Sounds Like China

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One of the most enjoyable CDs I’ve found on the shelves in Beijing record stores recently is Favorite Beijing sounds, a collection of indisputably Beijing sonic samples compiled by self-described “sound artist” Peter Cusack.

The British field recording maestro came to China last year as part of Sound and the City, a sound art project funded by the U.K. government’s cultural body the British Council. Cusack and six fellow Brits described by the Council as “leading UK sound artists” C Brian Eno, David Toop, Clive Bell, Scanner, Kaffe Matthews and Robert Jarvis C “were invited to create new work inspired by the civic sound environments” of four Chinese cities.

Crowded and noisy, China’s urban environments seem to be breeding a new wave of sound art. French sounds collector Laurent Jeanneau has produced more than a dozen CDs through a Beijing label. What’s different about Sound and the City is that locals in Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Guangzhou were invited to describe their favorite sounds before the artists journeyed forth with their mics and recorded them.

“Many of the favorite sounds are ambient ones, less and less frequently heard as Chinese society changes at its current ferocious pace,” says the British Council introduction to the new 200-page English/Chinese Sound and the City book. The publication comes with two CDs of recordings made by Cusack et al.

To let the locals hear their chosen sounds, Cusack hitched eight loudhailers C of the type used in Chinese cities to advertise newspapers with a recorded loop C onto bicycles, with a different sound loop playing from each speaker. The bicycles then took set routes across each city. “The eight different loops harmonized and created interesting sound/music,” explains Cusack. “It sounds different if two or four or eight are heard together. It’s like combinations of different musical instruments… voice and drums together sound different to bass and guitar.”

Sound and the City “speaks to the general public, not the selected public,” local sound artist Yan Jun told a wine and crackers reception at Timezone 8 arts bookstore in Beijing’s industrial-chic 798 art zone. “They invite us to listen again to our own cities and our own lives,” said Yan Jun, whose electronic and ambient CDs sell next to Cusack’s Favorite Beijing Sounds at the Sugar Jar, a booth-sized shop selling indie and avant-garde music in the 798 district.

Aside from the collaborative box set, Cusack’s Favorite Beijing Sounds was a very tidy side-project to emerge from his Beijing trip. He edited and recorded most of the aural clips, with the remainder recorded by local student volunteers and artists. The CD is in the spirit of Cusack’s earlier brainchild, Your Favourite London Sounds (2001). The Beijing project includes the muttering of tourists as the national anthem is played during the daily flag raising ceremony at dawn on Tian’anmen Square. There’s also the familiar rattle of the city’s knife sharpeners, bicycle-mounted tradesmen who shout and shake a metal rattler as they pedal through local neighborhoods

Cusack initiated the Your Favorite London Sounds project in order to discover what Londoners find positive in their city’s soundscape. As well as Beijing, the idea has been repeated in other cities such as Chicago. Cusack earlier produced Vermilion Sounds, a monthly environmental sound program on London’s ResonanceFM radio, and currently lectures on sound arts and design at the London College of Communication.

When not playing guitar and bouzouki in his down time, Cusak likes to get out of the city too. Areas of “special sonic interest” he’s rubbed up the right way with his mic include Lake Baikal in Siberia for Baikal Ice, and sites of major environmental damage such as Chernobyl and Azerbaijan’s oil fields for Sounds From Dangerous Places. The latter project also saw him boat along controversial dams on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in southeast Turkey.

In addition to Cusak’s contribution, other tracks on the Sound and the City CDs illustrate the eclectic range of approaches taken by the artists involved in the project. Legendary rock producer Brian Eno installed speakers on an altar in Beijing’s Ritan Park, broadcasting the sound of bells from morning to dusk every day for a month. “I like parks in Beijing because there are always many old people doing exercise there,” the aging Eno told a local Beijing newspaper. “While many artists prefer to make music for young people, I like to make music for the old.” As Yan Jun said at the reception, these are sounds of the city that speak to everyone.