I think it was in 2009 when i received email from Lionel... Wow, it’s long enough to scheme a coup. Maybe two... Since then we discussed a lot about release his work on Sub Jam label and invite him to China... I wrote this long story into the book The Only Authentic Work which has been published with Lionel’s CD 23 Formes en Élastique as one work in 2013.

Then he came to China for a release tour. The day he arrived in Beijing was one of the heavy pollution days. On taxi to my home from airport was like lost in a cyberpunk film. He told me later: Mamma mia! I thought it was apocalyptic! But surely we survived from it and got a lot of bonus. Hot pot, Forbiden City, ink paitings, alcohol, black tea, music and friends, frozen worm and more hot pots. Then the trip to Shanghai and Hangzhou. And more alcohol and friends. And sounds, which are entirely, constantly embracing us and jumping into our recorders.

We traveled with Soviet Pop, an electronic music duo based in Beijing. 6 events in 3 cities including Beijing. In two weeks i discovered these cities as a traveller as well. Beijing was dusty, huge and droning. Hangzhou looked rich and tasty. Shanghai was fresh. We call it the capital of magic. I can recall so many pieces of moments of sounds, lights, colours, smells and faces... Yes that’s tour as it always been.

Lionel has wrote a lot of poems after this trip. I wrote few. Also we made photos and field recordings. Yes. That made a balance to what we eat (lamb and noodles) and breath (air with smog) from the world. Or maybe not. I’m not really sure what we did to the world. We just spent some time together with helps from people and electricity. The foods were fantastic anyway.

Before the last day Lionel stayed in China we recorded this album at an artist friend (Lili Chin)’s residency studio in Shanghai. Both we had speaker cones as instruments so we recorded our sounds from them. Plus recordings from our mixers. That was November 11th, 2013, in one of the most expensive hotels of the world.

 

Thanks: Ambassade De France En Chine, Zajia, Zhejiang University, China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, Chronus Art Center, 1984, Xin Che Jian and people who we had dinner together (Adel Wang Jing and BUS, Dajuin Yao, Lili Chin, Yin Yi of BM Space, Soviet Pop...).

Yan Jun.