elsewhere
Menú del día: Interview by South China Morning Post
“Hong Kong’s contemporary percussion group, The Up:Strike Project, will be putting this same idea into practice next month at the city’s New Vision Arts Festival – which introduces audiences to pioneering, trendsetting and groundbreaking performing arts from around the world – by asking the question: can what you hear affect what you taste?”
OCTOBER 2021
Menú del día: Interview and performance at The Works
As its name suggests, the New Vision Arts Festival concentrates on programmes that are non-traditional, #experimental, and innovative. Despite the Covid-19 inspired travel restrictions that have impacted many local art events, this year’s edition of the festival, the tenth, has a strong line-up. The organisers have coped with the #pandemic by, in part, commissioning works from overseas artists that can be streamed online.
Other creators are exploring augmented reality and #interactive online games. Two performers who will be appearing in person are percussionists Matthew Lau and Karen Yu.
Also featuring Samuel Chan and Vonald Chow, and Viet Cuong’s Water, Wine, Brandy, Brine.
NOVEMBER 2021
Podcast interview: “Sound as a Relationship” @ Sound Method
Karen Yu is a percussionist, experimental sound artist, and interdisciplinary arts researcher who uses sound-making as a medium to question and subvert the relationship between audience and performer. She joins Sound Method to speak with host Jess Tsang about her perspective on sound as a tool for relationship building and collaboration, and how these view informed her composition, the vigil of debris.
Produced by Noah Sniderman
JANUARY 2021
The Choreographer & Composer Lab 2020 Works-in-Development Showcase
西九文化區自2016年起舉辦「舞・樂互碰」，提供平台及空間促成作曲家及編舞家互相啟發、合作，探索新穎的創作方式。本屆「舞・樂互碰」邀請了兩位獨立編舞與三位聲音藝術家、音樂創作人合作 : 馬師雅和李穎姍探索以身體發聲的可能性；李偉能、余林橞及劉曉江則從物理角度出發，結合科學與藝術。藝術家們經過四個月以來的認識、意念蘊釀、溝通、試驗，在早前6月於自由空間與近百觀眾分享了這次合作的階段展演成果。 立即欣賞活動片段，了解藝術家們在今次「舞・樂互碰」中的創作研究歷程，以及對跨界實驗和合作的體會。節目詳情：https://wk.org.hk/3ioyM2V
The Choreographer & Composer Lab 2020 Works-in-Development Showcase was successfully held on 18 June at Freespace. Since 2016, our cross-genre professional platform has brought together local artists working in music/sound composition and dance to exchange ideas and delve into new ways of working across disciplines. This year, choreographer Alice Ma Sze-nga and sound artist Fiona Lee explored the minute sounds produced by the body in movement, while choreographer Joseph Lee and music artist Karen Yu and composer Lawrence Lau Hiu-kong looked at the interplay of physics, sounds and motion. Find out more: https://wk.org.hk/35HxZHd
JUNE 2020
Menú del día: Interview by Singtao Daily
「《是日酒單》終延至今年上演，阿根廷音樂仍是主調，但葡萄酒給換上雞尾酒──雞尾酒以罐盛之，不礙事，舊瓶新酒，或更合時宜。他們邀來本地調酒師李城飛，以阿根廷「國民味道」布蘭卡苦酒（Fernet Branca）為主角，調製兩款手工雞尾酒，配搭五首曲目。揭開序幕的，是Viet Cuong（美國）的《Water, Wine, Brandy, Brine》，玻璃杯也是敲擊樂器，看來很好玩，「以此開場，希望觀眾覺得，新音樂其實不是那麼難接受。」接下來Astor Piazzolla（阿根廷）的《Histoire du Tango》，探戈也是普羅大眾熟悉的旋律節拍。
這兩首作品，所配搭的那款雞尾酒味道，也是較易入口的，但後來的Philippe Manoury（法國）《Marimba Duo from Le Livre des Claviers》、Facundo Negri（阿根廷）《A-Lógica 3》、John Cage（美國）《Credo in Us》卻不然，都是被余林橞形容為「哽」的曲目，「《Credo in Us》是John Cage在戰爭時寫的作品。疫情下也像戰爭狀態，一切變得諷刺、滑稽，這首曲也有滑稽的味道，很切合我們現在的狀態。」這首作品所配搭的雞尾酒，味道極端，她笑說，你要麼很歡喜，要麼很討厭。」
OCTOBER 2021
「跳出樂器框框 拍、打、捽 身體奏出敲擊樂」Interview by Mingpao
Excerpt:
「?Corporel在音樂廳演出，但沒有樂器，有聲音也有動作，其實是屬於哪一類型的作品，抑或「咩都唔係」？Karen直言就是「咩都唔係」才最有趣。「通常去參加一場演奏會，看宣傳單張你便會知道會演奏哪些作品，然後你看到認識的曲目便去看。所以他們總會帶着一定的期望入場，因而會影響接受程度。假若抱着『咩都唔係』的心態，或者會接受多一點，會看到之前看不到的東西。而跨媒介藝術最有趣就是『咩都唔係』，不用預先告訴你這是什麼，只要你帶着一個好奇心，去欣賞去感受已經足夠，而最終跨媒介藝術這個詞，只是一個很大的樹蔭去支持『咩都唔係』的人。」
APRIL 2021
Immaterial, Alexandra Spence
Played some percussion in this track.
Listen here: https://alexandraspence.bandcamp.com/track/immaterial
“Earlier this year I spent a two-month period on residency in Hong Kong. I was instantly drawn to the colour and vibrancy of the city, as well as to certain materials and objects that kept reappearing on my explorations.
billowy, gauzy construction cloth that covered spiny bamboo scaffolding, the devastatingly-inviting colourful-sheen of single-use plastics, discarded durian husks, the deep blue night-time sky made hazy/dreamy/luminous from neon lighting, lush and vibrant green foliage…” Read More