radia season 30, show #421 (radio one 91FM. dunedin, new zealand), playing from april 22 to april 29, 2013.

Taiwan Old-New Times

by Johnny Chang

In the gentlest and least signposted of ‘city symphonies’, albeit one which transfigures the field recording toward the overheard musicality of the everyday, Berlin based composer Johnny Chang takes us on an extended soundwalk around the changed urbanscape of his Taiwan childhood. As Johnny says of the piece:

“Field recordings captured in Taiwan, from immediate vicinity of childhood home in the city to the countryside.

(in order of appearance) :

Street market vendors chatter and canned pop music punctuate.

Traffic sounds originate from the intersection directly at the corner of my family home – pretty much a constant background sound.

Ebb and flow of Kaohsiung city.

Repetition of life – signified by various type of drones surrounding us.”

Johnny Chang

Berlin-based composer-performer Johnny Chang engages in extended explorations surrounding the relationships of sound/silence and the in-between areas of improvisation, composition, performance and listening.  Johnny is part of the Wandelweiser composers collective, and works with: Antoine Beuger, Lucio Capece, Jamie Drouin, Jürg Frey, Christian Kesten, Hannes Lingens, Radu Malfatti, Koen Nutters, Morten J Olsen, Michael Pisaro, Derek Shirley, Stefan Thut. His articulated performances have been featured in festivals, residencies and experimental music series in both Europe, North America and New Zealand, from Sonic Acts (Amsterdam), ReiheM (Cologne), Wandelweiser Klangraum Series (Düsseldorf), Hörbar (Hamburg), Klang im Turm (Munich), The Wulf (Los Angeles), Q-O2 workspace (Brussels), Loop-Line (Tokyo), Umlaut festival (Berlin&Paris) to various experimental music series/venues in Berlin such as Ausland, Labor Sonor, Quiet Cue, NK, West Germany. Since November 2010, Johnny Chang and Koen Nutters have co-curated Konzert Minimal presenting performances and events centered around the music of the Wandelweiser group.