Split Works_Split Works

Speaking at Transition China

Split Works — Tue, 08 May 2012 09:55:09 +0000

Archie Hamilton, a major contributor to this site (and MD of the Chinese concert promoter and festival owner Split Works) is proud and honored to be speaking at the inaugural Transition China conference, hosted by the Entrepreneur’s Organization. His chosen topic is the Anatomy of a Chinese Music festival, and he is in quite illustrious company, so if you can afford the ticket , come along.

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Announcing the JUE NEXT GEN 2012 Photographers of the Year!

Split Works — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 10:23:21 +0000

Announcing the JUE NEXT GEN 2012

Photographers of the Year!

This year’s installment of the JUE | Music + Art festival was a smash, culminating in the March 23 festival Wrap Party and Award Ceremony for the JUE NEXT GEN photography competition, presented by ospop.

The event was hosted at Shanghai’s Central Studios, where JUE artists, musicians, and other revelers from Shanghai’s creative scene enjoyed tropical cocktails courtesy of VnC, and mouth-watering Portuguese egg tarts and sausages from Scioko. ospop. collaboration partner Tian Yuan took some time to check out the JUE NEXT GEN exhibition and to rub elbows with the 200-odd party guests.

ospop. spokesperson Tian Yuan is watching the finalists’ photos

During the party, ospop. founder Ben Walters announced the winning photographers:

ospop. founder Ben Walters is announcing the winner

Runner-up Winner: 45-year-old Huang Zhiqiang, originally from Gaoyou, Guangdong, who won RMB 3,000 for his photo “晨捕” or “Morning Catch.”

Huang Zhiqiang Morning Catch

Grand Prize Winner: 27-year-old Qingdao, Shandong native 刘晓彤, who was awarded RMB 10,000 for his captivation photo, “围城” or “City Surroundings.” Scroll down below to learn more about Liu Xiaotong and his work.

Liu Xiaotong City Surroundings

People’s Choice Winner Shen Peiyu, 23, traveled from Beijing to attend the party and accept her award for her photo “海の男” or “Sea and Man,” which received the most votes from visitors to www.juefestival.com

Shen Peiyu Sea and Man

ospop. products display

Guests at the party

The 15 finalist photos, and the top 2 winners, were selected from over 400 entries by the JUE NEXT GEN judging panel:• Liu Dan, Photographer, Sohu

• Zhang Xing, Product Manager, LOFTER

• Ben Walters, Founder, ospop.

• Rodney Evans, Director, Central Studios

• Abby Lavin, Director, JUE | Music + Art

We caught up with Grand Prize winner Liu Xiaotong to learn more about this emerging young talent:

Liu Xiaotong

1. When did you start getting interested in photography?

I was born in 1985, and started taking photos in 2009. I had a late start (laughes).

2. What sort of thing inspires you? What are some of the subjects that you frequently photograph?

At night, the city can finally catch her breath, after the mania of the day has subsided. However, even after we draw the curtain on the day, there are many aspects that have yet to be discovered. Every fragmented shadow reflected on the steel and concrete jungle of the city, every uncompromising beam of light shot into the night sky, they are my original inspiration. Their beauty is both honest and dishonest. In my opinion, photography is a path from imitation, to knowledge, to innovation. Self-understanding is very difficult to achieve; not everybody is willing to face their inner thoughts and then express them through the camera lens. When I first started out, I took photos of the light found in darkness and the warmth found in freezing cold. However, recently I have been exploring the deeper meaning and nether recesses of desperation and loneliness in my work. It has made me quite desperate as well. I have always been interested in the relationship between individuals and the city. Over the course of examining that relationship, I discovered the confusion and disorientation inherent in living in this city and the unknown nature of waiting for the future to arrive. But there always will be food to eat. I hope to move past these current darker subjects and into further exploration of the beautiful small things in life.

3. Tell us about the photograph you entered in the competition.

This photograph was taken at Lishui Qiao in Beijing. Litang Rd. is a major transportation artery into Beijing from the north, but the road itself hasn’t been able to support the traffic pressure for many years now. The wall shown in the photograph surrounds construction for a new access road, designed to relieve congestion, running parallel to Litang Rd. The construction workers were afraid that drivers wouldn’t be able to see the construction barriers at night, so they strung up a string of lights in an “M” shape to warn oncoming traffic. I thought this was really interesting – even if they hadn’t hung it in the shape of an “M” the lights still would have been there to warn drivers about the construction wall. But I had the faint impression that the construction worker who hung that string of lights in that shape had some mischievous or artistic or nice motive for doing that, and that resonated with me. At the moment when a local resident stuck his head into a gap in the barrier to take a look, I pressed the shutter.

4. What do you do now? What did you study in university?

Right now I work in IT. In university, I majored in Computer Science, Information Systems and Information Management.

5. What are your plans for the future?

At first, photography was an activity for me to de-stress. Through my work, I’ve been able to document the ups and downs and changes in my recent life. I think I’ll just keep taking photographs. Maybe one day I’ll go back to my hometown of Qingdao, find a place with a view of the ocean and open a coffee shop. I’ll hang my photographs on the walls and guests will be able to ask about the stories behind them.

Lastly, I’d like to take a moment to thank the organisers of JUE NEXT GEN for all their hard work and the judges for selecting my entry. My gratitude goes to those who strive for their ideals, for their livelihood, to those who struggle for their future, be it bright or bleak. Every drop of your sweats glistens in my eyes.

Media Inquiries: Mo Liling, Split Works: mll@spli-t.com | 021-6445-0500

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Apr.12 Wooozy Sessions #6 Hangzhou Folk Trio The Tree

Split Works — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 06:37:00 +0000

Date: 12^nd Apr 2012, Thursday 8 PM

Venue: Yu Ying Tang

Address: 851 Kai Xuan Lu, near Yan’an (w) Lu

Tickets: 35 (student) / 40 RMB

*(5 RMB from each ticket will go to the charity organization Shiyi Gongyi)

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【Wooozy Session】

Wooozy Sessions is a monthly event brought to you by the good people at Wooozy.cn and Yuyintang. Starting this July, we will be inviting a band based outside of Shanghai to play a show every second Thursday of the month. This project’s initiative is to provide a platform for young, emerging bands to develop their sounds and expand their musical horizons. It is specifically for those bands that can’t make it to Shanghai due to financial reasons or a lack of promotion.

We hope the Wooozy Sessions can provide a gateway to the music fans in Shanghai as to what the young and creative kids in other cities have to offer.

We will be donating part of the profits after every showcase to Shiyi Gongyi, a Beijing-based charity organization that works to provide healthcare to underprivileged children.

The Tree:

The Tree always believes that ear and heart are the best way to express and transmit.

They make sounds and pass on the feelings in different ways. Their music is extensive like trees and with infinite possibilities. The Tree pass on the simplest and strongest interior monologue with their music.

The leading vocal is just like sunlight through morning mist. Their music has extremely rich picture feeling. It’s the grassy afternoon, the footprints of a running child, the swinging banyan on the hill. It’s everything that echoes in your mind. Their music is everything about warmth, ideal and beauty.

Their first release, The Tree, is a special album. In this industrialized recording era, they recorded for six months with eight-track recorder. The Tree added a human touch and power beyond your imagination to this record.

The album was firstly released at Xiami and more than 50 thousand people listened to it in the first week. Thousands of shares and good reviews gave them reputation and more performing chances. The Trees are invited to this year’s Strawberry Festival in the early May. Before that, Wooozy Session will bring them to Shanghai, which is also their first Shanghai show as the trio.

Relevant links:

The Tree: http://site.douban.com/littletree/

Shi Yi Gong Yi Charity: http://blog.sina.com.cn/shiyigongyi

Wooozy: www.wooozy.cn

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March 24,2012JUE | Music + Art :Eatliz animation screening and Q&A with Guy Ben Shetrit

Split Works — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 04:05:57 +0000

JUE | Music + Art 2012

Israel’s Hottest Art Rock Group Eatliz animation screening and Q&A

We’ve got a cool JUE event this weekend in Beijing!

The event is a screening of the award-winning animated MVs of Eatliz, and a Q&A with the director, Guy Ben Shetrit.

Beijing, The Hutong

March 24, Saturday, 6 pm – 8 pm

No.1, Jiu Dao Wan Zhongxiang, Direction, Beijing, China

Free

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Eatliz’s video for “Lose This Child”

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EATLIZ are an Israeli music collective renowned for their self-animated music videos, which have won numerous international awards and awards in China. The video for their song “Hey” won the:

Spike Lee Award at 2009 Babelgum Online Film Festival
6th China International Animation and Digital Arts Festival – Special Jury Award in TV Programming
Cyber Sousa – Xiamen International Animation festival – Best experimental animation

Eatliz – Hey

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March 23/25 2012JUE | Music + Art :Israel’s Hottest Art Rock Group Eatliz

Split Works — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 03:41:15 +0000

JUE | Music + Art 2012

Israel’s Hottest Art Rock Group Eatliz

Shanghai, Yuyintang

March 23, Friday, 9 PM

851 Kaixuan Rd. (nr. Yan’an West Rd.)

50 RMB

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Eatliz + Devil Music Ensemble

Beijing, Tango 3rd Floor

March 25, Sunday, 7 PM

3F 79, Hepingli Xijie, Dongcheng District

60 RMB

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Eatliz is a six piece female fronted art rock band, known as Tel Aviv’s most innovative band. Mesmerizing front-woman Lee Triffon leads the outfit in creating spectacular live shows all over the world, including major festivals (Primavera sound in Spain, Exit festival in Serbia, SXSW in Austin TX and more).

Playing what’s been termed as “complicated pop,” Eatliz features elements ranging from pop with a Middle Eastern edge to “four on the floor” guitar stomps. The result is a sound that calls to mind artists like Mr. Bungle, Björk and Portishead. The variety of styles the band combines in a single song, helped gain them fans of across many genres, ages, and countries.

Eatliz’s video for “Lose This Child”

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March 24/25,2012 The Red Heroine Returns: The Devil Music Ensemble

Split Works — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 08:59:05 +0000

The Red Heroine Returns:

The Devil Music Ensemble for JUE | Music + Art 2012

Shanghai, Art Labor

March 24, Saturday, 7 PM – 9 PM

Room 411 1F,Building No.4,570 Yongjia Rd (near Yueyang Rd)

50 RMB

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Devil Music Ensemble + Eatliz

Beijing, Tango 3rd Floor

March 25, Sunday, 7 PM

3F 79, Hepingli Xijie, Dongcheng District

60 RMB

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Combining different art forms is hardly new or ever interesting. Unless you have something exceptional, such as “live scoring a 1929 Chinese silent ‘Kung Fu’ film named ‘Red Heroine’”.

The Devil Music Ensemble (DME) is an American three-piece band that provides live “soundtracks” to silent films. Among their previous bold undertakings were the films of Man Ray and Jean Cocteau.

The Devil Music Ensemble – 《The Red Heroine》2012 China Tour Trailer

For this year’s JUE | Music + Art Festival, they bring the 1929 Kung Fu film back home. Red Heroine, directed by Wen Yimin, was an example of the extremely popular Chinese swordplay film genre (wuxia pian), and one of the first exported to the West. To compose this score, Devil Music Ensemble drew inspiration from the traditional Chinese folk and classical music, as well as soundtracks from classic Kung Fu films. This combination of the ancient tradition of martial arts, early 20^th century Asian film and 21^st century modern music is highly unique to say the least.

This score was premiered at the Films at the Gate Kung Fu Film Festival in Boston in 2008. Since then, the band had completed over 7 U.S. and 3 European tours. The DME have established themselves as one of the primary American groups in this field and have perfected their performance. With instruments as diverse and unlikely as electric guitar, synthesizer, and erhu, the band manages to create an eerie but grand atmosphere that envelops the audience with emotion and rhythm.

Split Works is proud to add Devil Music Ensemble to the JUE | Music + Art 2012 line-up! We firmly believe that Devil Music Ensemble will not only prove to be a celebration of both Western and Eastern culture, but also a greatly enjoyable artistic adventure for all. On top of that, guitarist Brendon Wood, AKA B-Woo will perform “solo lapsteel guitar laptop processed ambient sound shape music”; and the electric violinist Jonah Rapino will present African music-inspired electric dance beat music as Berbere Superstar. Get ready to be surprised and excited!

Devil Music Ensemble Official Site: http://www.devilmusic.org/

JUE | Music + Art Festival Official Site: http://www.juefestival.com

Split Works: http://www.spli-t.com

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March 21,2012 JUE | Music + Art : Electric Shadows Screening, Heima

Split Works — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 10:02:31 +0000

Beijing, Riverbank Cafe

March 21, Wednesday, 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm

39 Maizidian W St, Chaoyang,Beijing,China

40 RMB (includes a coffee or tea)

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Dir: Dean DeBlois, ICELAND, 2007, 97mins

In 2006, in the endless magic hour of the Icelandic summer, Sigur Ros played a series of concerts around their homeland. Combining both the biggest and smallest shows of their career, the entire tour was filmed, and now provides a unique insight into one of the world’s shyest and least understood bands captured live in their natural habitat. Material from all four of the band’s albums is featured, including many rare and notable moments. Among these are a heart-stopping rendition of the previously unreleased Gitardjamm, filmed inside a derelict herring oil tank in the far West Fjords; a windblown, one-mic recording of Vaka, shot at a dam protest camp subsequently drowned by rising water; and first time acoustic versions of such rare live beauties as Staralfur, Agaetis Byrjun and Von.

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March 19, 2012 JUE | Music + Art : Steve Mackay (The Stooges)

Split Works — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 04:03:06 +0000

Shanghai, Yuyintang

March 19, Monday, 9 PM

851 Kaixuan Rd. (nr. Yan’an West Rd.)

40 RMB

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An active professional musician since the mid sixties, Mackay first found fame as the sax player on Funhouse by the Stooges, a record cited as their favorite by many musicians, including Joey Ramone, Mark E. Smith, Jack White, Nick Cave, Henry Rollins, Buzz Osborne and Steve Albini. He then continued on a long, varied voyage through styles as a member of the Violent Femmes, backing Residents’ guitarist Snakefinger, collaborating with J Mascis and Mike Watt and the music collective Radon.

In more recent years, Steve Mackay accelerated his activity with a barrage of collaborations. He reclaimed his position with the Violent Femmes, on stage and in the studio, toured five continents with the Stooges reunion, was called upon by the Dirtbombs, led an Israeli improv band in Tel Aviv, and appears on both volumes of USS, an ongoing Radon backed collaboration series with members of Soopa, Ovo, Barbez, Love 666 and more.

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March 21/22,2012 French violinist-cum-masterful scientist of folktronica Chapelier Fou

Split Works — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 04:48:17 +0000

JUE | Music + Art 2012：
French violinist-cum-masterful scientist of folktronica Chapelier Fou

Shanghai, Yuyintang

March 21, Wednesday, 9 PM

851 Kaixuan Rd. (nr. Yan’an West Rd.)

Support: Reykjavictim

80 RMB

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Beijing, MAO Livehouse

March 22, Thursday, 9 PM

111 Gulou Dongdajie, Dongcheng District

Support: Yan Yulong

60 RMB

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Louis Warynski, hailing from France and operating under the moniker ChapelierFou, started out his career by studying classical violin at the Academy of Music. With a solid base in music theory, he carefully crafted rock sounds and electro beats in what would become a masterful mix of rich sounds spanning across genres. Surrounding himself on stage with a computer, keyboard, guitar, and violin, his lyrical poetry along with the instruments he plays makes for a fascinating and beautiful performance.

Chapelier Fou Live video

After his first three EPs, Darling, darling, darling… , Scandale and Al Abama , Chapelier Fou released his first album 613 in 2010. Marking a transition into the new decade, the media praised 613 as a real public success, leading Chapelier Fou to tour around France and abroad.

2012 is the time for his second album “Invisible”, to be released on March 26th. Behind his mix of electro and more classical instrumentation, these nine new tracks reveal Chapelier Fou as an artist able of showing elaborated and catchy melodies with an outstanding complexity and rare song-writing work… Definitely one of the most intriguing hybrids of the recent years.

Chapelier Fou’s website : www.chapelierfou.com

Buy Chapelier Fou’s records on : www.icidailleurs.com/chapelier-fou

JUE | Music + Art: www.juefestival.com

Split Works: www.spli-t.com

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LOOK AT ART & GET 20RMB OFF TICKETS TO JUE | MUSIC + ART GIGS!

Split Works — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 06:25:08 +0000

Thanks to our friends at Icon Art Map, you won’t get lost in the middle of Moganshan warehouses ever again. JUE | Music + Art has teamed up with the fine folks behind Shanghai’s (China’s?) No. 1 art map to bring every art event to your fingertips. And what’s more, a copy of the map will even get you discounts on tickets to select festival gigs.

It’s simple: pick up a copy of the Icon Art Map, available at fine houses of art, culture, music and more around Shanghai. Tear out the special JUE | Music + Art insert and bring it to JUE gigs for 20RMB off the door ticket price!

There are a limited number of discounts for each show, so get there early to guarantee you get in on the deal. At the venue, look for the JUE x Icon Art Map sign in the window. If you see it’s still there, it’s your lucky day, and you get 20RMB off the ticket price! When we’ve sold the pre-determined number of discounted tickets, we’ll take the sign down, and all tickets will return to full price (whether you show up with the map or not).

Here are the gigs where you can present the map, and the number of discounted tickets we’ll be selling:

SHANGHAI:

►Death Cab for Cutie @ Yunfeng Theater (10 tickets)

March 9, Friday

►Courtney Wing @ Yuyintang (4 tickets)

March 14, Wednesday

►Steve Mackay @ Yuyintang (4 tickets)

March 19, Monday

►Summer Lei + BIT Sound @ Mao Livehouse (8 tickets)

March 21, Wednesday

►Chapelier Fou @ Yuyintang (6 tickets)

March 21, Wednesday

►Eatliz @ Yuyintang (4 tickets)

March 23, Friday

►Devil Music Ensemble @ Art Labor (4 tickets)

March 24, Saturday

More show info please check: www.juefestival.com

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The Icon Art Map is available for free at many art galleries, livehouses, cultural centers and more all over Shanghai (ONLY) . Full of events listings and detailed maps, it is the perfect resource for people looking to inject more art into their everyday lives.

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Split Works_Split Works

Speaking at Transition China

Announcing the JUE NEXT GEN 2012 Photographers of the Year!

Apr.12 Wooozy Sessions #6 Hangzhou Folk Trio The Tree

March 24,2012JUE | Music + Art :Eatliz animation screening and Q&A with Guy Ben Shetrit

JUE | Music + Art 2012

Israel’s Hottest Art Rock Group Eatliz animation screening and Q&A

Eatliz – Hey

March 23/25 2012JUE | Music + Art :Israel’s Hottest Art Rock Group Eatliz

JUE | Music + Art 2012

Israel’s Hottest Art Rock Group Eatliz

Eatliz + Devil Music Ensemble

March 24/25,2012 The Red Heroine Returns: The Devil Music Ensemble

The Red Heroine Returns:

The Devil Music Ensemble for JUE | Music + Art 2012

Devil Music Ensemble + Eatliz

March 21,2012 JUE | Music + Art : Electric Shadows Screening, Heima

March 19, 2012 JUE | Music + Art : Steve Mackay (The Stooges)

March 21/22,2012 French violinist-cum-masterful scientist of folktronica Chapelier Fou

JUE | Music + Art 2012： French violinist-cum-masterful scientist of folktronica Chapelier Fou

LOOK AT ART & GET 20RMB OFF TICKETS TO JUE | MUSIC + ART GIGS!

JUE | Music + Art 2012：
French violinist-cum-masterful scientist of folktronica Chapelier Fou