A Moving Sound’s performances are hard to categorize, but easy to enjoy.
The group’s music draws from an eclectic mix of sounds including traditional Taiwanese and Aboriginal music, African drumming and Middle Eastern melodies, while co-founder Mia Hsieh’s (謝韻雅) mesmerizingly agile vocals and dance movements, both choreographed and improvised, are attention grabbing.
Fresh from a well-received European tour this summer, the group is celebrating the release of its latest CD with two shows tomorrow at Red House Theater (紅樓劇場).
As with A Moving Sound’s previous two albums, Starshine displays a penchant for blending ethnic folk music from across the world into accessibly modern songs. Fans can expect more intensity this time around.
“I think this CD has a larger, wider range of emotions,” said Scott Prairie, Hsieh’s husband and collaborator who co-founded the group in 2001. “The joy is more high and the dark is more dark.”
Because of this, Prairie says Starshine was the hardest of A Moving Sound’s albums to make. As both the band’s producer and main songwriter, he found it a challenge to draw more “breadth and depth” from the group’s backing musicians.
It was not an easy task to take an erhu (二胡) player, a guitarist and percussionist — all accomplished musicians in jazz and Chinese classical music — out of “their comfort zones.”
“It was like a free fall [for them],” said Prairie. He sums up his approach to recording and composing: “Here’s the feeling I want, and I want you to go into your own emotions and meet me in this story.”
The results came, but perhaps not without the degree of introspection that Prairie also encourages as a painting teacher. “For me, that’s what makes it meaningful. That’s why we do the art,” he said.
The new album has more “spiritual” elements than the group’s previous work, which Prairie says he and Hsieh have increasingly embraced in their music as they get older and the band evolves. The title track is inspired by the concept of incarnation and contains an eerie Buddhist chant, while An Appearance has an ethereal, meditative feel.
In the CD liner notes, Prairie writes: “The music is the result of a deep commitment to an artistic practice intertwined with spiritual practice ... it comes from a surrender to life and a willingness to be transformed.”
This is also why he enjoys live performances. “[Hsieh and I] think of the creative process as a precious, life-giving thing. So then, a show is a chance to give people a taste, a dose, of this energy and encourage them to find it in their life,” he said.
“I feel like we give good energy. We like to connect to the audience. I feel like we have something that is quite beneficial to people ... part of our intention with art is to open people, to encourage people.”
Tomorrow’s performances promise to be festive events, showcasing a large cast of musicians and performers. Guest artists from Starshine will make appearances, including Janelle Chang (張宜蓁), who plays the satar (薩塔琴), a bowed instrument commonly used in Uighur music, and a group of backing singers and dancers who also work with Hsieh on her own choreography projects.
Also appearing at the show is a fire dancer (who will use LED lights in deference to Red House Theater’s safety rules) and DJ Xuan (劉軒), formerly known as SL, who will improvise using Hsieh’s live vocals.
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