Shouwang, One Lick Less, Xiu Di, and Cardiac Murmur @ D22’s Zoomin’ Night, 3 August 2010

By Maya, 2010年 8月 10日

Perhaps in anticipation of D22 closing its doors temporarily for a summer hiatus (possibly related to renovations?) the last Zoomin’ Night for a few weeks turned out a formidable crowd and solid performances.

Video and photos by Liang Kun

I came into D22 to a non-advertised solo performance by Shouwang of WHITE+ and Carsick Cars fame. Melding the dissonant looping and assured guitar sound (progressing from light, almost beachy tones to a more typically punk style) his respective bands are known for, Shouwang’s solo show seems to marry the varying aesthetics that characterize his more established work. Shouwang’s intense focus, an almost severe concentration that I’ve noticed whenever I’ve seen him perform, is unchanged in a solo setting—his body seems almost automatic in its movements, precise and somehow guarded, private.

Parisian artist One Lick Less, on a brief whirlwind tour through China, attracted the fascination of many D22 regulars with his homemade instrumentation—more an apparatus constructed of electric guitar strings suspended between two pieces of wood and flanked by an ever-evolving procession of pedals and tuning pegs. “It’s a blues instrument,” said performer Julien Bancillhon, “made to change according to my thoughts.” Twangier strains produced amid a more cavernous, fuzzy sound give the impression of something deep and boundless—the sky of the American west set to One Lick Less’s cinematic narrative of guitar, bass, banjo, and cello sounds all in one. The instrument incorporates the strings of two deconstructed electric guitars and is played with a variety of picks and devices, which include a piece of metal piping and a bluesman’s tool called a tomebar that resembles a miniature gold bar and provides a thinner acoustic sound. Following his performance, Banchillhon told me how much he liked D22 and became excited when he learned that members of many prominent Beijing bands were in the audience to support one another and just hang out.

Xiu Di (rumor has it this precocious young hornblower is a mere sixteen years old) introduced the first saxophone I’ve ever seen at D22 on a Tuesday night, layering sax and harmonica over waves of noise.

Finally, supergroup Cardiac Murmur (featuring Shouwang, He Fan from Birdstriking, Xiu Di, and Wang Xu of The Gar and WHITE+) jammed out with a bucket and some freeform experimentation.

Get some rest, Zoomin’ Night, we’ll see you on the other side.

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