The Squid's Ear
Writing about improvised, contemporary, experimental and unusual music,
following the activities of Squidco...
  •  •  •     Join Our Mailing List!

The Squid's Ear
Facebook: Squidco Sales



Heard In

Reviews of artist releases:
cd's, books, magazines, &c.


  Bin Li 
  I am also here
  (Edition Wandelweiser) 


  
   review by John Eyles
  2020-09-24
Bin Li: I am also here (Edition Wandelweiser)

Bin David Li was born in Fuzhou, China, and now lives and works in New York City. He is a member of Wandelweiser, who have published four of his scores. Although his first album I am also here is credited solely to Bin Li, his fellow Wandelweiser member Switzerland's Stefan Thut is a key contributor to it, the two effectively working as a duo on two versions of the title piece, one titled in English, the other Chinese. Bin Li has given several performances based on the score, including one with Thut on cello; the CD versions are quite different from any other version. According to the score, both performers need to be "present" during the performance and do not "see" each other. However, for these recordings, Thut played the piece at Gimmelwald in Switzerland and Bin Li at Manhattan, USA, a distance of about four thousand miles apart. The two versions are presented as a pair, the first, running for about fifteen-and-a half minutes, featuring viola da gamba and voices speaking in English, the second forty-two-and-a-half minute version featuring qin — a fretless Chinese board zither with seven strings — and voices speaking Chinese.

Much of the first version comprises prolonged silences, audible sounds accounting for less than half a minute of its running time. Some Wandelweiser releases include silences so listeners can hear the beginning of each note and its decay to silence. On other releases, prolonged silences are more akin to those John Cage advocated, as in his 4' 33" during which listeners were encouraged to listen to the ambient sounds of their environment. Neither of these seems particularly applicable in this case; the four words "I" "am" "also" & "here" are each spoken once, separately, over a period of about ten minutes, the silences between them serving to raise anticipation and heighten tension, a very different experience to the two cited above. For Bin Li, silence seems to be a motif running through the album; on the cover he quotes Wittgenstein's closing line of his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent." and a poem by the Tang dynasty Buddhist poet Wang Wei.

Although considerably longer than the first version, the second seems fuller and more inviting, most importantly because parts of it feature background field recordings of bird song and other ambient sounds, meaning that its silences feel more Cageian, not like pregnant pauses during which one is waiting for something to occur.

Rounding off the album is the twelve-minute "You"; in Chinese, the "you" sound means "also" or "again" so the track has different meanings to different listeners. As with the opening track, "You" is dominated by silence. After about five minutes, the title is pronounced once then silence resumes; right at the end of the track, the word is again whispered several times through a Japanese hichiriki flute with the reed removed, producing an eerily chilling sound which suggests Bin Li might have a promising future sound tracking horror movies.... Fascinating.







Comments and Feedback:



The Squid's Ear presents
reviews about releases
sold at Squidco.com
written by
independent writers.

Squidco

Recent Selections @ Squidco:


Kim Jae Jung:
Shamanism
(Relative Pitch)



Joe McPhee/
Susanna Gartmayer/
John Edwards/
Maria Portugal:
Monster
(Klanggalerie)



Signe Emmeluth/
Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten/
Axel Filip:
Hyperboreal Trio
(Relative Pitch)



John Butcher/
John Edwards:
This Is
Not Speculation
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Izumi Kimura/
Lina Andonovska/
Dominique Pifarely:
Seven Dreams
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Jerome Deupree/
Sylvie Courvoisier/
Lester St. Louis/
Joe Morris:
Canyon
[2 CDs]
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Marc Baron/
Eric La Casa:
Contrefacons
(Swarming)



Francisco Lopez:
Untitled (
2021-2022)
[2 CDs]
(Bu Lang Tribute Cake)



Eventless Plot |
Haarvol:
The Subliminal Paths
[CASSETTE + DOWNLOAD]
(Innovo Editions)



Akmee:
Sacrum Profanum
(Nakama Records)



Karl Evangelista Quintet
feat. Bobby Bradford and
William Roper:
Solace Angles
(Asian Improv)



Sveio:
Latent Imprints
(577 Records)



The Sleep Of Reason
Produces Monsters (
Rasmussen/
Mitelli/
Rezaei/
Koenig):
The Sleep Of Reason
Produces Monsters
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)



Dan Brown/
Dan Reynolds:
Live At
The Grange Hall
[unauthorized][CASSETTE]
(Sacred Realism)



Matt Mitchell:
Sacrosanctity
(Obliquity)



Das B (
Mazen Kerbaj/
Mike Majkowski/
Magda Mayas/
Tony Buck):
Love
(thanatosis produktion/
Corbett Vs Dempsey)



Das B (
Mazen Kerbaj/
Mike Majkowski/
Magda Mayas/
Tony Buck):
Love
[VINYL]
(thanatosis produktion/
Corbett Vs Dempsey)



Mary Halvorson Septet:
Illusionary Sea
[2 LPS]
(Firehouse 12 Records)



Darius Jones:
Legend of e'Boi (
The Hypervigilant Eye)
[VINYL + DOWNLOAD]
(Aum Fidelity)



Irene Schweizer/
Rudiger Carl/
Johnny Dyani/
Han Bennink:
Irenes Hot Four
(Intakt)







Squidco
Click here to
advertise with
The Squid's Ear






The Squid's Ear pays its writers.
Interested in becoming a reviewer?




The Squid's Ear is the companion magazine to the online music shop Squidco !


  Copyright © Squidco. All rights reserved. Trademarks. (15831)