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

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

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.