Venue / McAulay Studio, Hong Kong Arts Centre
Date / 2015.07.28
Featured Artist
Betty Apple (Taiwan), Ingrid Lee (Los Angeles / Hong Kong)
Vinyl-manipulation and creative sampling are the focuses of the 23rd edition of Sonic Anchor. Taiwanese sound artist Betty Apple (Cheng Yi-ping) explores issues in feminist politics through her conceptually daring and sensually intense live performances. In the new work Betty Apple will do all kinds of strange things to the iconic vinyl “International Anthems and Songs” released in 1960s by feeding a gramophone recording through a dynamic effects sampler, to create a strange national anthem of ambiguous origins. Another gramophone record is the most recent piece ''Only Edison Could Speak to the Dead'' created by composer and improvisator Ingrid Lee. She combines composition with whimsy, layering her compact piece with an assortment of feedback, sympathetic resonance, beatings and noise.
Concert review
Sonic Anchor #23 Review– Vinyl Collage
John Batten
Art Critic・Curator・Editor・Writer
This review was originally published (in English) in Artslink, Hong Kong, October 2015.
I try to keep up with the latest music. I listen to Stuart Maconie’s ‘Freak Zone’ on BBC6 radio on the Internet and surf around radio stations in the USA. When Gidon Kremer, the violinist and great supporter of new music, was recently here for a concert, I went (and particularly loved an avant-garde solo encore written by Igor Loboda in tribute to an under-siege Ukraine). I play Arvo Pärt while I write and recently took out John Cage’s complete works for piano, a surprise find, from the Aberdeen Public Library. I see bands at Hidden Agenda and continue buying CDs at White Noise Records. None of this is particularly energetic, but, I suppose, it is better than only looking forward to Clockenflap.
However, it is word-of-mouth that elicits most interest for me. Like in the “good old days” when a listening night of new records would be organized for friends to listen to, followed by recorded cassettes made and shared. Suze, a PolyU design student, had introduced me to the music of British singer/song writer TKA Twigs. (But, first a redundant aside: Suze named herself after Bob Dylan’s girlfriend, Suze Rotolo, who is famously seen walking arm-in-arm with Dylan on the cover of his second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan; coincidently the first Dylan album I bought). Anyway, Suze messaged me about Sonic Anchor’s latest show.
Focused on “vinyl-manipulation and creative sampling”, Sonic Anchor #23 invited Ingrid Lee and Betty Apple (Cheng Yi-ping) to perform. They had contrasting personal approaches: Ingrid was serious, considered and unhurried; Betty, as her stage name implies, gave a theatrical, frantic and athletic performance.
Ingrid Lee, Hong Kong/USA educated, but currently a Netherlands-based composer and performer, led a group of five performers whose first piece was to each silently mouth a 3-minute sequence of writings. Trying to understand the actual words, like a mime reader, was impossible as the five performers were too busy, each quickly mouthing their own script. But, the audience quickly settled to watch – a visual performance, with the form of the language mouthed; at points they seemingly crossed and ‘spoke’ in unison.
The second piece of the night saw Ingrid and another performer reciting two separate technical/scientific texts. It was perfectly understandable, but the meaning of the text was so technically obscure that it was meaningless. The two performers had similar modulation and pace, this made it difficult for the audience to simply concentrate on one performer and follow their spoken text. It was, again, at points of convergence and brief moments of the performance moving in unison that held the audience. It affirmed that even random action has an uncanny ability to create form.
Ingrid’s final performance saw her playing two separate records on separate record players. She moved, at intervals, between the record players to change records. One recording, Only Edison Could Speak to the Dead, was packaged in a custom-made sandpaper (grade 400; so, quite rough) record cover. Each time the record was taken out of its cover, it was deliberately scratched. Ingrid ritually moved between these two points to calmly change her records against a scratchy 19thcentury-like background of sound, until she stood surrounded by a cacophony of syncopated noise playing out into silence.
Betty Apple from Taiwan has a background in theatre, artist performance, DJ-ing and composing. Her work often challenges sexual stereotypes and tackles gender issues. Her performance at Sonic Anchor ostensibly tackled citizenship and nationalism. She played a record of different national anthems from International Anthems and Songs, a 1960s recording. Wearing a slinky cheongsam, her performance was a sweaty, sexually charged and violent attack of sampled sound and objects thrown at the revolving record and turntable. Her performance, despite its simplicity of intention, grew in manic tension and physical attack. The audience was riveted.
It was a perfect, stimulating evening. I briefly saw Suze after the performance, and in a “twist of fate” (as Dylan said!), she was currently interning for the designers who have recently revamped Contemporary Musiking’s branding and website.
聲音下寨 #23 後感– 黑膠拼貼
文：約翰·百德 （策展人及藝術評論家）
英語原文刊於《藝訊》， 2015年10月號。
為了貼近音樂的潮流，我選擇在網上收聽BBC6電台Stuart Maconie 的節目 ’Freak Zone’，耳猶未盡的話我就隨處收聽美國其他電台。較早前，吉頓克萊默 (Gidon Kremer) 這位大力推動新音樂的小提琴家來港表演，我亦有捧場（當中我特別喜愛一曲由 lgor Loboda 所譜寫，向窘境中烏克蘭致哀的前衛獨奏）。平日寫作，我總會播放阿沃帕特 (Arvo Pärt) 的作品。而最近我竟然在香港仔公共圖書館發現了約翰·凱奇 (John Cage) 的鋼琴全集。我會留意在 Hidden Agenda 演出的樂隊，也一直在 White Noise Records 購買唱碟，雖然以上的都算不上新音樂的勢頭，但我猜總比只期待 Clockenflap 更好。
即使我涉獵甚廣，口耳相傳更能引起我的興趣，就如從前美好時光，友人小聚，各人把剛買的唱片和預先錄製的錄音帶與席上朋友分享。Suze 是理大設計專業的學生，在她的推介下，我開始接觸英國女歌手及作曲家 FKA Twigs 的音樂（題外話：Suze 這個名字取自鮑勃·迪倫 Bob Dylan 的女友Suze Rotolo，Bob Dylan 和女友兩人挽臂的畫面就正是為人所熟知的 The Freewhellin’ Bob Dylan 唱片封面，事有湊巧，這張是我第一張擁有的 Bob Dylan 唱片。） 亦是在 Suze 推薦下，我與聲音下寨結緣。
聲音下寨第二十三期邀請了李筠Ingrid Lee 和鄭宜蘋Betty Apple演出，賣點是黑膠唱片操作花式和聲音素材取樣。他們個人特色大相逕庭：Ingrid的路線嚴肅、熟慮、從容，Betty Apple則人如其名，帶來了一場具戲劇性、歇斯底里和動態十足的表演。
在香港及美國受過教育的Ingrid Lee現居荷蘭作曲和演奏。她一開場帶領五個表演者，各人用默默無聲地誦讀了一篇三分鐘的講稿。我如座席啞劇的觀眾試圖讀取片言隻語，可是五人急速以口形默讀稿子，要解讀他們說話內容確實是不可能。轉念間，觀眾屏息靜觀一場無聲勝有聲的視覺表演，眼看著語言變成唇語，甚至覺得他們的口形偶爾對上了，用吻合的嘴形作一致、同步的話語。
當晚第二幕是Ingrid與另外一名表演者在背誦兩段技術性／科學文本，內容的一字一句都可以被理解，但文本的意思驟聽起來晦澀難懂，幾近毫無意義。兩個表演者對語氣與節奏掌控類近，令觀眾難以集中於一個表演者以及聆聽其背誦的內容。觀眾再次被語言動作的短暫同步所吸引， 這再次肯定了，隨機的動作也似乎有不可思議的力量去構成獨特的表演形態。
到了最後一幕，Ingrid分別在兩部唱盤上擺放了黑膠唱片，她不時穿梭於唱盤之間調換唱片，其中一張唱片是《唯愛迪生能與逝者對話》，以度身定造的沙紙包裝。黑膠唱片封套粗糙的質地，令每次取出唱片時刻意發出噝噝沙沙的磨擦聲。Ingrid 慣性地來回替換唱片，播放出來的乍聽似是十九世紀的唱片背景雜訊，直至她佇立於一片粗糙嘶啞、頻譜不一的黑膠噪音中，讓唱盤聲音戛然而止。
來自台灣的Betty Apple 有豐富的劇場演出經驗，亦涉獵DJ、作曲。她的作品向性別定型以及兩性議題提出挑戰，今次聲音下寨的表演則向公民身份與國家主義提出拷問，Betty Apple播放一系列來自六十年代名為《自由世界國歌》黑膠唱片的國歌，。她以一襲緊身長衫亮相，以取樣的聲音樣本轟炸劇場，又將各式各樣物件猛烈地向唱盤及唱片搗擲，然而動作撩人，令人看得熱血沸騰。她的表演儘管意圖簡單，觀眾卻無不被其緊湊張狂的表演張力震攝。
兩位藝術家帶來一場刺激和完美的演出。散場後，我與Suze淺談，才發現Suze正在一家設計公司實習，該公司正為主辦單位現在音樂重塑品牌形象及製作網站，還是要借用Bob Dylan ‘Twist of Fate’ （命運逆轉）來形容這個巧合。
Venue / McAulay Studio, Hong Kong Arts Centre
Date / 2015.07.28
Featured Artist
Betty Apple (Taiwan), Ingrid Lee (Los Angeles / Hong Kong)
Vinyl-manipulation and creative sampling are the focuses of the 23rd edition of Sonic Anchor. Taiwanese sound artist Betty Apple (Cheng Yi-ping) explores issues in feminist politics through her conceptually daring and sensually intense live performances. In the new work Betty Apple will do all kinds of strange things to the iconic vinyl “International Anthems and Songs” released in 1960s by feeding a gramophone recording through a dynamic effects sampler, to create a strange national anthem of ambiguous origins. Another gramophone record is the most recent piece ''Only Edison Could Speak to the Dead'' created by composer and improvisator Ingrid Lee. She combines composition with whimsy, layering her compact piece with an assortment of feedback, sympathetic resonance, beatings and noise.
Concert review
Sonic Anchor #23 Review– Vinyl Collage
John Batten
Art Critic・Curator・Editor・Writer
This review was originally published (in English) in Artslink, Hong Kong, October 2015.
I try to keep up with the latest music. I listen to Stuart Maconie’s ‘Freak Zone’ on BBC6 radio on the Internet and surf around radio stations in the USA. When Gidon Kremer, the violinist and great supporter of new music, was recently here for a concert, I went (and particularly loved an avant-garde solo encore written by Igor Loboda in tribute to an under-siege Ukraine). I play Arvo Pärt while I write and recently took out John Cage’s complete works for piano, a surprise find, from the Aberdeen Public Library. I see bands at Hidden Agenda and continue buying CDs at White Noise Records. None of this is particularly energetic, but, I suppose, it is better than only looking forward to Clockenflap.
However, it is word-of-mouth that elicits most interest for me. Like in the “good old days” when a listening night of new records would be organized for friends to listen to, followed by recorded cassettes made and shared. Suze, a PolyU design student, had introduced me to the music of British singer/song writer TKA Twigs. (But, first a redundant aside: Suze named herself after Bob Dylan’s girlfriend, Suze Rotolo, who is famously seen walking arm-in-arm with Dylan on the cover of his second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan; coincidently the first Dylan album I bought). Anyway, Suze messaged me about Sonic Anchor’s latest show.
Focused on “vinyl-manipulation and creative sampling”, Sonic Anchor #23 invited Ingrid Lee and Betty Apple (Cheng Yi-ping) to perform. They had contrasting personal approaches: Ingrid was serious, considered and unhurried; Betty, as her stage name implies, gave a theatrical, frantic and athletic performance.
Ingrid Lee, Hong Kong/USA educated, but currently a Netherlands-based composer and performer, led a group of five performers whose first piece was to each silently mouth a 3-minute sequence of writings. Trying to understand the actual words, like a mime reader, was impossible as the five performers were too busy, each quickly mouthing their own script. But, the audience quickly settled to watch – a visual performance, with the form of the language mouthed; at points they seemingly crossed and ‘spoke’ in unison.
The second piece of the night saw Ingrid and another performer reciting two separate technical/scientific texts. It was perfectly understandable, but the meaning of the text was so technically obscure that it was meaningless. The two performers had similar modulation and pace, this made it difficult for the audience to simply concentrate on one performer and follow their spoken text. It was, again, at points of convergence and brief moments of the performance moving in unison that held the audience. It affirmed that even random action has an uncanny ability to create form.
Ingrid’s final performance saw her playing two separate records on separate record players. She moved, at intervals, between the record players to change records. One recording, Only Edison Could Speak to the Dead, was packaged in a custom-made sandpaper (grade 400; so, quite rough) record cover. Each time the record was taken out of its cover, it was deliberately scratched. Ingrid ritually moved between these two points to calmly change her records against a scratchy 19thcentury-like background of sound, until she stood surrounded by a cacophony of syncopated noise playing out into silence.
Betty Apple from Taiwan has a background in theatre, artist performance, DJ-ing and composing. Her work often challenges sexual stereotypes and tackles gender issues. Her performance at Sonic Anchor ostensibly tackled citizenship and nationalism. She played a record of different national anthems from International Anthems and Songs, a 1960s recording. Wearing a slinky cheongsam, her performance was a sweaty, sexually charged and violent attack of sampled sound and objects thrown at the revolving record and turntable. Her performance, despite its simplicity of intention, grew in manic tension and physical attack. The audience was riveted.
It was a perfect, stimulating evening. I briefly saw Suze after the performance, and in a “twist of fate” (as Dylan said!), she was currently interning for the designers who have recently revamped Contemporary Musiking’s branding and website.
聲音下寨 #23 後感– 黑膠拼貼
文：約翰·百德 （策展人及藝術評論家）
英語原文刊於《藝訊》， 2015年10月號。
為了貼近音樂的潮流，我選擇在網上收聽BBC6電台Stuart Maconie 的節目 ’Freak Zone’，耳猶未盡的話我就隨處收聽美國其他電台。較早前，吉頓克萊默 (Gidon Kremer) 這位大力推動新音樂的小提琴家來港表演，我亦有捧場（當中我特別喜愛一曲由 lgor Loboda 所譜寫，向窘境中烏克蘭致哀的前衛獨奏）。平日寫作，我總會播放阿沃帕特 (Arvo Pärt) 的作品。而最近我竟然在香港仔公共圖書館發現了約翰·凱奇 (John Cage) 的鋼琴全集。我會留意在 Hidden Agenda 演出的樂隊，也一直在 White Noise Records 購買唱碟，雖然以上的都算不上新音樂的勢頭，但我猜總比只期待 Clockenflap 更好。
即使我涉獵甚廣，口耳相傳更能引起我的興趣，就如從前美好時光，友人小聚，各人把剛買的唱片和預先錄製的錄音帶與席上朋友分享。Suze 是理大設計專業的學生，在她的推介下，我開始接觸英國女歌手及作曲家 FKA Twigs 的音樂（題外話：Suze 這個名字取自鮑勃·迪倫 Bob Dylan 的女友Suze Rotolo，Bob Dylan 和女友兩人挽臂的畫面就正是為人所熟知的 The Freewhellin’ Bob Dylan 唱片封面，事有湊巧，這張是我第一張擁有的 Bob Dylan 唱片。） 亦是在 Suze 推薦下，我與聲音下寨結緣。
聲音下寨第二十三期邀請了李筠Ingrid Lee 和鄭宜蘋Betty Apple演出，賣點是黑膠唱片操作花式和聲音素材取樣。他們個人特色大相逕庭：Ingrid的路線嚴肅、熟慮、從容，Betty Apple則人如其名，帶來了一場具戲劇性、歇斯底里和動態十足的表演。
在香港及美國受過教育的Ingrid Lee現居荷蘭作曲和演奏。她一開場帶領五個表演者，各人用默默無聲地誦讀了一篇三分鐘的講稿。我如座席啞劇的觀眾試圖讀取片言隻語，可是五人急速以口形默讀稿子，要解讀他們說話內容確實是不可能。轉念間，觀眾屏息靜觀一場無聲勝有聲的視覺表演，眼看著語言變成唇語，甚至覺得他們的口形偶爾對上了，用吻合的嘴形作一致、同步的話語。
當晚第二幕是Ingrid與另外一名表演者在背誦兩段技術性／科學文本，內容的一字一句都可以被理解，但文本的意思驟聽起來晦澀難懂，幾近毫無意義。兩個表演者對語氣與節奏掌控類近，令觀眾難以集中於一個表演者以及聆聽其背誦的內容。觀眾再次被語言動作的短暫同步所吸引， 這再次肯定了，隨機的動作也似乎有不可思議的力量去構成獨特的表演形態。
到了最後一幕，Ingrid分別在兩部唱盤上擺放了黑膠唱片，她不時穿梭於唱盤之間調換唱片，其中一張唱片是《唯愛迪生能與逝者對話》，以度身定造的沙紙包裝。黑膠唱片封套粗糙的質地，令每次取出唱片時刻意發出噝噝沙沙的磨擦聲。Ingrid 慣性地來回替換唱片，播放出來的乍聽似是十九世紀的唱片背景雜訊，直至她佇立於一片粗糙嘶啞、頻譜不一的黑膠噪音中，讓唱盤聲音戛然而止。
來自台灣的Betty Apple 有豐富的劇場演出經驗，亦涉獵DJ、作曲。她的作品向性別定型以及兩性議題提出挑戰，今次聲音下寨的表演則向公民身份與國家主義提出拷問，Betty Apple播放一系列來自六十年代名為《自由世界國歌》黑膠唱片的國歌，。她以一襲緊身長衫亮相，以取樣的聲音樣本轟炸劇場，又將各式各樣物件猛烈地向唱盤及唱片搗擲，然而動作撩人，令人看得熱血沸騰。她的表演儘管意圖簡單，觀眾卻無不被其緊湊張狂的表演張力震攝。
兩位藝術家帶來一場刺激和完美的演出。散場後，我與Suze淺談，才發現Suze正在一家設計公司實習，該公司正為主辦單位現在音樂重塑品牌形象及製作網站，還是要借用Bob Dylan ‘Twist of Fate’ （命運逆轉）來形容這個巧合。