"Environmental Improvisation" Creation Series

In November 2015, the Mind Fiber group, made up of Li Jianhong and Wei Wei (VAVABOND), which focuses on environmental improvisation recording, invited 12 artists and more than ten people as audiences to improvise in the Xianren Cave (literally translated as immortals cave) on the northern hillside of Huiyu Village in the suburb of Beijing. Huiyu is a famous fossil collecting site in Beijing, with a 200 to 300 million years old Late Paleozoic Carboniferous-Permian section. Xianren Cave originated from the Early Pleistocene. It is formed by the accumulation of red clay with limestone breccia and black shale. It is 8 meters in height, divided into 3 layers, and the height between the cave entrance and the bottom of the trench is about 30 meters. Individual artists would use small portable speakers without an electricity generator.

To impromptu perform in a natural environment, one would need to overcome certain practical issues. However, it also means that one would be able to enjoy a different performing experience and performance form compared to staging at regular venues. Vocals, percussion, saxophone, guitar, computer programs, and audience cheers would intertwine and reverberate throughout the cave. There was no clear start and end for music, and there was no "stage" as the center of the performance. Performers and audiences often walked around:

"The performance went on and on in the cave. Towards the end of the show, it obviously aroused some primitive emotions among the people. Different from the performances that are staged on a regular stage facing the audience, 'in here' made it easier for performers to see themselves clearly and became more aware of the environment they were in. Some musicians added and used the sound of scratching or knocking on the stone wall, throwing stones, fiddling with the fire, or playing the saxophone to the echo of the dark space in the two underground levels. These were all impromptu responses to the environment."

The recording of this performance "In The Cave'' was launched in 2011 by C.F.I Records, a label co-founded by Li Jianhong and Wei Wei, with the focus of promoting Chinese improvisation music. It is part of the "Environmental Improvisation" series. Li Jianhong's exploration of improvisation dates back to the 1990s. The three common labels for Li Jianhong's creations are "noise", "improvisation" and "psychedelic music". In the early days, he used TV noise, analog effects, and guitar noise to create his music. After 2000, Li Jianhong began to create more guitar improvisations. Wei Wei started sound creation under the name of VAVABOND in 2006, mainly using laptops and visualized sound programming software MAX to create music. Her works including noise, freestyle improvisation, and other types. For them, noise requires a high degree of unity of physicality and spirituality. Noise does not even require others to listen to it, but only cares about self-expression. Freestyle improvisation seeks to maximize the response to anything that happens at the moment. To achieve this, it also requires daily practice, accumulated experience, and on-site aesthetic judgment. In fact, no matter what method is adopted, both Li Jianhong and Wei Wei emphasized the need to be true to self-experience and be fully committed to various factors at the moment, rather than being addicted to material obsession with sound quality, form, or technology.

The creation of "environmental improvisation" since 2008 also follows these clues. The creator emphasizes the memories and feelings of "me" in the environment, and believes that "environmental improvisation is improvising with oneself in a specific environment". Out of the creator's subjective choice, the "environment" can include any scene, such as living environments like balconies and hutong (the name given to narrow alleys in China), not just natural environments such as caves. In other words, "environmental improvisation" does not emphasize "environment" as an aesthetic object. In Wei Wei's view,

"Because environmental improvisation does not pursue artistic or physical conceptions, or does not even require integration of feelings with the settings. It is very private, individual, and subjective. In it, the relationship between the creator, the participants, and the environment may or may not exist, because even in the same environment, everyone’s cognition, experience, feelings, etc. are different. All the people present have their own world, and the creator may be willing to associate with it, but they may also isolate themselves. The environment in environmental improvisation is uncontrollable, dynamic, and developmental, so it is more like a collaborator."

Whether it is the sound of wind blowing, birds singing, or human voices, the creators maintain a sensitive and relatively fair attitude to all elements in the performance, and will not change the environment to increase the sound element, or use too much equipment to achieve a certain effect. The techniques and ideas of recording also pursue natural effects, which also distinguishes "environmental improvisation" from "improvisation in the environment". The final result may often be full of surprises. This is one of the most interesting aspects of environmental improvisation that Li Jianhong thinks,

"For outdoor performances, if there are many people, it will get relatively complicated. Before the performance, the venue will be inspected and some basic equipment will be prepared. But they are all impromptu performances and adapt to local conditions. Equipment such as generators is rarely used, and nothing has been removed. It’s important to adapt to local conditions. This is also a manifestation of the environment of 'this hour, this moment and this place'...... I don’t have special recording skills, and the recording equipment is very amateur. All currently published albums related to environmental improvisation are recorded with an ordinary ZOOM H4. The only thing that counts as a "technique" would be the placement of the recorder. We placed it at somewhere where it could receive the sound of the performance, and could also clearly receive the subtle changes in the environment. The recorder is like a central point, and all sounds surround it. In reality, performance and the environment are treated equally, or as one if to say more accurately. In the recording, instant emotion can be felt between the performance and the environment. I will not change the placement of the recorder while playing unless I finish recording…… Although everyone will have some imaginary preparations before reaching each place, the environment is not prepared for you, and will not have a one-on-one conversation with you. There are too many unexpected moments, and these moments catalyze your emotional changes at any time. "

The other two albums "Hello Balcony" and "One Year" by the Mind Fiber group were released in 2012 and 2013 respectively. "Hello Balcony" was recorded on the balcony of Li Jianhong's hometown in Fenghua, Zhejiang Province. The two did not communicate much during the recording. Wei Wei even used headphones, so Li Jianhong could not hear her improvisation. Therefore, there was no musical dialogue between the two creators. They focused on their own environment. One year later, they recorded a set of double-CD albums "One Year" in Minwang North Hutong, Hepingli East Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing, where they lived together. They used guitars, laptop software, and some scattered objects as musical instruments to record and create scenes related to their lives and emotions.

In addition to co-creating as Mind Fiber group, Li Jianhong and Wei Wei also made a lot of personal explorations on "environmental improvisation".

Li Jianhong's "environmental improvisation" creation began in 2008. In 2011, he released a series of albums "Twelve Moods", "Empty Mountain" and "Here is it". "Twelve Moods" contains 12 guitar solo improvisations with the sound of rain. The random plucking of the guitar and overtone performance are the main features. The dialogue between the sound of the piano and the sound of rain is sporadic. The sound of rain is sometimes fierce and surrounded by the sound of the piano. In the final song "Hmm, I’m watching the rain", the violent strumming started as if it was in harmony with the powerful rain. Gradually, the sound of the piano stops, and the sound of the rain fills the space.

The idea of the album creation came from the summer of 2004. One afternoon, he encountered a mountain rain under the eaves of the Daxiong Hall of the Faxi Temple in Hangzhou. The rain first revealed its shape on the edge of the mountain, and slowly moved closer, then the sound of the rain hitting the woods became clear, and the air began to smell like soil, water vapour, the smoke of incense burner, and the sound of monks chanting intertwined. He admits that this rain may be the same as the rain in his hometown. It was his current state and imagination, combined with the influence of the stories of gods and ghosts and meditation he has always loved, making it special. At the beginning of 2009, still in Hangzhou, the continuous and endless winter rain finally prompted him to implement this idea: "Compared to four years ago, this winter rain is more realistic. The sound of every droplet falling onto the ground, leaves, and canopy is so clear and powerful, it seems that they have their own identity. At night, I can't see them, but the realistic sense of touch makes me feel that this is actually the best opportunity to perform with them. Then it was almost like this. When I really participated in them, their identities became even clearer.”

Li Jianhong put the recorder on the windowsill, the window was open, and he sat on the bed next to the windowsill to record for two or three days, both during the late night and early morning, recording a few tracks each time, and then selected some of them to make records. The GIBSON ES-175 guitar he used in his creation is capable of producing acoustic guitar sounds even when it is not plugged in. The "Twelve Moods" is not only an expression of LI Jianhong’s own emotions, but it also indirectly presents the different appearances of rain through people's reactions to rain. Most of the names he chooses from each song are full of playfulness, avoiding explicit directions, such as "＊＊＊Rain", "＊＊Rain＊", "Hmm, I'm watching the rain".

"Empty Mountain" contains 8 guitar improvisations, recorded on Qingliang Peak, located at the junction of Zhejiang Province and Anhui Province, and Mogan Mountain, more than 40 kilometers northwest of Hangzhou. In this album, Li Jianhong's environment is mainly in nature, with birdsong, wind, falling leaves, and the flapping sound of crows waving their wings. The blank part is "giving way to the clouds in the mountains". Some recordings were done in the woods, and some were done on mountain roads, focusing on the period from afternoon to evening. Li Jianhong, who grew up in the mountains of Fenghua, Zhejiang, feels close to and is in awe of the mountains: "Mogan Mountain and Qingliang Peak are both in Zhejiang. The plants, animals, climate, and the changing of the four seasons in the mountains are basically the same as in my hometown. It’s more cordial. It’s similar to the mood when I was doing environmental improvisation or taking pictures in the mountains of my hometown. Being alone in the mountains, the whole self will become quieter. The abundance of fine and scattered sounds in the mountains and forests also make one’s hearing more sensitive."

In the creation process of "Twelve Moods" and "Empty Mountain", what Li Jianhong pursued was a natural environment free from human interference. "Here is it" marks the extension of his understanding of the concept of "environment", that is, "all environments in life", including pigsties, bars, and TV fronts where programs are being played. It is also Qingliang Peak, and the sound of the natural environment runs through all the songs of "Empty Mountain", forming a sense of integrity. Except for the sound of the piano, there are no traces of human beings. And "A Morning at Qing Liang Peak" in "Here is it" contains the talking sounds of farmers who worked early in the morning and the sound of fixed-line telephone sounds. The creation accepts the mutual composition of humans and the environment, and the elements such as mountains, water, and hutong are no longer isolated and static.

"Hologram of Sea" was recorded on the beach of Dasha Village, Hepu Town, Xiangsha, Zhejiang Province in October 2010. Wei Wei recorded the sound of the sea and the sound of the computer at the same time. Electronic sound waves appear and disappear from time to time, interlacing with the sound of ocean waves. The timbre and rhythm of expression of the two are hugely different, but they are not mutually exclusive. They are more like walking the same path together with their own personalities, saying a few words when they want to talk and don't know where they will eventually go.

During the recording process, Wei Wei chose a method of reusing samples from the same track—continuously shifting, splitting, tearing, and selecting short pieces of material on the same track, and recombining them according to the time, scene, and mood. Three works "Enlarge", "Accelerate" and "Split" were formed. The specific feelings of the creator at every moment are unknown, but the state of the sound of the work conveys a strong sense of presence and the joy of feeling free. From this, the listener can also think about how to spend some time with the sea.

The "Hologram" in the album title is meant to express the meaning of "the whole is contained in the parts". She once wrote in the recording notes:

"In the recording, what I feel most is listening to the environment, facing it, entering it, and becoming a part of it. The environment does not express anything, and I do not express anything. Wind, birds, and insects may have nothing to do with my existence, but perhaps this kind of coexistence constitutes the so-called “world” and the so-called “life experience.” I feel that I am a part of a whole that is too large to describe. Even if it is a fragment, there will be a kind of emotion that was moved."