The Empty Gallery, 19/F Grand Marine Center, 3 Yue Fung Street, Tin Wan, Hong Kong
It has been about two months since The Empty Gallery first opened its doors, and given my recent second visit for the Suishou No Fune gig, I thought it would be good to record some of my impressions.
The Empty Gallery is located in (for me) far away Tin Wan, and had it not be for the Art Basel Hong Kong related “South Island Art Night” I may have missed the event. And even the art night event itself would probably not make me go to Tin Wan if it wasn’t for the lineup, which I got to know through a friend’s invitation.
In connection to their inaugural exhibition, The Empty Gallery staged a two-night electronic music festival packed with great artists. For me, it was the names Mark Fell and Lorenzo Senni which made me go. Mark Fell should be known to anyone interested in cutting-edge electronic music, which is club-music inspired, but taking the run-of-the mill 4-4 beats to completely different levels (and measures). Lorenzo Senni is one generation younger than Mark Fell (as are Kouhei Matsunaga and Gabor Lazar), and I was fascinated by his “Superimpositions” LP last year. I think I heard (of) NHK’Koyxen (a.k.a. Kouhei Matsunaga) previously, but I could not remember much about him. That may be due to the music, but could be also due to the difficult-to-remember aliases he uses. The lineup mentioned was day two line up, I missed day one, so I will stick to what I have heard and seen myself.
Entering the space in an experience in itself. After located the warehouse building at the far end of Aberdeen one first walks through a dimly lit ground floor car park with a couple of huge Rolls-Royce (or whatever that was) cars, and enters an leather-upholstered elevator taking to the 19F of the industrial building. The door which opens leads to another dark corridor, all walls black, and only after making some turns one arrives at a ‘reception’ area, where one is greeted and can take a program and exhibition info. The exhibition/concert room itself is one medium-sized “black cube”, which during my first (as well as the recent two month later visit) featured large-size photographs (by Amit Desai) of people dancing in a colorful disco lights setting, the photos themselves installed in a theatrical spot-lights-and-black-walls setting. The photos match with the music-theme of the space, but as artworks they could be misunderstood as over-expressive and decorative, while not giving enough credit to their historical counterparts (my associations jump to Robert Mapplethorpe, Studio 54 etc.).
Within the space, the front side (one enters from the back side) was the location of the stage. The middle space of the gallery was filled with rows of black plastic Ikea Gunde folding chairs. I had ambiguous feelings about these chairs, because the type of music performed, is usually served to a standing audience (dancing or not). Having some chairs may be useful for those who want to sit, but blocking up the whole space with them was suboptimal. One thing that I was missing, compared to other gallery or concert experiences, was refreshments. During my first visit, there was not a single drop of anything, and my friend had to ask for some water, which he also got, but having some drinks in an exhibition opening-like setting would be useful to ensure the wellbeing of the visitors. During my second visit, there was a beautiful artistic sake-installation in the entrance space, but again, that was the only drink to get. Next time I know I should bring my own beer, or soda at least. These are my two small suggestions to improving the otherwise wonderful experience, but now let’s move over to the actual events.
On my March 15th 2015 visit, NHK’Koyxen was the first to perform. I find it hard to describe his music exactly, I remember deep sounds and humming, a feeling of musical warmth with occasional interferences. Overall it was a musical body to sink into, a performance piece which came across as a unified whole. For me it was a mood-setter for the second performance, by Gabor Lazar, which broke away from this rather calming hum-noise dub music like sounds. Gabor Lazar’s music did not have any of the dub-like qualities of NHK’Koyxen, percussion-like bursts of energy came to the center, but instead of using them for building up rhythm, they were used (together with the still strongly present bass, which linked it to the previous performance) for inducing physiognomic reactions in the audience: It was not only the sounds, but rather the vibrations and spacing between sound attack and silence, the intense dynamic, which made the audience feel the performance with their whole bodies. Halfway through the performance, this was further augmented by high power strobe lights, directed frontally at the audience: not for the faint hearted, but those who endured, it was a truly powerful and mind-changing experience. In terms of physicality of sound and depth of bodily sound experience, it was really hard to go further, so I was curious how Mark Fell would handle the follow up. Fell linked to the Lazar through the deconstructed-ness of his beats, while expanding the sample and rhythm ranges and mellowing down the sensual attack delivered by Lazar. One could say his music was more ‘academic’ focusing on the de- and re-construction of rhythmic elements from disco to house, a process that is his brand-name style. Out of the four performances, Fell delivered the most interesting in musical terms. I can lead it back to the generational difference, where the other three musicians (undoubtedly all inspired and fans of Mark Fell), were focused on delivering strong, convincing performances, trying to highlight a particular brand-name style, while Fell’s performance showed the decades-long experience and insight into what he was doing, allowing him more musical breadth. Fell was followed by Lorenzo Senni, who took over the concept of deconstruction from Fell, but applied it to trance music arpeggios in between the beats, arriving at his brand-style he calls pointillist trance. As mentioned above, I was quite interested to see Senni live, and I was not disappointed. I like the idea of trance music without beats, separating out the ‘emotional’ element (melodies). However, during the performance, I also realized the danger of this approach, which lies in the emotionality and ‘sweetness’ of the sounds. Even though Senni is chopping the sounds into pieces, it retains an element of sugar-coated euro-trance, which can be off-putting if overdone. Fell cleverly solved this danger by focusing on rhythmic structures, which work quite differently when perceived. There is a difference between rhythmic expectation and what actually happens. In Senni’s music, the trance-music melodies are to an extent retained, making them predictable, and recognizable, which I think can put off audience that doesn’t like for whatever reason trance-related music. The music appeals to me, because even though not a big fan (because of the zillion of dumbed-down versions one gets to hear on European radio), I still appreciate good trance music, and people like Paul Van Dyk bring back the memories of my teenage years. In terms of the dramaturgy, Senni fit in very well, something like a refreshing fruity desert cake at the end of a long banquet meal.
The evening was indeed like a banquet, with some wonderful sounds to be heard. I would almost say it was overwhelming – having two of the four musicians would be enough to fill my stomach – but I guess The Empty Gallery was aiming for an overwhelming experience, to set their mark in the Hong Kong scene. Attending this event was truly unforgettable to me, I associate this kind of encounter with the club transmediale concerts in Berlin, but would have never thought this can happen in an industrial building in Hong Kong. While there may be some space for improving the experience in terms of seating and refreshment, in terms of sound quality and line-up, there was nothing else to wish for – it was bliss.
After this event, I kept The Empty Gallery on my list, and on May 9th 2015 it was time for Suishou No Fune 水晶の舟. Compared to the line-up of the previous event, Shuishou No Fune are rather at the periphery of my interest: Drony dreamy heavy-effected guitar music with occasional Japanese vocals. Here I have to disclose that I am not a big fan of guitars in general, and even less electrified guitars. I don’t like this protracted complex noise they make if you know what I mean, and that gets only worse with the pedal effectors. But still, it never hurts to expand one’s horizons, and after my last experience at The Empty Gallery I trusted those responsible for the programming to make a good selection, no matter what it was. And indeed, it was a very pleasant evening and I was not disappointed.
Following the same mysterious entrance as last time, I was greeted by Chinese decorative rock installation coupled with beautiful small sake cups, not only to watch, but to drink too. The starting time was announced at 7pm, and the concert started at 8pm, which was a good decision, as it allowed for some mingling and talking ahead of the show, and also accommodated those who came a bit late or got lost on the way.
Shuishou No Fune started to play as a duo, with two electric guitars, loaded with delays effects. The beginning was mellow and dreamy, evoking similar feelings like the mist from the smoke machine that was filling the room. It was a calm and meditative atmosphere. After some time, a drummer and bassist joined. From there on, it became more rock-music-like. It still kept the dreamy atmosphere with heavy delay effects on guitars, but now it has a rhythmic structure and bassline below, making it sound more like ‘songs’ then potentially never-ending ‘tracks’ (as known from electronic music), even though I could not get rid of the feeling that Shuishou No Fune were aiming at created long and slow pieces (also by looking at their LPs with few, long tracks). This hovering between songs and tracks was the most ambiguous element of the performance for me. One of the main qualities of Shuishou No Fune was this mellow drone-music-like repetition, which reminded me of Fennesz and other guitar-ambient masters. This was the element I enjoyed. The quality which I was not so keen on was the song like structures which appeared in the second half of the performance. Mainly because it made the music a bit too much formulaic as a whole – mellow guitar start + turn up distortion effect on guitar + start bassline and drum + build up the noise to maximum + stop and repeat pattern. It was too disruptive of the guitar dialogue and smoothness which appeared in the first part of the show, as well as during the first parts of the ‘songs’ in the second part of the show. I always wished the performance would just continue smoothly without these disruptions, also given the overall similarity of the pieces performed (to my ears at least). But, well, even with this observation, I still could enjoy the show, and it made sense as a whole. If it wasn’t for The Empty Gallery, I would never have heard of this band. I enjoyed the performance, but then, I don’t think I will be buying their CDs in the future. Having one is enough, as a token of the concert at The Empty Gallery.
Now while writing this blog, I checked back on The Empty Gallery’s Facebook, and I see that Mark Fell and NHK’Koyxen and coming back for a gig of their joint project, supported by a performance by Lee Gamble on June 7th 2015. Lee Gamble himself would be enough to make me go out there, and with Mark Fell and NHK’Koyxen on top – something not to be missed.
Music always boils down to individual tastes, and with The Empty Gallery, I have a strong feeling that there is quite an overlap between those doing the programming and my own. It’s great to see like-minded people in Hong Kong.