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After a short break, we’re glad to announce our 21st installment and first event of the new year—a Christmas present, if you will—highlighting the tour of Beijing based sound artists and frequent collaborators Zhu Wenbo, Sun Yizhou and Zhao Cong. Their artistic influence defies categorization, representing a scene on their own, somewhere between electro-acoustic composition, tape music and improvisation.In vitro #21
Zhu Wenbo
Zhu Wenbo is a sound-artist whose multifaceted practice spans electroacoustic music, tape music, improvisation, composition, and songwriting. He is deeply engaged in Beijing's music scene and is known for exploring "music unlike music," a departure from traditional experimental, noise, and improvisational forms.
In 2009, he founded Zoomin’ Night, an experimental music outfit that began as a concert series and expanded in 2015 to release music and introduce lesser-known practices to new audiences.
Known for his collaborative spirit, he has shaped numerous projects including No Performance with Li Song, which focuses on blending acoustic instruments, environmental sounds, and computer algorithms. Zhu is also a member of the band Kaoru Abe No Future, an ode to the Japanese alto saxophonist and improviser of the same name, and of the non-rock band Not in Catalog. Other notable collaborations include artists such as Jun-Y Ciao, Masafumi Ezaki, and Yan Jun. The latter being the co-producer of the compilation ‘There Is No Music from China’, cementing his role as an organizer and promoter in Beijing for over a decade.
zhuwenbo.bandcamp.com
zoominnight.com
Sun Yizhou
Sun Yizhou is a Beijing-based artist who performs in real-time with mis-operated appliances, embracing contradiction and uncertainty, in a state of irregularity or homogeneity. Since 2019, Sun has been performing and recording with a wide range of musicians, fostering a practice rooted in open exploration and conceptual refinement.
In 2022, he founded Aloe Records, a micro-label that quickly expanded into Aloe On-Site, an ongoing series of small-scale music events in Beijing. His work focuses on the movement of signals—sonic and electrical—and their interaction with human auditory perception. Employing outdated devices like dot matrix printers, often in combination with a no-input mixer, Sun’s performances examine the parameters and limitations of his tools to spark dynamic sonic experiences.
His latest releases include typewriter in the rain on his own imprint, and 辛口 (Super Dry), a vivid investigation of feedback and signal manipulation, which was released by Brachliegen Tapes. Sun’s work was recently featured in an in-depth interview in the December issue of The Wire.
sunyizhou.org
aloerecords.com
Zhao Cong
Zhao Cong began creating solo improvised music in 2016. Prior to that, she played bass in rock bands. In her improvised music, she uses a variety of everyday objects, amplifying them with different types of microphones to produce unfamiliar and unexpected sounds. Zhao has not had any formal or even unconventional music education; her practice developed organically from her everyday activities.
She has both solo and collaborative releases on experimental labels from Beijing to New York and is a member of Kaoru Abe No Future alongside Zhu Wenbo, her most notable collaborator.
Zhao’s talents include deftly catching things in midair and accidentally injuring her fingers.
zhaocong.bandcamp.com
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This event and tour is a collaboration between Café OTO, Default, Infant Tree, Li Song and Needcompany, with the support of Flanders State of the Art.
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Entrance: €12
Doors: 20h00
MILL (Needcompany)
Rue Gabrielle Petit 4
1080 Brussels
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Gabrielle Petitstraat 4, 1080 Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, België, Gabrielle Petitstraat 4, 1080 Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, België,Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, Sint-jans-molenbeek, Belgium
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