Improvised Soundscapes From China

From the outside, the contemporary music scene of China seems quite disconnected from what is happening elsewhere. Excepting pop, traditional and meditation music—as well as some bits of Rock'n'Roll—a more contemporary scene flourishes, staying away from the mainstream accolade. R

This new Improvised Soundscapes episode investigates the vaults of the underground Chinese music. From electronica to idm, tricky and atypic techno, noise-rock, fast and antagonistic hardcore punk, drone, dark ambient or purely experimental and out-of-this-world sounds. Most of the musicians featured in this mixtape are living and working in China, but some of them are scattered all around the globe, mostly in Europe and US.

For this selection I dug a lot in various places, mostly contacting directly the artists through various online platforms such as Soundcloud or Bandcamp. The response rate was, sadly, only around 30%, even if I did the research before the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus.

Some parts of this audio collage are psychedelic and dreamy, while others evoke a strange feeling of outpouring. Certainly, this is not your everyday kind of music. Listen carefully, there are many layers hidden or superimposed in subversive ways.

Check out the previous episodes of Improvised Soundscapes in Iran, Africa and New Zealand.

*Photo: Alex Dâmboianu