Bridges (part 1) – Djang San + Band’s new album.

Updated: May 17, 2015

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Want to hear the music and buy it ? Click on the cover.

“Bridges (part 1) is the first part of a double album by Djang San + Band, each part of the album is 30 minutes long. Recorded in January 2015 in Beijing, Bridges shows all the different possibilities of the electric zhongruan designed by Djang San by using the instrument in many different styles of music such as grunge, folk, experimental, jazz, electronic, punk, and many more.
With Carlo V. Fuentes on drums and Stefano Latorre on bass, the idea behind the album is to create a bridge crossing cultural boundaries through music.
This is a bridge beyond cultures, a bridge between music styles, that allows the listenner to travel in space and time, from East to West, from past to future and from future to past.
The zhongruan, a 2500 years old ancient instrument, has never been used in such a unique, complete and extensive way.”

录制于2015年1月北京，专辑展现了张思安自制乐器电子中阮的多样性，在车库、民谣、实验、爵士、电子、朋克，以及更多种音乐风格中的表现。
专辑试图通过音乐在文化壁垒间架起一道桥梁。
这同时也是一道文化的桥梁，音乐类型的桥梁，使得听众在时间与空间间、东西方间、以及过去与未来间穿梭。
中阮，这个拥有2500年历史的传统乐器从未被如此这般独特、完整和广泛的使用。

Based on the electric zhongruan, the album will soon be available everywhere. Listen to it first through Karma Blues Records on Bandcamp. The album is full of influences ranging from Frank Zappa to Radiohead, Queens of the Stone Age, L. Subramaniam, Sonic Youth, Chinese classical music, Joy Division, music from Xinjiang such as Mukam, Mongolian music, electronic music, experimental music (Steve Reich, Edgar Varèse) and many more.

Remarks about this album :

“Bridges” (part 1) was recorded in two days at Psychic Kong studio in Beijing. This double album is based on the idea of a bridge between cultures and music styles, with the electric zhongruan at the heart of it. For those who don’t speak Chinese, you can read the name of the album as “Tshiao” (Qiao in Pinyin).

I took the picture on the album cover during a trip to Hainan island.

Here is a description of each songs on “Bridges” (part 1).

– Bridges:

This song is based both on classical Indian and Chinese music, and also on prog rock, it’s the perfect mix between cultures and music styles.

– Little Girl – Little Boy:

Based on a 7/8 time signature bass line by Stefano Latorre, this song is meant to be a cross-over between Grunge and Mongolian folk. There is a video for this song you can find on Youtube or Tudou.

– Cow Street:

Influenced by music from Xinjiang and Mongolia, Cow Street is another bridge between cultures and music styles.

– Little Experiment:

Recorded by pushing the sound of the electric zhongruan to the maximum, the weird experimental sounds coming out of this track were recorded by beating the electric ruan with drumsticks while putting the instrument through all kinds of effects.

– Someone Else:

This song was recorded as an improvisation on the first recording day by the whole band, and the lyrics were also improvised on the spot.

– The Other Side:

The Other Side was recorded entirely by putting bits and pieces together, including the drums and all other instruments. I did what I could do by playing the different drum parts of the song myself with a click and assembling everything later.

– Gobi:

Gobi is a walk into the desert. On this one I have added all kinds of sounds, banging with drum sticks on whatever I could in the studio including plastic chairs, walls, even using my phone to add strange noises, a bottle of water, and all kinds of tools.

The album will soon be distributed on all digital platforms including xiami, KKbox, itunes, Amazon etc.

The second part of the album will come somewhere later this year.

There will be a presentation of the album at Temple Bar on the 29 of May.

Djang San.

http://djangsan.bandcamp.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/zhangsian

http://site.douban.com/zhangsian/

http://soundcloud.com/djangsan

http://site.douban.com/baoxianchaoren

http://u.youku.com/张思安

http://www.tudou.com/home/_333931045/

2014. My year in music.

Updated: January 2, 2015

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8 albums released this year.

Mixing music and philosophy with “A theory of intelligence”.

Read the concept here. http://zhangsian.com/newsletter/a-theory-of-intelligence

7 New videos.

“Give me Soma”

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzqbKqVEKBM

Tudou: http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/xXTlIqULW0o/

“Djang San + Band at Mao Livehouse “Mad Horses”.”

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/Z8KjQoIqFzw

“HK/GZ 1-2”

On Youtube: http://youtu.be/nLAONtuL2Ak

On Chinese internet Tudou: http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/vx-Skjvl_Dk/

“Shenme Shi”

On youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_KUz0MJ7CY&list=UUoHsXANCQsAFSzaGolFJYug&feature=share&index=1

On Chinese internet, Tudou:

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/oJGN68cK1AQ/

“She wants everything”

See the video on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxos4tJw8Ys

See the video on Tudou (Chinese internet) :

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/w4_kFyyKGLI/

“Paranoïa”

On Youtube:

“Going to War”

Live on CCTV

Opening for the Croisements Festival at the French Embassy in China

Opening of the Dong Dong Festival at Yugong Yishan

http://www.dongdong-event.com/artists/djang-san/

Opening the X-Nights Festival

Sharing the stage with former “Noir Désir” guitarist Serge Teyssot-Gay was an honor for me.

and many more….

Re-invention of Chinese instrument Zhongruan.

Electrification of the zhongruan, giving a new life to an ancient instrument

to bring it into the 21st century.

More media coverage.

I’ve had tones of interviews this year, including a 12 minutes documentary on BON TV.

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNzA4NTczMzM2.html

but also interviews and reviews on Radio Canada, CRI, Global Times, Music Dish China,

City Weekend, Hainan Radio, That’s Beijing, The Beijinger,

Smart Beijing, Time Out, and many more…

Three of my favorite venues in Beijing disappeared under

bulldozers, 2Kolegas, Au Goulot, and Jiangjinjiu,

places where I have a lot of memories, thanks for those

who made these places exist.

More music for commercials and films, including that commercial

for these cool Virtual Reality goggles called Homido.

More music distribution

On KKbox, Omusic, Mymusic and many more soon.

Nomination as best folk artist in China in 2014 by “The Sound Stage”.

And many more things !

I hope to do more and better things in 2015.

Thank you all for your support.

Nothing would be possible without all of you.

http://djangsan.bandcamp.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/zhangsian

http://site.douban.com/zhangsian/

http://soundcloud.com/djangsan

http://site.douban.com/baoxianchaoren

http://u.youku.com/张思安

http://www.tudou.com/home/_333931045