Over the past 20 years, hip hop and electronic music cultures have flowed --often in underground channels-- between the U.S. and China. From The Wu-Tang Clan to Rap of China, the influence of this music on mutual perceptions the two countries is immense. The exchange of music has accelerated with the availability of digital tools that allow anyone to create, remix, and share music with the world. Through this process, the remix, sample, ‘beat’ have become the lingua franca of cultural interaction between young musicians in China and America.
Found Sound China, an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, produced by Bang on a Can’s Found Sound Nation in partnership with China Residencies and Lijiang Studio, is building on this cultural momentum, and adding a much-needed element of personal “offline” connection. From July 1st to July 29, 2018, six talented young music producers -- three from China and three from the USA -- will come together to collaboratively creative original music, revealing the potential of digital music-making to explore the deepening connections between Chinese and American culture in 2018. For one month, these musicians will live and travel together through different regions of China while recording and remixing local sounds.
This year’s six fellows and six finalists were selected by a jury consisting of 5 musicians, residency curators, and educators: Kira Simon-Kennedy, Jeremy Thal, Wei Wei, Jason Hou, and Eddie Lu.
生于云南丽江，纳西族作曲与电子音乐人。上海音乐学院作曲与作曲技术理论专业硕士学位，作品涉及：艺术歌曲、合唱、室内乐和管弦乐等体裁。现主要以纳西语、Field Recording和合成器为主要的三个元素进行电子乐创作和即兴演出, 风格涉及Musique Concrète、噪音和Drone。
Yao is an electronic musician of Naxi descent, born in Lijiang, Yunnan. She graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music with a Master’s in Theory and Composition. She composes art songs, choral music, and chamber music. She is currently experimenting with combining her native Naxi language, field recording, and synthesizers to create an improvised live performance in the vein of Music Concrète, Noise, and Drone.
sususu是一名90后音乐爱好者，创作人，制作人，和beatmaker。音乐历程源自中学时期组建乐队，后毕业于RMIT音乐产业系。他对音乐的理解是，采样艺术好比其他的模拟信源，个人对乐器都可以有自己的演绎方式，正如个人对声音信号都可以有自己的编辑手法。他喜欢在创作过程中夹杂采样及软件内合成的音色。
sususu is a 90’s music fanatic, all-around creative, producer, and beatmaker. He began playing music when he formed a band in middle school, and later went on to major in Music Business in college. His believes that the art of sampling is just as expressive as analog sound-making, as it allows each individual can express themselves uniquely. His creative process often combines the intricacies of production software with sampling and synthesis.
中国独具特色的多身份音乐人，既是歌者也是声音的捕捉者。她用音乐创造自己独一无二的宇宙，永远在探索创造的不同可能性。
A unique Chinese artist that wears many hats and refuses to be categorized, ChaCha sees herself as a collector of song and sound. She uses music to create her own one-of-a-kind universe, constantly pushing the limits of musical possibility. In 2017, she released a full-length album under her alter-ego Faded Ghost, called “Moon Mad”. The album drew from samples from her travels around the world over a period of 5 years, influenced in particular by Southeast/South Asian sounds and culture.
Jamel Mims (Jam No Peanut) is a New York City-based rapper, interactive media artist, and revolutionary bringing trap music and technology to the fight against mass incarceration and state terror. In 2008, Jam No Peanut was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study hip hop culture in China, and produced the multimedia ethnography, The Misdadventures of MC Tingbudong. Jam No Peanut's internationalist politics and experience in China resonate in his music, as he switches between english and mandarin in politically charged verses.Born and raised in Washington DC, but known in NYC as the ‘Ratchet Revolutionary', his work in music, technology, education and activism has been featured in the New York Times, The Nation,VICE, XXL, Complex, and more.
Jamel Mims (Jam No Peanut) 是来自DC和纽约的rapper, 多媒体VR艺术家，还有教育家，利用音乐表达他对美国社会的学问想法。2008年，他透过相当知名的Fulbright奖学金，在北京主力一年专门研究中国的嘻哈文化。它深深的被在中国的经验所影响。可以同时用双语饶舌，也常常把世界各地的文化融入在他的音乐里。Jamel的作品曾经被New York Times, The Nation,VICE, XXL, Complex等等媒体报告。
Kayla Briët is a 21-year-old artist exploring themes of identity in multiple mediums of storytelling: film, music, and virtual reality. In 2016, she directed, edited, and scored her short documentary, "Smoke That Travels," which immerses viewers in her native Prairie Band Potawatomi heritage and explores fears that her culture may someday be forgotten. Through intimate live performances, she shares stories through wave-like vocals and live looping — mixing electronic beats with the strings of a Chinese guzheng zither and blending influences from her Chinese/Dutch-Indonesian heritage. In an experiment to preserve memories and emotions we humans project onto objects, she is currently creating a room-scale VR time capsule called "Trove." Her work has been exhibited by the Smithsonian Institute, the White House, MoMA, National Geographic, PBS, film festivals, and recently, Kayla was named a 2017 TED Fellow, Adobe Creativity Scholar, Oculus Launchpad Artist, and a Sundance Film Festival Ignite Fellow.
Kayla Briet是一位21岁的艺术家。她同时在个中不同的世界发挥他的想象力：电音，音乐，和VR.2016年她自己坐立一部叫”Smoke That Travels”,关于她美国印地安血统的电影 - 自导，后制，和配乐。现场演出时，Kayla会把人声，古筝，和loop效果，结在一起。他的音乐也被她中国，印尼，还有荷兰的血统所影响。她目前在探索VR的可能性，特别为了表达人类对物质世界的情绪化。为了这个计划，他设计了一个想时光机器的VR空间，叫做”Trove”. Kayla的作品又在非常多的场面出现：Smithsonian Institute, the White House, MoMA, National Geographic, PBS, TED. Sundance Film Festival,等。
Travon Henry, aka "eu-IV" is a beatmaker, photographer, and painter, born and raised in Baltimore, MD. His production style blends classic off-kilter J Dilla beats, the west-coast acrobatics of Knxwledge, and the psychedelic R&B of Frank Ocean, while staying rooted in the vibrant Baltimore underground scene. With almost 20,000 followers on soundcloud, he's established himself as an up-and-coming hip hop producer, collaborating with vocalist Claire Reneé, Austin Bey, and Fly Anakin. As part of the collective label Flow-Fi (and independently), he has released four far-reaching projects: Pearl, Close Your Eyes, Supernova and SHINELIKETHESUN.
Travon Henry (eu IV) 是一个来自美国东岸Baltimore的beatmaker(音乐制作家），摄影师,和画家。eu IV的音乐风格合成J Dilla的鼓和节奏，Knxwledge的想象力，还有Frank Ocean的魅力，同时也代表Baltimore独特的地下音乐。他的作品已经相当出名 - 他的Soundcloud有两万个粉丝，而他也有跟Claire Reneé, Austin Bey, and Fly Anakin合作。到此为止，他和他的独立音乐组织Flow-Fi一起除了四张专辑：Pearl, Close Your Eyes, Supernova and SHINELIKETHESUN。
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We received 134 applications, and want to thank all of those who share their work with us, especially the six outstanding producers who made it to the final round in the application process:
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The program begins with a week at Lijiang Studio, an artist residency on a Naxi family farm the mountains of northern Yunnan province, where the fellows will exchange musical techniques and approaches, lead workshops for locals, and collaborate with traditional Yunnanese musicians. The opening residency is followed by a two-week period of travelling, where Chinese and American fellows are paired up and travel to separate Chinese provinces to collect sounds, conduct street performances, and run mobile recording sessions. Found Sound Nation’s friends and partners in various areas of China will serve as local hosts and guides during this portion of the program, and include a Traditional Music Department at an Inner Mongolian University and a nonprofit working with nomadic people near the Tibetan border. The program will end with a week of post-production and performances in Beijing, where the fellows will process their experiences and consolidate them into an album, to be finalized and released through Found Sound Records in late 2018.
In our hyper-connected world, musical collaboration is increasingly conducted over the internet. There is no doubt that all of the fellows this year are well-versed in the uninhibited digital music trade which occurs over streaming platforms, web forums, and P2P networks -- these are every musicians’ go-to distribution tools in this day and age. Although music experienced through the internet offers rare glimpses into the cultures and values of different societies, more often than not, it leads to misinterpretations due to a lack of context. Found Sound China’s goal is to confront the fellows with the challenge of in-person, site-specific collaboration to inspire genuine human interaction amidst the noise and funk of the analog world.