Armageddon or Winter Solstice? You are presented the documentation of a live performance by Belgian pianist Fred Van Hove and Taiwanese pianist Shih-Yang Lee. The texts printed here are Mr. Lee’s reflections on the project, and an email interview with Mr. Van Hove conducted by Taiwanese music critic I-Cheng Lin. The performance was held on December 21st, 2012, at the Guangfu Auditorium of Zhongshan Hall, Taipei City. Around 300 listeners were present. We can say it was a significant event for the Taiwan improvisation scene. The date of the concert was extraordinary: A widely circulated legend marked that very day as the end of the world, but at the end of it the prophecy hadn’t come true. And the tangyuan, the glutinous rice ball soup which was given out during the intermission of the show may have reminded the audience that it was also the day of the winter solstice in the Chinese lunar calendar. This festival comes and goes year after year, but it often passes by unnoticed, maybe because the life of most Taiwanese people is littered with small matters reported daily by all sorts of media. This is similar to the circumstances of improvised music: A piece of music or a fragment of life often begins without any understanding of the big picture. And even if the goal was set, there will most likely be some unexpected incidents that have to be dealt with. In the process of this struggle one has to assess whether to carry on or to give up. This is just a small issue of our daily life which most of us tend to ignore. Suffice to say that improvised music in Taiwan is an art genre which is still reaching out for its audience. Why hasn’t it reached a bigger audience yet? Firstly, under the aspect of performance: Although there are visual elements in an improvised music performance, and although it has a certain degree of performativity, the focus of the musicians lies completely on the sound, while the audience is concentrated in the act of listening. This constitutes a great difference from art forms like theater, or cinema, which are mostly visually oriented. Secondly, on the aural level, massive amounts of atonal notes and fluctuating elements hidden in musical structure are not as easily accessible as pop music, and not as strictly composed as most classical music. The result of this is clearly that the commercial music market as well as great parts of academia cannot easily accept improvised music. Thirdly, what is left? Unlike art exhibitions or installation pieces, improvised music cannot rely on theories or explanations, it emphasizes sensory experience, and favors imagination over intellectual understanding. Those 300 people, who showed up at the event, were they expecting anything in particular? My guess is that the decades of artistry, refinement, and legendary tales of Mr. Van Hove (born 1937), along with the concentration, delicacy, and unrestrained boldness of Shih-Yang Lee (born 1982), one of only a handful of improvising pianists on this island, have aroused their curiosity, and have loosened or even broken some of the aforementioned boundaries. Let us enjoy this live recording of improvised music, and recall any ordinary winter solstice, and cherish faces and places we might or might not have seen or been to.usic Award, awarded "Best Jazz Single" and "Best Jazz Album". He also performes with international artists such as Japanese free improvisation drummer Sabu Toyozumi, and er-hu player Chie Mukai.