Poster Design: Barbara Song; Dessert photo provided by: Tian Bryant
The Continuum of Migration: Improvised Music by Che Chen
连续迁徙：陈策即兴音乐会
Time: Saturday, January 7, 2023, 3:00 pm–4:30 pm, 45-minute performance
Location: Fou Gallery, 410 Jefferson Avenue, #1, Brooklyn, New York, NY 11221
Musician: Che Chen
Event Coordinators: Barbara Song, Iris Zhang
Ticket Price: $25 per person
Maximum Number of Participants: 30 people
时间: 2023年1月7日星期六, 下午3:00–4:30, 演出45分钟
地点: Fou Gallery, 410 Jefferson Avenue, #1, Brooklyn, New York, NY 11221
音乐家：陈策
活动组织：宋东玥， 张琦
票价: $25
人数限额: 30人
New York - Fou Gallery welcomes you to attend The Continuum of Migration: Improvised Music by Che Chen on Saturday, January 7, from 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm with a 45-min performance. In the context of the classical and modern architectural structures and spatial narratives in the current exhibition Suyi Xu: All that is Solid Melts into Air, we invite musician and multi-instrumentalist Che Chen to present a long form solo improvisation for percussion, flutes, homemade instruments and electronics. He will use the superimposition, interlacing, dismantling and recombination of sounds to respond to the present moment in real time, providing overlay and counterpoint to the energy and atmosphere of the gallery space, content of the current exhibition, and gathering and leaving of the audience.
否画廊诚挚邀请您参加将于1月7日周六下午3:00–4:30举办的连续迁徙：陈策即兴音乐会，演出时长45分钟。呼应当下展览《徐苏宜：物化成空》作品中对古典与现代建筑结构、空间叙事的碰撞和思考，本次活动邀请音乐家及多乐器演奏家陈策带来长篇即兴独奏，演奏乐器包括打击乐器，长笛，自制乐器与电子乐器。他将通过声音的叠加、交错、拆散和重组，实时回应演出现场的能量和氛围、展览内容以及观众的移动和聚散。
Suyi Xu, Through A Glass Darkly, 2021. Oil on canvas, 36 x 30 inches ©Suyi Xu, Photograph by Xi Zhou, courtesy of Fou Gallery.
“Alex got me the gig. Tea set on the gallerist’s table. The high dí zi tones reflect sharply and then decay quickly. Tin ceiling, wooden floor and molding. Figurative paintings hang in an otherwise empty room that used to be someone’s home. Living space. The classical is always inherited, and privilege gives way to noise. Fǒu: to negate, deny, not. We meet one another at different points on the continuum of migration. Fluency is the first to go. The generation born here gleans the mother tongue incompletely. Their parents piece together a “broken English”. What does it take to break a language? And what about a broken music? There is opportunity here, precepts that do not have any bearing on meaning can be discarded. “
—— 陈策写于2022年11月
In Chen’s program note, he compared this event to one of the many intersections on "the continuum of migration," where people met by fate and separated in a hurry. His creation is based on the concept of "brokenness" – rooted in the "broken" identity and language system brought about by the immigration of parents’ generations and being far away from their homeland, which is concretely reflected in the changing relationship between audience and performer. Chen hopes to break the rules of conventional performances. The audience and the performer are no longer in distinctive roles with clear boundaries but a whole that flows in the space.
The improvised concert is also closely related to Suyi Xu’s creation. Curator Echo He wrote in the exhibition’s article: “Through a Glass Darkly (2021) depicts an empty New York downtown cinema where the theater screen shows a snapshot of a common commuter scene - several hands holding onto the metallic poles of a subway cart; they are in intimate proximity but carefully avoid touching each other. Xu infuses the alienation and solitude of quotidian contemporary existence with a tender and humanistic gaze.” We hope that through the solid experimental attitude of Chen's music, we can embrace the uncertainty on the way of “migration” while celebrating the exhibition's closing.
在陈策的音乐手记中，他将本次活动比喻为人们在“连续迁徙”道路上的许多交汇点之一，因缘相遇，又匆匆离散。他的创作建立在“破碎”这一抽象概念上：根植于父辈移民、远离故土所带来的身份认同和语言体系的“破碎”，具象地体现在观众与表演者两者关系的更迭。他希望打破常规演出规则，观众和表演者不再是界限分明的两种角色，而是在空间中流动的整体。
本次即兴音乐会也与徐苏宜的展览主题息息相关。策展人何雨在展览文章中写道：“《镜中窥暗》（2021）描绘了上下班高峰时期地铁一角——通勤的人被迫分享一个狭小的室内空间，一只只手紧握金属扶手，又要小心翼翼不与彼此碰触...（徐苏宜）将地铁画面置于纽约下城一个空无一人的影院，呈现出现代生活中的疏离。” 我们希望通过陈策音乐强烈的实验态度，拥抱迁徙途中的不确定性；庆祝展览闭幕的同时，带给大家情绪上的共鸣与力量。
Musician
音乐家
Photo Credit to Cameron Kelly McLeod courtesy of ISSUE Project Room
Che Chen 陈策
Che Chen has been an energetic presence in New York City’s experimental underground as an improviser, composer, band leader, multi-instrumentalist and concert organizer since the early 2000s. Attempting to fuse the immediacy of subaltern folk forms with an exploration of the physical and psychological properties of sound, Chen is a perpetually amateur student of tuning theory, acoustics, and the great modal and rhythmic systems of the world. Something of a “non-specialist”, he performs and records on a variety of instruments including guitar, percussion, violin, contrabass, woodwinds and electronics. In 2012 he and percussionist Rick Brown formed 75 Dollar Bill, the project for which he is best known. Their “little big band” is a community-based, multi-generational, multicultural ensemble that combines free improvisation, rock, minimalism, and African and Asian music influences. Though primarily a self-taught musician, Chen took a two-week crash course in the Moorish modal system with Jeich Ould Chigaly in Nouakchott, Mauritania in 2013, an experience to which his approach to guitar is deeply indebted. He organizes the monthly concert series, Fire Over Heaven, at Outpost Artist Resources in Ridgewood, and shows at other DIY venues throughout the city.
自2000年代初期以来，陈策作为即兴演奏家、作曲家、乐队领队、多乐器演奏家和音乐会组织者，一直活跃在纽约市地下实验音乐圈。陈策自诩永远是个研究调音理论、声学及世界上伟大的调式和节奏系统的业余学生，试图将底层民间音乐形式的即时性与声音的生理和心理特性的探索融合起来。作为一个“非专业人士”，他演奏和录制各种乐器，包括吉他、打击乐器、小提琴、低音提琴、木管乐器以及电子乐器。在2012年，他与打击乐手Rick Brown组建了备受关注的75 Dollar Bill乐队，乐队虽小却涉猎各种音乐风格及形式。这是一个以社区为基础、多代、多文化的乐队，结合了自由即兴创作、摇滚、极简主义以及非洲和亚洲等多元音乐影响。尽管陈策是一名自学成才的音乐人，但他于2013年在非洲毛里塔尼亚的努瓦克肖特师从Jeich Ould Chigaly，参加了为期两周的摩尔调式系统课程，这段经历深深影响了他的吉他演奏。他在纽约皇后区Ridgewood的Outpost Artist Resources艺术中心组织月度音乐会系列Fire Over Heaven，并在全市其他DIY场地演出。
75 Dollar Bill Instagram | 关于75 Dollar Bill乐队请查看Instagram >>
Che Chen Bandcamp page | 陈策Bandcamp个人主页 >>
Other Performances 其他演出视频
Event Photos
Event Video Demo
Improvised Music Performance by Che Chen, Jan 7, 2023. Video shot by Barbara Song, courtesy of Fou Gallery