The generation of waste is the most distinctive trait of human civilisation, and it is increasingly threatening the environment we depend on. Datscha Radio’s final broadcast presented once more a wide spectrum of artists and participants, of tales and talks, of sonic transmissions and subterranean secrets.

Starting with Taiwan’s probably best known tune, “For Elise” by Beethoven, that is being used as the “trash car anthem” we pondered over the benefits of Taiwan’s municipal garbage collecting system. Because, unlike in Europe, there are no bins in the backyards and there are only very few public waste bins to be found in the streets. Instead, on 5 out of 7 days a week, trash cars roam the streets under the wail of this popular tune and signalling by this that it is time to take the trash out _ already sorted into paper, plastic, food leftovers and other.

Among other things, it was also pointed out by Margaret Shiu (Bamboo Curtain Studio) how this mode of trash collection exerts a considerable influence onto neighbourly relations: “It is also a time to meet your neighbour, a chance to address personal affairs, to get to know the rhythms of your environment”.

Yet, all well meant efforts are doomed to failure if the sorting of plastic waste becomes just to complicated for the citizens. J.K. Wang with his background in engineering, explained about various kinds of plastic and the current problems of re- and down-cycling. Is plastic really so inevitable that we have to content with its (re)use as a resource? How much hygiene do we really need when it comes to the packing of vegetable and fruits?

The weather, by the way, on that day was quite horrible. It had rained for three days in a row, and because more participants than usual were expected, the Datscha Radio moved to the “Cross Gallery”. So we sat under a polyethylene roof, our feet in puddles, our jackets for most part zipped up unto our chins. True radio gardeners!

Would you know, for example, that the Romans worshiped not only a Goddess of Waste called “Caca” but also a Goddess of the Sewers that went by the name of Cloacea? “CloaceaGardenMix” was the name of a compilation of sewer recordings made by Serge Onnen and introduced by Mark van Tongeren, and Mark’s spontaneous improvisation of an imaginative prayer song for Cloacea was a definitive highlight of this show!

Scheduled for the show were also four selected pieces submitted by the open call, yet, as the discussion among the guests was very lively, only one found its way into transmission: Chelidon Frame’s “Left Blank” which is based on (processed) recordings of empty bottles.

A couple of days earlier I had the occasion to make an interview with the French nature recordist Yannick Dauby. “When you bend down 200 times a day you start thinking differently about waste” was a 24 min excerpt of that talk.

With  Datscha Radio’s focus on sound art two other waste-related  topics arose. One concerned possible parallels between noise and/or audio waste and practices of collecting, recycling and/or discarding. The other dealt with the issue of noise pollution.

“Sonic Garbage Collection” was one of the pieces specifically made for this broadcast, a prerecorded improvisation by the anthropologist Gabriele de Seta and Lu Yi, the assisting artist to Fuyui Wang of Soundwatch. This was followed by a short presentation of two works by Fujui, one of them a most filigrane recording of a signal loop inside a light bulb (“Sound Bulb”). Since the artist wasn’t present at that time, Wu Tsancheng (featured in DRT’s #2 broadcast) and Mark’s musician friend Lee Szu Tung, introduced this pioneer of Asian electronic music in their own words.

Fujui Wang, who is the Head of the Trans-Sonic Lab for Art and Techology Center of the  Taipei National University of the Arts, joined us about an hour later, together with Lu Yi and we were able to catch up on the planned interview.

Meanwhile, the sun had set… and it was time for two longer pieces that would allow us to stretch our legs, have some drinks and chat. “The Dog That Licked Up A Star” by myself was a composition based on short wave snippets and field recordings made in the province of Hengchun. It came with my classic “Handbag Performance”. (Later on I was told by Lu Yi, that performers in Taiwan do never present their work in such a casual way. Rather they are expected to take on a “harsh” and dominant posture… )

The final piece played had been conceived of  by the composer, DJ and musician Ken Yu from Yilan. Hauyu Yang had made a short interview with him and afterwards we listened attentively to “Sea Waste 7.0”, a 17 min track based on the feeling of shock and disgust that the artist struck when he recently found himself walking among the plastic debris of the Yilan shore. 

Forecast Sunday, 10^th of March

On this six and last broadcast Datscha Radio Taipei will focus on the theme of waste. “Waste Culture” will discuss issues of Taiwanese waste management and recycling. It will explore our notions of garbage, trash, waste and debris. This will be done in the shape of talks and music, performance and field recording.

I am happy to welcome live at Datscha Radio, the founder and artistic director of the Bamboo Curtain Studio, Margaret Shiu, the Dutch sound and voice artist Mark Van Tongeren and the Yilan artist, farmer and performer Yang Hauyu.  Together we will explore the “wastelands” of our contemporary civilization in conjunction with an interview with the field-recording artist Yannick Dauby who describes the havoc caused by plastic waste on the shores of the Taiwan archipelago of Pescadores. Moreover, there will be a visit by the duo of Soundwatch, the artist Lu Yi and Fujui Wang one of t h e pioneers of experimental music in Asia. We’ll play two selected pieces by Fujui Wang and a compositon especially prepared for this last episode of DRT by Lu Yi and Naturalismo (aka Gabriele de Seta): Sonic Garbage Collection. :)

I am also very happy and proud to be able to include the specifically for “Waste Culture” produced piece “Sea Waste 7.0” by the Yilan composer, DJ and musician Ken Yu into the broadcast as well as selected submissions of Datscha Radio’s open call “Trash”. Last but not least, I willperform of my new radiophonic piece “The Dog That Licked Up A Star” as an integral part of this final show – this will happen at some given moment after 6 pm.

As the planning for this show is still in the making, all content is subject to possible changes

Datscha Radio Taipei wants to make this afternoon special, as it is the last show in a series of six. Guests and visitors, performers, musicians, artists and friends, please come and enjoy and celebrate with us: Waste Culture!

Bring your radios, don’t bring any plastic items with you, bring instead some (recycled) Taiwanese (!) music: Make Radio not Waste J

Food and drink will be provided for by courtesy of THAV.

Studio Guests: Margaret Shiu, Mark van Tongeren, Hauyu Yang, Lu Yi and Fujui Wang (Soundwatch)
Interview (pre-production): Yannick Dauby: “When you bend down 200 times a day you start thinking differently about waste”
Radio Art Specials:
“Sonic Garbage Collection” by Lu Yi and Gabriele de Seta;
“The Dog That Licked Up A Star” by Gabi Schaffner;
“Sea Waste 7.0” by Ken Yu
Selected Compositions: Fernando Laub, Chelidon Frame, Tomoko Momiyama.

Program

15:00 – 15:20
Introduction of guests, listening to first open call piece or other

15:20 – 16:00
Discussion I waste management policy in Taiwan and elsewhere (Shiu, van Tongeren, Hauyu Yang) + open call piece,

16:00 – 16: 20 Yannick Dauby. Interview (excerpt)
16:20 – 16:50: Introduction Sound Watch, presentation + live improv + talk
16:50 – 17:20: Discussion II recycling strategies in Taiwan and elsewhere (Shiu, van Tongeren, Hauyu Yang) + open call piece

17:20 – 17:35: Live Insert van Tongeren and/or introduction of Serge Onnen’s work about garbage

17:35 – 18:00 Discussion III (all guests): Earth works: Recipes on Sustainability + Live Insert by Sound Watch

18:00 – 18:20 The Dog That Licked Up A Star. Performance and radiophonic composition by Gabi Schaffner
18: 25 – 19:00: Introduction Ken Yu by Hauyu Yang +

Sea Waste 7.0 by Ken Yu

19:00  – Open end: Your turn! Bring your music…

There is a cluster of stars in the sky that is called The Seven Sisters or Pleiades. Many tales from all over the world relate to that constellation, yet Datscha Radio Taipei has its own stories to tell about the seven lady guests that created a  three-hour radio show titled “Women in the Field” on that 3^rd of March in the Treasure Hill Artist Village.

Huang, Sze-Ting, instrumentalist and composer Liuqin; Huang, Hsuan-Jung (Lori), instrumentalist and composer Pipa; Hsu, Yenting, Sound art composer and installation artist; Liao, Yun-Chan, Director of Common Wealth’s Opinion channel, Ora-Ong Chakorn, publisher and editor, Claire Bushby, artist and curator and Jeng, Cheau-Wen (Berry) , Taipei Culture Foundation (TCF), the Associate Manager at Dept. of Management.

Lori Huang was the first to arrive, bringing her instrument, the pipa,  with her. Shortly after Sze-Ting Huang came, carrying the liuqin, the „little sister of the pipa”, since they are similar in shape but different in size. Lori and Sze-Ting form part of the “Lost Sounds Studio”, an initiative aiming at a balanced communion of traditional and modern music styles in Taiwan.

Our ensuing exchange of experiences, memories and thoughts was channeled into three blocks that were framed either by live instrumentation or compositions presented by the sound and installation artist Hsu Yenting.

A wide range of topics was covered that reached from women’s role models and liberation strategies in the Asian countries  to daughter-parents relationship to the situation of female immigrant workers in Taiwan to contemporary networking modes.  Not all ladies came from Taiwan. The Thai publisher and editor Ora-Ong Chakorn shared her observations about the situation of literary women writers with us, and the Australian artist Claire Bushby, also a former resident of the THAV,  introduced her work #RT_samplr: a cross-stitch tweet project to the audience.

The atmosphere was casual and intimate at the same time. Often we had to swap seats, the mike stand was moved through the room, other visitors peeped in, took photos, left or stayed on to follow the discussion.

Hsu Yenting’s piece “Laundromat” invited us to contemplate on the ambivalence (and maybe outdatedness) of this kind of symbol for women’s work. She also introduced the work of her fellow artist Sheryl Cheung, “Vitality Conversations” as one of the aims of this broadcast lay in not only introducing own compositions/texts but also the work of others.

Our different nationalities, backgrounds and upbringing merged into an ongoing, lively conversation, on the half way spiced up by sharing a small bottle of plum wine. Among the questions that came up was also the one whether there exists a specifically “female” perspective in the arts (in Taiwan) and in which way it may differ from men’s.

The interesting answer to that was the suggestion that men may tent to be more interested in creating artworks that promise “great impact” while women’s works might focus much more about connecting to her environment “from her heart”.

We discussed this and quite a number of further topics for you to listen to on the up-coming podcast on Datscha Radio’s mix cloud archive.  

The end of the broadcast was marked by a 25-minute interview with the nature recordist and writer Laila Fan who is also the director of the Taiwan Soundscape Association which she founded in 2015 –  followed by one of her field recordings:  “Listening by the pond(Menghuan lake) in Yaminshan National Park.

Pieces played:

• Lori Huang: Wu, Hoa-Yuan: Su— After reading Tang Poetry “Pipa Xing”  written by Poet Bai, Ju-yi in 816.

• Sze-Ting Huang: Cuban Oregano（左手香）- Liuquin piece

• Lost Sound Studio (Recording) Osmanthus Alley

Zheng: Yang, Yi-Wei | 古箏：楊懿惟
Zhongruan: Huang, Sze-Ting | 中阮：黃思婷
Pipa: Huang, Hsuan-Jung | 琵琶：黃璿蓉

• Lori Huang + Sze-Ting Huang: Improvisation

• Hsu Yenting: Laundromat (Installation excerpt); Waterland (Documentary excerpt)

• Sheryl Sheung: Vitality Conversations

‘Vitality Conversations’ is an ongoing project that involves interviews with women who respond to the idea of blossom with tales of their own life stories. Fictional and true stories are weaved together into an abstract stream of life energy that serves as soundtrack to an installation of vased flowers illuminated by a looped performance of flowers blooming.

According to a Polynesian legend, the Pleiades once made up a single star: the brightest in the sky. The Polynesian god Tane disliked this star, because it had bragged about its beauty. It’s said the god smashed the star into pieces, creating the Pleiades star cluster. However, we can take many different perspectives now.  There are millions of star sisters in the universe, it is up to us how we connect them into new pattern and imaginations.

For once I don’t have to write this resume all by myself, taking the liberty to link to some facebook comments and images of the lady participants:

Claire Bushby ist hier: Treasure Hill Artist Village. 4. März um 06:28 · Taipeh ·

I had a fantastic afternoon yesterday on Datscha Radio’s “Women in the Field” episode. German sound artist, Gabi Schaffer brought together an incredibly inspirational group of women from Taiwan, Thailand, Germany and Australia. We talked challenges of being a female artist, family expectations, motherhood, sexual harassment #metoo, what our mothers/grandmothers have taught us and so much more!

廖雲章 ist mit Claire Bushby und 4 weiteren Personen unterwegs.

3. März um 21:33 ·

德國🇩🇪藝術家Gabi Schaffner 邀請我到寶藏巖的工作室參加線上直播節目 Datscharadio a garden in the air.

很好玩的在家廣播經驗，一群來自德國、台灣、泰國、澳洲，萍水相逢的女人聊著關於職涯、家庭、社會期望與性別議題（#metoo)。

一邊錄音，一邊喝茶吃東西喝梅酒，比較德國與台灣釀梅酒的作法。

Gabi對現場多數台灣女人都不太做飯很不解，我說：「因為外食比較便宜。」她皺起眉表示不解：「妳這話什麼意思？我們德國窮藝術家不能理解⋯⋯」

她下一題又問：「妳們會從自己的母親那邊繼承家傳口味的食譜嗎？」

我準備跳過這一題，一位音樂家趕緊說：「我很早就離家到外地念書所以沒有機會跟我媽學做飯。」

Gabi繼續追問：「十幾歲離家真的很年輕，妳們都很早離家念書嗎？」

現場另一位女音樂人說：「哦我沒有，」她輕鬆地說：「因為我媽也不太會做飯！」

Vorschau Sonntag 3. März 2019, 3-6pm (Taiwan time)

(Übersetzung folgt) With “Women in the Field”, its fifth episode, Datscha Radio Taipei focuses on the position of women in the contemporary (experimental) Taiwan music and art scene. Studio guests will the sound and installation artist Yenting Hsu who is presently a resident at TAV (Taipei Artist Village) and the duo Huang Sze-Ting and Huang Hsuan-Jung (Lori), who form part of the “Lost Sounds Studio” project.

The broadcast will feature presentations of their work, live music (Liuquin and Pipa) and topic related discussions. A recorded talk with the sound artist, teacher, journalist and radio maker Laila Fan will highlight on aspects of creativity, listening culture and motherhood. Each artist present in the studio is invited to present the work and short bio of a fellow artist, whose compositions will also form part of the show.

Datscha Radio embraces and supports a feminist point of view. “Feminist” does not mean “women first”. Rather this is about a different, non-hierarchic, complex view of the world surrounding us. How does our work relate to this world? What has changed (if) compared to the world our mothers live(d) in? Are there female artist networks in Taiwan? What about the work-life-family balance?

“Women in the Field” wants to share and discuss these topics in the shape of a collective broadcast. A finalized program schedule will be available from the 2^nd of March, 2 pm, on datscharadio.de and on the website of THAV.

Artist Info

Yenting Hsu investigates the cultural context and textures of sounds, her works often reflect the relationship between sounds, environment, individual/collective memory and the surrounding world from an alternative angle. Using field recordings as her primary source material with electronic sounds and objects, Hsu’s exploration contemplates between the narrative and imaginary elements of recorded sounds under the form of audio documentaries, soundscapes, installations, experimental music and performances. She also collaborates extensively with dance theaters.
Website: http://suotsana.net

Laila Fan is a nature sound recordist and writer. She has been recording natural soundscapes since the age of 7, and has dedicated her practice to developing more sensitive and representative methods of listening to the land. In 2013, she launched the Silent Trail Project which promotes the safeguarding of natural soundscapes, and in 2015, the artist founded the Soundscape Association of Taiwan which invites national sound recordists to contribute to this effort.

Lost Sound Studio

The notion behind “Lost Sounds” is to use music as a medium to communicate with other people or objects. The combination of Zheng, Pipa, Liuqin and Zhongruan not only creates an unforgettable unique sound, it also demonstrates the cleverness and ingenuity of the arrangement. The word “Lost” represents here a quest to  find a balance between traditional instruments and various other musical forms, to unearth the infinite possibilities in the creation of sounds.

Huang Sze-Ting is now studying her master’s degree in multimedia applications at Graduate Institute of Ethnomusicology in National Taiwan Normal University. Huang graduated from Department of Chinese Music, majored in Liuqin. She has been invited to perform in China and Japan since 2011, the sound poetry work Echo has chosen in “ 2015 Taipei Poetry Festival”. Huang Sze-Ting has been working with many artists from different fields such as theater, film and dance.

Hsuan-Jung Huang majored in Pipa when she studied in Tainan National University of the Art. She was invited to go to Hong Kong to perform with Wu-Ji Ensemble in 2013. She also attended the Beijing International Composition Workshopin 2014. Huang won chances to perform her works in “Shuanghsi Music Forum Concert” in 2015, and in “The Combination Concert form TNU&SCU&NTNU” in 2016, etc.

Program (Live music pieces)

1.Cuban Oregano（左手香） – Liuquin piece
This piece is a portray of homesickness . The women occasionally missed her mother planted some Cuban Oregano in the garden.

2.Osmanthus Alley（桂花巷）- Taiwan Movie Theme Song
A melodrama on a women’s fate, the film opens with a sad scene. The lonely fate of this life seems to be destined when she is born, just as her broken palm lines.

The Liuquin（柳琴） is a four-stringed Chinese mandolin with a pear-shaped body.It is small in size, almost a miniature copy of another Chinese plucked musical instrument, the Pipa. The Liuquin is played with a pick with similar technique to both ruan and yueqin, whereas the pipa is played with the fingers.

(Übersetzung folgt) The sky had been overcast since early morning, a breeze chased raindrops through the village and Datscha Radio had to stay inside. The first guest to arrive was the Erhu instrumentalist and music teacher Huang Chen-Chi, who is a prominent member of the Taiwan Chinese Orchestra.

The body of an Erhu consists of wood, and its front side is covered with a piece of snake skin. Along with the chamber it is fastened to, it makes a very expressive, soft, and even harsh timbre depending on the way the player uses the strings and bow. Chen-Chi had come to play three traditional compositions for Erhu on the event of Datscha Radio’s forth broadcast, on the 23rd of February. Along with her came Cathy from the THAV office to help with translation.

There are quite some differences to European violins. First, surely, the python skin. Also, the bow always stays attached to the strings as it is fastened in between to two of them (it’s a two stringed instrument).
Third, there are no frets, so the musician has to rely on her ear and sensitiveness. Forth, the tone changes the deeper you bend the string even without moving the position of the finger. And fifth, the Erhu comes without the hype of master manufacture companies and/or the adoration of old-age exemplars. The score looks very different too, as you can see here. It refers to bowing techniques (inner/outer string), left hand fingering (first, second, third forth finger) and to a complex set of musical interpretations (sliding, plucking, harmonies).

Playing the Erhu is closely connected to the feelings in your heart, says Chen-Chi, and the beauty of it is always borrowed from the soul.

Our conversation was followed by an interview (really only a part of it) I made on the 8th of February with the Bamboo Curtain Studio founder and Artistic Director Margaret Shiu. After sharing a traditional Chinese New Year orange our „Plum Tree Tea Talk“ followed a merrily winding path of conversation: from the founding of the BCS to urban gardening, from making selfies to concepts of natural beauty, from the making of enzymes to worries about Taiwan’s bee population. A third and last piece by Chen-Chi, Horseracing, I found way to short but I had her let to leave as she had students already waiting for her.

Yesterday’s topic of „Species and Environment“ brought in its wake quite a bit of email conversations along. Both, the composer Christine Muyco and her husband, Titus Levi, facilitated contacts to two artists I was happy to feature in the show.

The Japanese, Tokio-based composer Tomoko Momiyama works with human as well as non-human environments to conceive of her works and performances. Often, these are publicly staged concerts with a ritualistic background. For instance, she works with groups of children or indigenous people to develop a collective score and vocals for a given piece.

Meanwhile another studio guest had come inside together with Gabriele de Seta. Rikey Cheng is the chief editor of an online magazine called No Mans Land. We engaged in a conversation about IAS, Invasive Alien Species, pork meat from China and the aster taiwaniensis, a very common plant here in Taiwan … and the first plant that my eyes met when coming to the Artist Village.

Together we listend to Jacki Apple’s piece „The Culture of Disappearance“ from 1991. A seminal radio opera, an incantation of loss, a lament for the lost species of this planet. … and since then, many many more have become extinct: 58 000/year. The work was streamed directly from the website of New American Radio… and that’s where you can find it next to other, no less famous works of her.

My „shop talk“ with Ms Muyco (in search of a „more silent“ place we ended up in shop front of a side street which turned out to be a through road) equipped me not only with a 35 min recording but also with two selected compositions of hers. The long one with the impressing title „Birthings in Liminal Space“ turned out to be a pervasive computer-generated soundscape floating on drones and aural frequencies. The guests had left, the rain conversed with the gutters and night had fallen.

Time for the frogs to come out and chant their melodic choruses. For our listeners and myself this was the first time to appreciate the multi tonal, richly colored choirs of Yannick Dauby’s „Songs of the Frogs in Taiwan“. The three radios put up on the veranda and in the little fir tree by the house resonated with the frog’s voices. While I feared for their functionality, I just couldn’t bring them in before this last part of the broadcast had ended.

Links to the artist’s sites:
Tomoko Momiyama: https://www.tomokomomiyama.com/home-jp-1
Bamboo Curtain Studio/Margaret Shiu: http://bambooculture.com/en/taxonomy/term/2232
Jacki Apple: www.somewhere.org (New American Radio); installation work on “The Culture of Disappearance”
Christine Muyco: https://music.upd.edu.ph/MARIA_CHRISTINE_MUYCO.html
Nomansland: http://www.heath.tw/
Yannick Dauby: http://www.kalerne.net/

Vorschau Samstag, 23^. Februar

(Übersetzung folgt) In episode #4, Datscha Radio Taipei will focus on aspects of environment and species and the arts. A two-part modest introduction (or side text) will accompany this show. As a definitve highlight I am honored to welcome the Erhu instrumentalist HUANG Chen-Chi in the studio. Since she can only stay until 4:20 pm, I advise you to listen from the beginning as she has prepared a very special program for Datscha Radio.

Within the frame of her music you will also be able to listen to an excerpt from my conversation with Margaret Shiu from the Bamboo Curtain Studio, “The Plum Tree Tea Talk”. What is the role of the arts in communicating new perspectives on the environment? How can we include all members of the community? What actions are currently taken by the city council to foster a new kind of awareness?

Another special treat will be a presentation of the work of Japanese composer Tomoko Momiyama. Most of her pieces deal with communication between species and un-animate surroundings.

I am also very happy and proud to be able to include the radio art piece “The Culture of Disappearance” by the American artist Jacki Apple in this upcoming broadcast. This composition was conceived of in 1991 and was then still recorded on tape.

The broadcast will approach its end with an extensive interview with the Philippine composer Christine Muyco.  We talk about invasive species and further environmental perspectives in the Philippines, framed by selected compositions by her. Last but not least, and having already heard quite a bit about frogs, I am delighted to close this show with a selection of Yannick Dauby’s “Songs of the Frogs in Taiwan”. Yannick is presently traveling, but, with a bit of good fortune, he’ll be also present at Datscha Radio’s last show.

Live Concert: Huang, Chen-Chi
Programm:

1. Dance of the Amis Tribe (阿美族舞曲)-using elements of folksong music
2. Singing of Birds Resounds in the Valley (空山鳥語)-Using glissando, which is the crucial skill that makes Erhu sounds special, to make imitation of language or sound effects.
3. Horse Racing (賽馬)-If you have never played or heard this piece, never say you have learned Erhu.

Interview and Talks (Pre-recorded): Christine Muyco, Margaret Shiu, et al
Radio Art Special: “Culture of Disappearance” by Jacki Apple
Selected Compositions: Christine Muyco, Tomoko Momiyama

About the Artists

Huang Chen-Chi:Currently the Principle second Erhu of the Taipei Chinese Orchestra, Huang is an experienced, highly talented young Erhu player who has appeared as soloist with the Orchestra for many times. Her performance is exquisite, shows creativity and freshness and the tone sounds warm and solid.

Her other notable solo appearances include The Sound of Memory (日常尋聲) at the Taipei ZhongShan Hall (2017), Set off at Dawn(天一亮就出發) at the National Concert Hall in Taipei (2013) and Music and Sound(樂兮 鳴兮) at the National Taiwan Normal University (2009).

Huang graduated from the Graduate Institute of Ethnomusicology, National Taiwan Normal University, focusing on performing art and preservation of traditional music of Taiwan. Apart from performing with the Taipei Chinese Orchestra, she is also a lecture in Erhu at the Chinese Culture University and Nanhua University.

The Erhu is a traditional Asian two-stringed instrument that came to China more than one thousand years ago. The Erhu is also a very versatile instrument, being used in both traditional and contemporary music arrangements.

Maria Christine Muyco is Associate Professor 5 of the Composition and Theory Department, College of Music, University of the Philippines. Composed for voice, European instruments like cello  and piano, but also for electronic music, percussion, musical saw. Has been taking part in Festivals and conferences all over the Globe.

Tomoko Momiyama works internationally as a music composer, dramaturg, and producer of multi-disciplinary art events, installations, and performances. She graduated from Stanford University in the U.S. with B.A. in Music and Human Biology and further studied composition at the Royal Conservatory of the Netherlands in The Hague under the Japanese Government Overseas Study Programme for Artists. Tomoko’s works, many of which are community-based and site-specific, have been performed throughout Japan, as well as in different parts of Asia, Europe, North and Central Americas, and Africa.

Margaret Shiu is the founder and artistic director of the Bamboo Curtain Studio. The aim of this artist residency (and garden) lies in facilitating international artist contacts, provide a space for experimental and environment-orientated installations and to foster an ecologic understanding that leads us to a sustainable way of living and creating art. She’ll be our live guest on the 10 of March, but for now, you have to content with a recording.

Jacki Apple is an American artist, writer, composer, producer and educator based in New York City. She has worked in various disciplines such as performance art and installation art. As well as art making, Apple is also a prolific writer, penning over 200 reviews and critical essays on topics such as performance art, media arts, installation art and dance. The Culture of Disappearance series (1991) deals with biological as well as cultural extinction.

The Culture of Disappearance (1991)
A radio “opera” about extinction, and the conditions of loss and denial endemic to industrial and post-industrial society. It is a dirge for the exterminated species of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a grieving. It raises questions about the terms of human survival in a social order that defines us as “separate,” and reveals how those values are manifested in our socio-economic and political relations — i.e., conquest vs. cohabitation, consumption without regeneration. We eradicate cultural memory just as we eliminate species. The sung “mass” of names of the dead from insects to languages is sometimes obliterated by the relentless pounding of machinery. Embedded in the litany are anecdotes of annihilation.

Source: http://www.somewhere.org/

Yannick Dauby explores the soundscapes of Taiwan through field recording, audio documentaries and community projects. Composing electroacoustic music (aka “musique concrète”) and performing improvised music with found objects, analogue devices and digital processing. Creating soundtracks and sound environments for contemporary dance, public art and films. Involved in activities about ecology and local traditional cultures.

http://www.kalerne.net/yannickdauby/field-recordings/

(Übersetzung folgt) Datscha Radio Taipei’s third show went right into the heart of matter with a field recording composition by Gabriele de Seta. Generally, this broadcast on the 15th of February focused on aspects and correlations between the practices of experimental ethnography and listening culture. Our studio guests were be the ethnographer and musician Gabriele de Seta, the Philippine composer Christine Muyco, and Taipei experimental sound art artist Lu Yi (Sound Watch Studio).

Our ensuing conversation took us from a critique of “sonic naturalism” to the role of poetics in ethnography and whether  – and how – it could help us understand a given culture or surrounding (I won’t tell.  You can always listen to the podcast).

Gabriele had brought along with him the Philippine composer professor Christine Muyco and the Taipei artist Lu Yi.

In her career as a long standing composer for voice, field recordings and native as well as Western instruments, Christine has been lately concentrating the issue of invasive species and the environment. Her piece “Pakà” presented a choir of frog sounds  – partly modified…

A most touching piece was “Making Stars”, a choir of women’s voices. Muyco explained her compositional methods when she was trying to find these “highest frequencies” to “make” the stars.

All the while, unobtrusively but consistently accentuating the acoustics of our terrace studio was a petite installation by Lu Yi of “Sound Watch”. A light sensor hidden in a vase sent its signals up to a pair of flowers made from silver wire. As soon as the loudness tripped over a certain points a cluster of diodes lightened up at the core of the petals.

Soundwatch Studio is an experimental DIY music project maintained by one of the pioneers of experimental musicin Asia, Fujui Wang and co-producing  assistant manager Lu Yi.  Lu Yi has her roots in teaching and that’s also the reason for her to engage with community work with children, exploring with them new ways of creating (and hacking) music. Lu Yi is an avowed “noise lover” and she brought along two Buddhist “chanting machines”, both modified by sensors that made them susceptible to changes of light. We had a lot of fun while playing around with these sound machines!

As an interlude to the scheduled “Imagination Game” two Open Call composers/field recordists were introduced: Uli Wienand from Hamburg, Germany, who had contributed personal field recordings from Togo. And the UK composer Peter Barnard who had submitted a filigrane, radiophonic composition titled “Trajectories”.

The Imagination Game followed a very simple setup: On several scraps of paper the name of a country was written and then drawn by lot. After each of us had received his or her “imaginary country”, questions were asked as for the sound world of these places. Meanwhile more visitors had arrived, among them J. K. Wang whom I met by chance on a walk close to Bitan and who proved to be an expert on the topic of waste and recycling. As he will be the prospective live guest of Datscha Radio’s last episode, he came to make to introduce himself, and of course, to take part in the game. Another guest was the photographer #Jam, a friend of Lu Yi.

We returned to another round of experimental music with a duet for hacked Buddhist praying machines by Gabriele and Lu Yi.

By now it was already dark and the flower diodes were flashing excitedly as the instruments whined their intertwined tunes.

The last hour of this extensive show was taken up by two longer pieces (with a short but charming chance piece by Uli Wiegand): “Resounding Bangalore”, a 2017 soundscape I made originally in Bangalore, and an extensive composition by the composer Alessio Premoli, better known under his project name “Chelidon Frame”. “Under The Trees Rain Stops Moments Later”, was the beautiful title of this serene and quiet piece that accompanied us out of the broadcast into the night.

Forecast Friday, 15^th of February 3pm Taiwan time

On this third broadcast Datscha Radio Taipei will focus on aspects and correlations between the practices of experimental ethnography and listening culture. Studio guests will be the ethnographer and musician Gabriele de Seta, the Philippine composer Christine Muyco, and Taipei experimental sound art artist Yu Li (the Sound Watch project)

How is our sound world imprinted by culture? Are there different concepts of nature, noise and silence? How does research look like in the field of sound ethnography? Our broadcast “The Ethnographic Ear” will take up these topics; we’ll play an “Imagination Game” and also introduce the works of selected artists who submitted to Datscha Radios Open Call, spiced up with some traditional Fulao folk songs from Taiwan Island. The broadcast will close with two longer works opposing the spheres of public and private / noise and silence. Times given below are tentative!

15:00 – 15:45
Gabriele de Seta and guests: Introduction of work. Discussion and selected recordings

15:45 – 16:15
Introduction Open Call Works and work Christine Muyco: Funeral songs from Togo/Africa by Uli Wiegand, radiophonic composition “Trajectories” by Peter Bernard. Composition by Christine Muyco

16:15 – 16: 30 Imagination Game. With all studio guests.
16:30 – 16:45: Time for surprise studio guests. Sound Watch acoustic presentation
16:45 – 17:00: Last piece by Gabriele de Seta, closing questions.

17:00 – 17:30: Resounding Bangalore. A sound expedition, by raw audio

17:30 – 18:00 The Tree Rain Stops Moments, by Chelidon Frame

• Date: Fri. 15th FebruaryTime: 3 pm Taiwan (8 am CET)Location: Terrace of Artist Studio 4-4, Treasure Hill Artist Village, Taipei
• Time: 3 pm Taiwan (8 am CET)
• Location: Terrace of Artist Studio 4-4, Treasure Hill Artist Village, Taipei

Gabriele de Seta is a media anthropologist currently based in Taipei, Taiwan. His research work, grounded on ethnographic engagement across multiple sites, focuses on digital media practices and vernacular creativity in East Asian societies. He is also interested in experimental music scenes, internet art, and collaborative intersections between anthropology and art practice. More information is available on his website http://paranom.asia

Maria Christine Muyco is Associate Professor 5 of the Composition and Theory Department, College of Music, University of the Philippines. Composed for voice, European instruments like cello  and piano, but also for electronic music, percussion, musical saw. Has been taking part in Festivals and conferences all over the Globe. Hungary, Brussels, Vietnam, Israel, Japan…

Website: https://music.upd.edu.ph/MARIA_CHRISTINE_MUYCO.html

Additional studio guests will be (prospectively) the Philippine composer the experimental musician Yu Li from the collective Soundwatch. Yu Li will introduce some of the DIY electronic sound gadgets, giving us a foretaste of what we can expect on Datscha Radio’s final broadcast on 10th of March.