Raying Temple 小雷音

By Josh, 2010年 8月 12日

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Raying Temple/Xiao Lei Yin is a recently re-opened venue in Tongzhou. It is run by a small group of musicians, including YangYang of Mafeisan (麻沸散) and Xue Ran of Maze (迷宫). Raying Temple is also the home of experimental music label NOJIJI.

The remote location is made up for by an amazingly diverse space. Raying Temple consists of two floors. The bottom floor has a practice room and a row of furnished hostel rooms that rent from 30-80元 per night. Upstairs is a bar, performance space, and recording studio, as well as a long corridor showcasing art and some wild murals.

The two floors only take up half of the total space in the building — the other half is dominated by a massive tank where the landlord raises fish. The constant drone of rushing water fits a place that hosts such a wide variety of unusual sounds, and the curving greenhouse ceiling, lit by fluorescent blues and oranges at night, makes the tank a great place to sit and zone out against a wall of noise.

Raying Temple hosts shows most Saturdays. Recently there has been some crossover with the scene normally associated with D22/Zoomin’ Night, as bands like Hot & Cold and WHITE+ have trekked out to play.

This Saturday, Shanghai band Pairs will play with Zuowei (左玮), Chuiwan (吹万), and Simon Frank (one half of Hot & Cold). Next week they’ll host Japanese artists Yoshida Tatsuya and Ryoko Ono.

Check Raying Temple’s douban page for up-to-date listings.

I love that Raying Temple is such a self-sufficient enclave. A band could get the idea, practice, perform and record all in one place, with booze and beds on-site to fuel the process. The NOJIJI discography is displayed on the wall by the bar entrance, driving home the fact that this is a place by musicians for musicians. The weird ambience and well off-the-beaten-path location makes Raying Temple a welcome alternative to the more established “Beijing proper” clubs and fosters a self-selecting DIY community.

Click for Chinese directions to Raying Temple

To get there, take the 938 bus from Guomao towards Tongzhou, or take the subway to Linheli (临河里), the second to last stop on the southeast end of Line 1.

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