albums
# Environment Improvisation
空山
Empty Mountain
十二境
Twelve Moods
在這裡
Here It Is
Hello Balcony
by Mind Fiber
One Year
by Mind Fiber
孤独的房客
Lonely Lodger
series performances
Here It Is
to affect, to listen, to free improvise with everything life
2009
cows listening to guitar
The first experiment trip of environment improvisation was taken in Qingliang Moutain, where Li recorded on the ancient track between Zhejiang and Anhui provinces.
2010
a rain in Faxi Monastry
Environment improvisation was inspired by the unexpected heavy rain at Faxi Monastry 20 years ago. What seems to be a very ordinary everyday experience has become an emotional memory and a source of creative inspiration that has continuously reckoned since then.
2012
demolished Hutongs
Hutongs were once the most interesting and charming areas of Beijing, but were demolished one by one as the city devolopped.
“Here It Is” performance in a Taoist temple, part of which was used as a bar and the other part as a free market.
Mind Fiber, Li’s free improvisation duo with Wei Wei, recorded in their room in a hutong to memorize the day Dec. 12, 2012, which was said to be the opening of a new spiritual era or even a doomsday.
2013
improvise with everything in life
In the one -month residency in Lijiang, Yunnan province, Li relased that “the most vivid sounds in environment improvisation” is “the old people who gathered in the backyard and began chatting” duing the recording, which mindblew his whole idea about what is environment improvisation.
2015
a cave
Huiyu Village is a famous fossil concentration on the outskirts of Beijing. Halfway up a hill in a deserted mine, there is a cave deep as 3-4 floors, where we held the environment improvisation concert this time.
Participant Musicians include: Ake, Ding Chenchen, Da Ao, Li Jianhong, Li Yangyang, Sheng Di, Wang Ziheng, Wei Wei, Xiu Di, Zhao Cong, Zhou Qi, Zhu Wenbo.
2018
the wind of time
Photography is another side of Li’s environment improvisation. Invited by Lianzhou Foto Festival, Li completed photography series and recordings during his residency, and exhibited the work with his live performance as the opening.
2019
we are all parents
Curated by Jay Brown, founder/director of Lijiang Studio, China, and Japanese composer, sound designer and film maker Yasuhiro Morinaga, and funded by the Asian Cultural Council, Mr.Li was invited to join the two-week residency program in Hokkaido, during which he completed several music recordings and photographs, and performed on “Art With/out Small Children”. The residency and performance were reported by The Wire magazine, and the recording work and photography Mr. Li did during the residency were published by the label “concrete”.
2021
when the police came
Another environment improvisation was made on the square of Hangzhou’s most popular commercial and art center Tianmuli. Li continued his performance while the organizer and audience explained to the police what was happening.
2022
a tea party
In a cave in Changping, north of Beijing, a tea party was held with modern dance, free improvisation and Sharman drum.
2023
back to where it started
Invited by Positive Art Research Center (PARC), Li joined the project “Ode to Sound: Is Shanshui useful today?”, which was composed by three events and an organically growing art exhibition with archival documents, corresponding to three onto-epistemological states of acoustic “shanshui“: “huanghu (ambiguous),” “moqi (tacitly resonating),” and “gong zhen (collective resonance)” . These three events include “a deep listening retreat in ‘Shanshui‘,” “commissioned artworks,” “improvisation concerts”.
Li exhibited his photography work related to his creation in environment improvisation, and made an improvisation concert in Faxi Monastry, where the idea of envrionment improvisation was born.
acdemic works about Environment Improvisaion
Words
Environemnt Improvisation in academic works
- “Environmental Improvisation” Creation Series by ecoartasia READ
- Affective Listening as a Mode of Coexistence by Wang Jing READ
- AFFECTIVE LISTENING: China’s Experimental Music and Sound Art Practice by Adel Wang Jing READ
- Electroacoustic Improvisation and Life Nourishment by Wang Jing READ
- Global Sounds and Local Sentiments: A Survey of Improvised Music in Contemporary China by Wang Jing READ
- The Shape of Spaces yet to Come by Jonathan Chen READ