More Beijing "Sound Artists"

One of the most enjoyable CDs I’ve found on the shelves in Beijing record stores recently is Favorite Beijing Sounds, a collection of indisputably Beijing sounds compiled by self-described “sound artist” Peter Cusack.

 

The British field recording maestro came to China last year as part of Sound And The City, a sound art project funded by the British Council. Described by the Council as “leading UK sound artists,” Cusack and six fellow Brits - Brian Eno, David Toop, Clive Bell, Scanner, Kaffe Matthews and Robert Jarvis - “were invited to create new work inspired by the civic sound environments” in four Chinese cities. Crowded and noisy, Chinese cities seem to be breeding a new wave of sound art - see my earlier post on French sounds collector Laurent Jeanneau. What's different about Sound And the City is that locals in Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, and Guangzhou were invited to describe their favourite sounds before the men and their mics went and recorded them.

 

“Many of those favourite sounds are ambient ones, less and less frequently heard as Chinese society changes at its current ferocious pace,” says the British Council in an introduction to the project in a new book. Run by the British Government (rather profitably in China, where it also runs English proficiency exams) the British Council lately came up with the cash for a fine 200 page English/Chinese book that comes with two CDs of recordings made by Cusack et al.

 

Sound And The City “speaks to the general public, not the selected public,” local sound artist Yan Jun told a wine and crackers reception at Timezone 8 arts bookstore on Jiu Xian Qiao Lu in Beijing’s industrial-chic 798 gallery zone. “They invite us to listen again to our own cities and our lives,” said Yan Jun, whose own electronic and ambient CDs sell next to Cusack’s Beijing Sounds in the Sugar Jar, purveyors of indie and avant garde music in the 798 district.

 

Aside from the collaborative box set, Cusack, 58, seems to have gotten a very tidy side-project out of his Beijing trip. He edited, and recorded most pieces of (the rest were recorded by local students volunteers and artists). The CD is in the spirit of an earlier Cusack brainchild, Your Favourite London Sounds (2001). Beijing sounds include the mutterings of tourists as the national anthem is played during the flag raising ceremony at Tienamen Square. There's also the familiar rattle of the city's knife sharpeners, bicycle-mounted tradesmen who shout and shake a metal rattler as they pedal through the city's neighbourhoods.

Back home in London, Cusack initiated the 'Your Favourite London Sound' project that aims to discover what Londoners find positive in their city's soundscape, an idea that has been repeated in other world cities including Beijing and Chicago. Cusack earlier produced 'Vermilion Sounds' a monthly environmental sound program on ResonanceFM radio, London, and currently lectures on 'Sound Arts & Design' at the London College of Communication.

The sound artist, who plays guitar and bazouiki in his down time, likes to get out of the city too. Areas of “special sonic interest” which he’s rubbed up the right way with his mic include Lake Baikal in Siberia -"Baikal Ice.” For 'Sounds From Dangerous Places' he recorded soundscapes of sites of major environmental damage, such as Chernobyl, Azerbaijan's oil fields. To get his recordings he's also boated along controversial dams on the Tigris and Euphratees rivers in south east Turkey.