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/

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 music in 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 Lin, Chien Yen (aka Jeremy Lynn), 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”. “The Tree 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.

Last week, it took me three hours of travel across the city in order to purchase a heavyweight black lump labeled transformer. The result was – finally – a flawless rendering of our microphones in use. I hope you noticed! In case you haven’t because your didn’t listen to Datscha Radio’s second broadcast from Taipei, here comes a quick summary.

Wu Tsan Cheng must be inevitably known as soon as you click on aporee’s sound map of Taiwan. And it is not by the sheer number of recordings uploaded there that would be a phenomenon by itself, even more exciting is the artful quality of his field recordings. I was lucky enough to have him as my first guest and our talk dealt with his extensive work, the „semi-natural“ intricacies of field recording and introduced some (not enough!) of his pieces.

In preparation of this second show I had spent two nights in the city of Yilan, an hour of bus ride away from Taipei, to meet the artist and farmer Yang Hauyu. We went to his family’s farm and had a long talk about the ways in which organic farming (which is not so usual in Taiwan) and artistic work can convene. An excerpt of this talk was broadcast and the subsequent degustation of homemade rice wine led to reading of a (truly spirit-induced) rice wine poem written by my neighboring resident Rewat Panpipat.

This formed a felicitous transition to the next live guest, Pi Erny. Erny is the son of Cassandra, one of the micro-loft artists here, and he is specialized – despite his young age – in the manufacturing of fruit wines. His favorite is wine made from the dragon fruit (Pitaya). It has a deep red color and a very sweet and slightly tangy taste. He also brought some plum wine to savor: Best I ever tasted so far!

Absolutely noteworthy in all these talks with Taiwanese artists and guests is the translation support rendered by Charlotte/Ming Chun of the THAV’s office who generously helped out with her proficiency whenever words went missing! Thank you, Charlotte!

A prerecorded talk with enchantingly lively Mr. Hu, the eldest inhabitant of the village, followed. 50 years ago, Mr Hu came over from the mainland as a soldier to stay here with the much more peaceful mission of building his own house, starting a family and dedicating himself to studies of ancient Chinese history and song lore. This very special occasion had been facilitated by Ms Catherine Lee, director of TAV, who also translated for me.

Meeting Mr. Hu occurred within the frame of the villager’s feast that same evening, on the 26th of January. Every two months, the THAV staff, the artists and the local residents meet for a festivity that involves plenty of food and plenty of Karaoke singing. Consequently (since I recorded some of this), the remaining time of the broadcast was filled with the tunes of popular Taiwanese songs.