Progressive world music combo, A Moving Sound (聲動劇場) will be giving local fans a taste of its exciting new sound in the coming weeks before jetting off in mid-September to participate at world music festivals in the US and Canada.
Founded by US national Prairie and his Taiwanese wife Mia Hsieh (謝韻雅) in New York in 2001 the art-house-style performance group first began to wow local audiences with its rich audiovisual performances, ethnic harmonies and highly distinctive and original vocal techniques in mid-2003.
Since the release of its debut album Pacu's Trip last year -- an album that was later re-released under the title Little Universe by TCM -- the combo and its highly distinctive hybrid sound has received rave reviews from some of the world's leading world music publications and critics.
PHOTO COURTESY OF DU HUEI-LIAN
Far Side Music, which is considered by many to be the top English language authority on the Asian contemporary music scene called the combo's eclectic sound "compelling stuff."
And after A Moving Sound performed at the Galapagos Art Space in New York last year the venue's art director described the show as "one of the most joyous musical experiences ... I have had the pleasure to program." This fall the group is the focus of an article in the widely read world music publication Global Rhythm.
Over the past six months Moving Sound has parted a little from its more global-oriented roots and has undergone a musical transformation.
Prairie, Hsieh, drummer Wu Cheng-chun (吳政君) and erhu player Lo Tang-hsuan (羅堂軒) have spent the past half year experimenting with and incorporating more traditional Taiwanese and Chinese music into their music.
"We've been focusing on Taiwan and the many different influences and aspects of its' music. Through this we've been able to develop and I think we've become clearer about [the music's] esthetic center," Prairie said. "As a composer I feel that the music is more sophisticated and richer."
He added the group's adoption of more localized forms of music will also be evident in the visual aspects of the group's performances. Hsieh's mesmerizing dance routines will, along with featuring elements of Chinese opera, also incorporate martial arts movements and rudiments of traditional oriental dance.
Although A Moving Sound will be giving local audiences a taste of its new audio-visual self in the coming weeks, the group is busy preparing for its upcoming festival performances in the US and Canada. It will perform at three festivals and hold a one-off performance at the New York Cultural Center. The largest of the dates is an appearance at the World Music Festival Chicago, where it will be opening for French act Nouvelle Vogue.
"It's a big deal for us. We're the first Taiwanese act to have been invited to perform at the festival," Prairie said.
A Moving Sound can be caught in the act in Dansui tomorrow afternoon when it performs at the Taiwan Colors Music mini-music festival, which will take place at Fisherman Wharf from 3pm 10pm. The group's final Taipei performance, before it jets off to the US and Canada, will take place on Thursday, Sept. 8 at the Riverside Cafe (
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s