai" is circulated in the northeast frontier; "Khan Qinggele" and "Jianger" are Mongolian heroic epics circulated in the form of rap, which belong to the category of intangible cultural heritage.
"Semiconductors from Shanghai" and "Night in Ulaanbaatar" were popular hits in the 1950s and 1980s respectively by Hazab, the "king of long tunes" of Xilin Gol, and the Mongolian rock band "Genghis Khan"...
"I want to make as many representative music as possible in different Mongolian settlements, but the most fundamental premise is whether it can be adapted into new ideas." Classics tend to have a particularly large number of versions, and if there is no room for change, it is better not to do it. ”
In Ilyich's opinion, the actual performance effect is an important basis for determining the space for change, and there are many more on the stage, and the same track will be completely transformed in different albums of Hangai.
Higshiri was used as a soundtrack for the film Dragon Quest. /Video screenshot
Like "Higshiri", which was once used as a soundtrack by the movie "The Dragon Hunt", the only thing that initially created a brisk and jumping texture was the horse's head and three strings, and by "The Man Who Went Away", the roaring electric guitar, dense drum beats and gloomy humming made it transform into a rhythmic and heroic dance song.
Ilyich does not deny that there is a motivation to correct, adjust, and find the best state, "how the effect is, or by the performance practice and audience feedback."
Now let's talk about commercialization,
It should be farther away than "kitsch" and "compromise"
In the 15 years since the formation of the group, Hanggai's lineup has undergone several adjustments, bringing many different elements to the musical style. / Oscar Keys
During a performance in Italy, Hangey was asked to return several times, and drummer Allen walked to the center of the stage and sang "My Sun" in Italian.
According to Ilić, At that time, Allen was only temporarily called over to cope with the increasingly prominent performance pressure of Hanggai, but his resume of studying opera at the Mongolian State University of Arts and Culture and working briefly in the Central National Song and Dance Troupe made this "accident" that was talked about.
In a way, the malleability of Hang Gai's infinite extension is related to the lineup adjustments that have been experienced several times over the past 15 years: horsehead player Hugger Gilato and former tongue band bassist Wu Junde left to start their own bandS akinai and Voyager respectively.
Before flying solo, the electric guitar of Illarata (Victory) was the key to achieving "electrification" in many songs. From the four hu, the sur flute, the three strings, the mouth strings, the Yatoga (Mongolian kite) to the banjo and brass bands, the delicate emotions carried by different instruments are absorbed into the increasingly rich melody of Hanggai – although in the general perception, this is similar to the "blood exchange" of personnel, which may be a source of estrangement and contradiction.
On April 23, 2018, Beijing, the premiere of the movie "God of War" was held. /Figureworm Creative
Ilić summed up the essence of this plasticity with "patience", "coordination" and "more rehearsals". For a long time, his belief was quite simple — as long as the mental state of the band members was on a channel, even a cappella could create an aura.
In an interview with the media at the Shanghai Summer Music Festival, Tan Dun gave Hanggai a high praise similar to "from management to organization is an international fan", "extremely professional" and "professional".
He made it clear that because classical music and rock 'n' roll techniques are difficult to communicate, it was hard to imagine switching to another band.
"Whether it's work or creative style, Illich has a strong control over the entire band. This does not refer to any system or conscious management, but a mode of interaction that is slowly tempered out of harmony and common rehearsal, to put it simply, it is 'communication is not difficult'. ”
Wen Ning admits that the self-temperament of rock musicians is usually an extension of strong personality, but one of the major consequences of self-talk and non-compromise is that it is easy to bring the band into a fruitless ending.
Hanggai members also have a temper in their bones, and the so-called professionalization is more like the result of being regulated by partners from different countries than self-discipline.
From signing to Dutch agency Earthbeat, to working twice with Canadian producer Bob Azling, who wrote albums for Lou Reed, Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper, Deep Purple and Nine Inch Nails, To the invitations of big-name music festivals like Wakken (the world's largest heavy metal music festival held in Germany), the flowers, birds and finches, sea mules and tolkien mountains hidden in ancient tunes eventually become a globalized collage with distinctive marks, taken by Hanggai to the ends of the world, and through their interpretation, explore the way of interacting with the world.
Wen Ning believes that the biggest gain from frequent review of different cultural and aesthetic standards is that they can find more and more accurate channels to open dialogue: "The freshness of national elements can quickly seize foreign fans, and the configuration of Western musical instruments can give them the opportunity to enter, making them feel that this set of things is still very close to themselves." Art has some similarities, and the key lies in how to express them. ”
On April 7, 2018, at the 2nd World Music Festival in Shuiyun Lixiang, Binzhou, Shandong Province, the Hanggai Band, which served as the finale, pushed the performance to a climax. (Figure/IC)
In 2009, Hanggai's overseas tour shows reached 89 performances. Different from the established cognition of Chinese "gradually getting better", the "World Beat" agent adjusted the order of the program, ranking the most emotional tracks in the first and second places, in order to directly enter the white-hot state at the beginning, so that Ilyich could slowly feel the essence of "starting and turning".
As similar experiences and realizations accumulate to a certain extent, musicians develop qualities to remain composed, relaxed, and focused on various stages – although the image of Mongolian robes with riding boots often sets them apart.
This is to stand on a high place to examine the vision brought by himself, and also let Wen Ning rethink the meaning attached to the commercialization: "When we talk about commercialization now, we should look farther than 'kitsch', 'compromise', 'loss of self'. Let more people know that there are some good works, and at the same time get a return on the benefits, and feed back the creation, which is actually not a bad thing. ”
He places particular emphasis on the comparative mechanism of commercial creation: "You have more and more invitations, ways to hear feedback from the audience, to see what the world's best bands are like, how they perform, how they create, and then grow rapidly." ”
Sing the four seasons of wind, write about sorrow and joy
Hanggai has adapted many traditional Mongolian folk songs, which use sorrow and joy and grassland customs as the theme, and the melody is very simple. / Yang Shuo
At the beginning of the new century, rock musicians Mamur, Wu Junde, Zhang Weiwei, and Zhu Xiaolong, who lived in the Huoying area of Beijing's North Fifth Ring Road, approached Iliqi one after another to inquire about a two-voice singing method called "Humai" in traditional Mongolian music.
Aside from getting a vague answer from his father that "there really is such a thing," Illich knew very little about it. In an oral account, he recorded the shock when he first listened to Humai: "At first I thought it was a person playing the flute, and later said that this is not a flute, this is the sound of people... How can a man make such a sound? ”
When Huun-Huur-Tu, Yat-Kha and the artist Sainkho Namtchylak swept Europe and the United States with their Humai singing, singing and dancing on the steppe were only occasionally seen in Yoshimitsu's life.
It was the 1990s, and his sister Irina was selling mouth tapes in Wudaokou, and the family was full of Tang Dynasty, Black Panther, and various European and American rock albums that could not be named by the band.
Similar to many rock "old guns", Hangai Band Leader Ilyich embarked on the road of rock and roll by listening to European and American DS. / Mick Haupt
By 1999, the siblings had become bassists for the girl punk band "Hanging on the Box," and A T-9, a band that mimicd the American rap metal band Rage Against Machine. On the question of "how to start playing rock'n' roll", Illich gave the same answer as many "old guns".
The turning point began with those inquiries about Humai. After learning from a friend that the Mongolian scholar Bartel Ao Du Su Rong had started a class in Inner Mongolia to teach Humai, he took a train to Hohhot. When he left school three weeks later, he was called "my best student" by Ao Du Su Rong.
At the same time, Ilyich began to go out to collect a large number of tapes of old Mongolian songs from old video stores, and recorded the parts of himself that he thought were classics on the DVD player.
From the time of the release of the EP "Please Fix", he has been brewing to get out of the state of imitating the "violent resistance machine" and find a route that truly belongs to him. The singing he heard in the pastoral area and at Ao Du Su Rong provided him with the most important guidance—the rough, primitive power they exuded did not pay much attention to technique and embellishment.
Later, there was the "180-degree turn" in the mouth of music critic Li Wan: the rap metal band T-9 was reborn and became the original Mongolian national band Hanggai.
Ilyich hugged Tao Bushuer's "Hairan Hairan", "Hometown Mountain", and "Hanggai" that caused the industry to argue about its style - "new folk music" or "world music", their silhouettes and emotions are in line with those long tones, short tones and small tunes that have unknown origins but bear witness to the four seasons, sad and happy clutches.
In any case, Hangai has become a phenomenon, a sample. Ao Deng toya, a young writer and initiator of the "Mongolian Music Map" project, believes that Hanggai is the only band in China that can not only win the popularity of the independent music market, but also gain the recognition and praise of mainstream music.
With the distinctive bands of Hanggai, Anda, HAYA and Jiubao as the support point, Chinese Mongolian music is gradually entering a state of "flourishing".
Illich felt that folk songs were a natural outpouring of emotion, not limited to form and function. /LucasFZ70
However, the folk songs in Illich's understanding are not a static, closed system composed of pure cultural heritage:
"It does not stick to a specific form, may serve propaganda, may be born out of the big social trend, in the final analysis, or the natural outpouring of emotions, contrary to this basic attribute, the song is naturally eliminated in the process of dissemination."
Therefore, when discussing Hangai or Mongolian music in the current context, Ilyich never came to a conclusion. From Ordos to Korqin, he said, the rich, subtle variations in Mongolian singing could not be clearly defined or visible in a few bands.
The only thing that is certain is that after the indiscriminate bombardment of "steppe style pop songs", this generation of Mongols hopes to return to a relatively simple state, and the Internet offers more choices and collisions. "In such a good era, don't be limited by style."
After coming out of the "steppe style pop song", this generation of Mongolians prefers to enter a relatively simple state, and the Internet has provided them with relatively diverse choices. /Luz Mendoza
This article was first published in New Weekly No. 545
✎ Author | Lu Nan
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