(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.

(Übersetzung folgt) 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.

(Übersetzung folgt) This upcoming Wednesday, Datscha Radio will focus on issues of field recording, farming and life in the village. The sound mapping artist Wu Tsan Cheng will be my studio guest and will present a selection of some of his finest field recordings.

A trip to Yilan sprouted a talk and/or audio walk with the performance artist and gardener Yang Hauyu. And we will explore life in the village a bit further, featuring fruit wine recipes and a guided walk introducing some of the historical trees in Treasure Hill. Last but certainly one of the highlights will be a talk with the villages’s oldest inhabitant, Mr. Hu – first photo above – , who is also a passionate singer. Translations by Catherine Lee, director of Treasure Hill Village.
And we’ll close the show with a vocal bouquet of Karaoke songs, recorded on the 26th of January.

Time: 3 pm (Taipei time); 8am (Berlin time)
Date: 30th of Janurary
Location: Treasure Hill Artist Village, Studio 4-4

All of this is still in the making, so changes in the schedule might occur.

The day started with an expedition into the audio equipment world of Taipei: A broadcast-compatible second microphone was missing. To cut a long story short: Hero of my day was a young man called Wu Weida who led me from one Hi-Fi shop to another and finally to a stand in a market hall where I happily acquired the item.

Here come come pictures from our broadcast. The day was overcast and slightly fresh, therefore I decided not to move onto the terrace but stay inside my living room. Radios were tucked to nearby trees and marquees, and the scent of the freshly bought tuberoses wafted through the air.

Mabel Wang’s and Eli Liang’s musical inserts were a highlight. Both are trained musicians and the pieces they played belonged to the lore of traditional Taiwanese music. I still feel honored.

THAV’s managing officer Charlotte explained in her talk how the village of Treasure Hill evolved. The artist village has hosted more than 500 artists since 2002. Meanwhile different people flock in and out of the studio: THAV’s new interns and artist’s friends mostly.

The Italian ethnographer and artist Gabriele came with Ping, a puppeteer. She brought a youtube list of Taiwanese flower songs, some from the early 40ies, some more like 80ies. The flower in the culture here is always always a symbol for the female… many songs speak of flowers “in the rain”, “at night”, falling petals, or the other way around, of coming to bloom.

Ping’s DJ-set was followed by another concert by Mabel and Eli, and the recording of an interview with the Thai poet Rewat Panpipat who lives next door and is the only other artist resident from abroad in this village. All the time I was glad to find that our little radios outside picked up perfectly the transmitter signals. And evidently also the streaming radio worked :)
The broadcast closed with the give-away of the “radio carrots” to the artists and a sip (or two) of fine whiskey. Which makes me think of the fruit wines being manufactured by Cassandra, one of the local artists next door. But that’s already for the next broadcast.

More pictures will follow here, bear with me,

Große Hilfe erfuhr ich gestern für das Einsprechen der neuen Jingle:)
(Die Schrift im Bild, “Hua yuan dian tai“, bedeutet übrigens „Radio im Garten“.)

Mein Dank geht hier (v. r nach l.) an Yi-Chun Liu/Lily, Mabel Wang, Ming-Chun Cheng/Charlotte und Alice, die gemeinsam eingesprochen haben. Und selbstverständlich an Catherine Lee, Leiterin des Künstlerresidenzprogramms Treasure Hill Village, für ihre wundervolle Unterstützung. Catherine erklärte auch, dass „Datscha“ im Chinesischen ziemlich genau so klingt wie „Los geht’s“. Eine zusätzliche Aufnahme verschaffte uns der Manager für die Logistik, Yi-Wei Tsai, der “Datscha Radio Taipei” mit einem beeindruckendem Lacher einleitete…

Tracks sind sehr bald online!