Stop for a moment, close your eyes and just listen. Do you hear the music?
If you can, then you're caught the spirit of the musicians who will be
playing at the practice studio with the name that translates oddly as Fine
Malt Brewed Studio (麥芽精釀Studio) in Taichung tomorrow. For the sake of
experimentation, a group of artists will be tossing out melodies, harmonies,
verses, choruses and all the other elements associated with pop music, to
see what kind of disturbance they can create. Consider it an explicit
attempt to subvert popular musical composition and allow what would
typically be called environmental static to become music, in the tradition
of Steve Reich, Philip Glass and Brian Eno.
The organizers, who also run the studio, are careful not to bill the show as
an ambient electronica concert or noise performance. There will be noise and
there will be electronic gadgets used to make most of the music, but as a
whole it won't fit nicely in either category. Instead, the musicians will be
involved in creating atmosphere through the manipulation of sound, which can
be jarring and unpleasant until someone, like Steve Reich, does it well and
then it's practically an out-of-body experience.
Playing at the show will be several experimental music outfits who have
played at Spring Scream, including trippy ambient musician Jarrol (甲若) and
PHI. Other performers include Noise Steve and Wang Fuirui (王福瑞), the man
behind Taiwan's Noise label.
The concert begins at 8pm and goes until 3am. Tickets cost NT$200 in advance
and NT$300 at the door. Fine Malt Brewed is located at B1, 125 Mei-hsi St.,
Taichung (台中市美西街125號B1).
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