简介
Freeform专辑介绍：by François CoutureYou can either see Audiotourism, Original Music: Vietnam and China as another lame attempt at a &worldbeat& synthesis that strips a music of its tradition or as a clever meeting between folklore and experimental techno. Simon Pyke (aka Freeform) uses for these very intelligent tracks recordings of traditional Vietnamese and Chinese instruments (like the dan bau, the suona, the co'ng) and adds field recordings in public places. The human element is strong, the flutes and reed instruments provide the main melody, the percussion instruments structure the rhythm. Pyke recorded them first-hand, then sampled them and mixed in a fat bassline, electronic treatments, and a beat machine to get a typical &worldbeat& tune. Obviously, the artist aimed beyond mere techno tracks with an exotic flavor. The listener comes out of the album with a certain (limited) understanding of Vietnamese and Chinese music. The booklet accompanying the CD edition contains lavish photographs of the region and its inhabitants and a chart showing what instruments appear on which tracks. Pyke tries to merge two paradigms, the old/acoustic/human/natural and the new/electronic/machine-made/artificial. In some pieces they simply clash, as in the poor &Crosstalk,& but others (&Phu Quoc,& &Saigon&) achieve something very engaging. If you can't stand this kind of technological crossover, stay away. IDM fans are in for an ear-opening experience.
