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Laya ProjectThis Week

on Link TV

 

This week we are showing Laya Project, and it’s good for whatever ails you. Feeling like you need a getaway? Then immerse yourself in the magnificent vistas of tropical climes- stunning sunsets and verdant jungles. Feeling like you need to refresh yourself spiritually? Trance out on the meditative chanting of monks and acolytes as they sing their devotion to the divine in temples and shrines. Feeling sorry for yourself? Well these folks lived through the Great Tsunami, so remember, it could always be worse!

 

-Posted February 8, 2010 by Michal Shapiro, Director of Music Programming

World Music Blog

Taiwan Journey Part 5: Pushing the Envelope

This post covers a lot of territory: electronica, performance art and hip hop!
Lim Geong was the first person I absolutely knew I wanted to interview when I went to Taiwan, because his work is right up there with the best electronica, and it always retains a strong Asian flavor.  His story is unusual too, in that he started out with huge success as a pop singing star, and rejected that role to, as he says, "go from the front of the stage to behind the scenes."  He has since scored many movies, and even appeared as an actor in quite a few. To me, he's practically a metaphor for what Taiwan has gone through: he expressed the freedom from martial law when he sang his big 1990 hit "Marching Forward" and then followed his star reaching out to the rest of Asia and the world, with music of the digital age.
On the other hand, the gentle acoustic venture "A Moving Sound" is the baby of Scott Prairie and Yun-Ya Hsieh, aka Mia. Mia studied interdisciplinary arts with Meredith Monk in the USA where she met Scott, and together they have  brought the rather Western concept of performance art to the island, bringing dance, theater, music and plenty of audience participation together.
Hip-hop is of course no stranger to Taiwan, but Kou Chou Ching are the pre-eminent conscious rap band there. I first learned about them through their wonderful video "Black Heart", a computer-generated animation based on Chinese puppet theater (still a high art in Taiwan) and flavored with both classical and traditional sounds. But the song is an indictment of amok capitalism that creates the black-hearted businessman, who in turn sends poisonous products into the marketplace. Kou Chou Ching is gradually tuning in Taiwanese youth to the need for more engagement with their world.

 

 
 

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