[专栏] 入耳 In My Ears #10: 李带菓的乡间劈柴

[专栏] 入耳 In My Ears #10: 李带菓的乡间劈柴

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关于国内独立音乐人的介绍侧写或者是演出回顾,大家其实也都经常看到,但是来自于一个活跃于北京地下音乐圈多年的资深老外的观点一定显得更加特别。Josh Feola(赵识)住在北京,他既以乐手身份参与及组织摇滚乐和实验音乐演出,同时也是一位优秀的撰稿人,独立运营着音乐网站 pangbianr.com

在每周的专栏[入耳 In My Ears]里,Josh 会以他的独特视角,讲述独立音乐场景中的种种故事,也许还会展示出音乐人、厂牌或是演出场地更加不为人知的一面。

 

For English Please Scroll Down.

 

曲目收听 《1 - 李带菓》

 

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进12月后我开始回忆这一年我最喜欢或听的最多的专辑。《李姝睿》是其中之一,它是李带菓很棒的一张琵琶演奏专辑,四月的时候他自己不动声响地发行了。李带菓生于美国,2004年来了中国。这一年他很多产,《李姝睿》之外,他今年还和布鲁克林的长号手Rick Parker发行了一张二重奏专辑《Free World Music》,此外他还完成了很多录音,想找一个好的厂牌。

 

在这些作品中,《李姝睿》格外夺目。李带菓是一位很多面的表演者/即兴乐手,我见过他演奏琵琶、大提琴、卡林巴、b-box,不过这张专辑里他只演奏一样:琵琶。他拓展了许多新的方式来演奏这种古老的乐器,有很全面的演奏风格,很不一样的拾音与演奏技巧,最开始听的时候让我想起了那些吉他即兴大师 Derek Bailey 与 John Fahey。你可以在李带菓的网站听到开场曲,非常抢耳。这种暴风雨般砍柴似的风格可以追溯到他早年的小提琴训练,以及在俄克拉何马州农村长大的童年里对于蓝草音乐的兴趣。

 

我今年早些时候采访李带菓关于《李姝睿》,他和我讲了自己早年的乐手生活:“最开始并不是古典音乐,而是学习蓝草音乐的提琴,之后学二胡。然后有段时间开始玩摇滚乐,琢磨着怎么弹电贝司,怎样在乐队里演奏歌曲。和别人一样,你听到一个乐器或者是一种风格觉得特别怪,你就会花时间去找人拜师请教。就这么简单。”

 

带菓获得了加州一所大学的奖学金去学古典提琴,但他不满足于音乐学校对他音乐风格的限制。他的一个导师跟他说,要忽略掉别的流派风格,否则就会变成一个“半瓶醋”,啥都会,但每一个领域里都不是一个“严肃”的乐手。

 

 

但他没有留在美国专业化的音乐圈子里,而是在2004年毕业后去了成都,结识了一帮乐手与听众。他开始努力钻研琵琶,慢慢地发展自己的技巧,并频繁和中国志趣相投的实验乐手合作,比如颜峻和巫娜。现在他整年住在大理,又回归了农村,在那里他每天排练玩乐器,和他的伴侣(《李姝睿》即以她为名)以及他们年轻的女儿一起。

 

采访的时候带菓说,他觉得《李姝睿》同时兼具古典音乐与先锋音乐的感觉,这是他找寻自己独特琵琶声音的开始。“它们都是写好的作曲作品,比如章节里琵琶发展的高潮。而这也是一个开始,”他这么说专辑里的八首作品,“我这些年对琵琶想了很多,思考它是什么,我和它之间的关系。这张专辑就像是一个记号,有人可能对它有兴趣,我也很确信它和别的琵琶专辑差别很大,但对我来说它只是婴儿的第一小步。你要花很长时间来找寻它的声音,将它发展成一张有条理的专辑。我会继续做更多的发展,这是我的计划。”

 

在下面的链接里可以听《李姝睿》,今年最具独创性的器乐专辑。

 

相关豆瓣页面

 

李带菓: http://lidaiguo.com

李带菓豆瓣音乐人: https://site.douban.com/love.betternonsequitur.com/

《李姝睿》: https://yoopay.cn/pay/01855562

 

关于作者

 

 

Josh Feola 是一位音乐人/撰稿人,现居北京。自2010年起,他通过自己的平台“旁边儿”(pangbianr)组织音乐、艺术、电影活动,并先后担任 D-22 与 XP 的演出经理。他的长期项目有撒丽不跳舞实验音乐节(Sally Can't Dance)与北京电子乐偶遇(BEME)。他为以下出版机构撰写过关于音乐、艺术的文章:The Wire,Leap 艺术界,Sixth Tone,Tiny Mix Tapes,他也是纽约观察者报 Gulou View观点专栏的共同作者之一。作为音乐人,他曾在北京乐队吹万担任鼓手,参与首张专辑《白夜》的录音与巡演;目前他是乐队 Subs、迷走神经的鼓手,也化名 Charm 录音、演出。

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IN MY EARS #10: Li Daiguo’s Rural Chops

 

 Li Daiguo - “1”

 

In My Ears is a weekly music column by Josh Feola 赵识, Beijing-based writer and musician and founder of pangbianr.com

 

As it’s December I’ve started thinking about my favorite or most listened to albums of the year. Near the top would be Li Shurui, a stunning solo pipa album that Li Daiguo quietly self-released in April. Li, who is originally from the US and moved to China in 2004, had a prolific year in general. In addition to Li Shurui, he also released Free World Music, a fantastic duo album with Brooklyn-based trombonist Rick Parker, and has a few other finished recordings sitting in his archives, waiting to find a good label.

 

But Li Shurui shines among Li Daiguo’s accomplishments this year. He’s known as a polymath performer and improviser; I’ve seen him confidently shred on pipa, cello, mbira, and beatboxing. For this album, though, he focuses on a core instrument: pipa. He plays this old instrument in very new ways, adopting an all-over playing style and alternative picking and strumming techniques that made me think often of guitar improvisers like Derek Bailey and John Fahey when first digesting the album. The opening track, which you can stream for free on Daiguo’s website, is particularly arresting, a tempestuous tour through the artist’s self-styled chops, shaped by his early training on violin and fiddle and interest in Bluegrass as a child growing up in rural Oklahoma.

 

When I interviewed Li Daiguo earlier this year for an article about Li Shurui, he told me about his earliest days as a musician: “The first things that I did that were not Classical. I was studying bluegrass fiddle, and then I started studying erhu. And then at that time I was also getting into rock music, just figuring out how to play electric bass, playing songs that I listened to with a band and stuff. It's the same as everyone else, when you hear an instrument or a stye and you think it's sick, you take the time to go find a teacher for that style. It's just as simple as that.”

 

Daiguo received a scholarship to study Classical violin at a university in California, but he wasn’t satisfied with the stylistic limitations the conservatory context placed on his music. One of his professors told him that he should ignore other genres and styles or else he would become a “dabbler” — a hobbyist playing around with different styles, but not a “serious” musician in any one field.

 

 

Rather than hang around the professional world of conservatory musicians in the US, Daiguo moved to Chengdu after graduating in 2004, and eventually fell in with a crowd of musicians and fans there. He began to study the pipa in earnest, slowly developing his own style and frequently collaborating with like-minded experimental artists around the country, such as Yan Jun and Wu Na. He now lives in Dali for most of the year, back in a rural environment where he rehearses daily and spends time with his partner, whom Li Shurui is named after, and their young daughter.

 

When I spoke with him earlier this year, Daiguo told me that he feels Li Shurui, with its simultaneously Classical and avant-garde sensibility, is the very beginning of what he is comfortable in calling his own unique voice on the pipa. “Those are set compositions, like the culmination of a chapter for my development of the pipa, and it's really only the beginning,” he says of the album’s eight tracks. “It's the years of work that I've spent thinking about the pipa, thinking about what it is, what my relationship with it is. It's sort of like a marker. Maybe some people will be interested, and I'm pretty sure it's very different from any other pipa album, but for me it's really like the first baby step. It's taken a long time to find that voice and develop it into a coherent album. I'm gonna keep developing this for decades, that's my plan.”

 

Check the link below to hear Li Daiguo’s Li Shurui, one of the most inventive and brilliant instrumental albums released this year.

 

Associated pages

 

Li Daiguo: http://lidaiguo.com

Li Daiguo (Douban): https://site.douban.com/love.betternonsequitur.com/

Li Shurui (album): https://yoopay.cn/pay/01855562

 

About the author

 

 

Josh Feola is a writer and musician based in Beijing. He’s organized music, art, and film events in the city since 2010, via his label pangbianr and as booking manager of live music venues D-22 and XP. His ongoing event series include the Sally Can’t Dance experimental music festival and the Beijing Electronic Music Encounter (BEME). He has written about music and art for publications including The Wire, LEAP, Sixth Tone, and Tiny Mix Tapes. He also co-authors the Gulou View opinion column for the New York Observer. As a musician, he formerly played drums in Beijing band Chui Wan, recording on and touring behind their debut album, White Night. He currently plays drums in SUBS and Vagus Nerve, and also records and performs under the name Charm.

 

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