Guzheng

Water Pushes Sand is a major new musical work that sees virtuosic Chinese and Australian musicians reinvigorate the endangered music of China's Sichuan Province to create an entirely new sound world. Traditional Sichuan melodies and rhythms are fused with modern jazz improvisation in a wild intercultural celebration.

The Vivacious Vessel of Harmony
GuQin is among the few most distinctive and representative classical Chinese instruments ever. The written record of it can be traced back to at least 3,000 years ago. It's a zither similar to GuZheng, but since GuQin does not have bridges, it is far more versatile in terms of tones and playing techniques, it is also much harder to master.

I became acquainted to Joe Fonda’s musical creativity in 1998, precisely on November 6th at a concert of the Fonda/Stevens Group at Bunker Ulmenwall in Bielefeld, Germany. Along with some friends, I was curating the club‘s jazz program since 1996 at that time. After the enthralling show in 1998 Joe was a frequent artist at our club as his music was immensely inspiring - full of enthusiasm and playfulness. On November 8th 2003 there was Satoko Fujii Quartet playing a show in Bielefeld. On this evening an enduring friendship with Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura began to develop. I go to know two wonderful artists as well as human beings and – what I did not know at that time – two of the most thrilling and versatile musicians in the jazz scene.

Zhou Yu is one of the foremost performers of the traditional Chinese instrument, the erhu. Here with his ensemble, he showcases his talents with beautiful traditional Chinese music.; Other traditional Chinese instruments accompany the erhu, including the yang qin (dulcimer), xiao , pipa (lute), guzheng (zither), ruan (lute), and sheng (mouth-blown organ).; Included in this release is an extensive booklet with an artist biography, information about the erhu, and details about each of the songs.

The soundtrack for “Kung Fu Panda” features several prominent Chinese musicians, including piano solos by Lang Lang (on tracks 1, 12, 13), Jim Wang (Cello), Wu Man (Pipa), Guo Gan (Erhu/Zhonghu/Gaohu) and Cynthia Hsiang (Guzheng). Moreover, the British boyband The Vamps performs the legendary Kung Fu Fighting song.

Call it synchronicity, call it happenstance, call it no more than three friends getting together to give their speakers a workout. Yet The Utopia Strong’s formidable conflagration of psychedelic radiance and beatific harmony has evolved way beyond all or any expectations since the band’s inception at the start of 2018. The following year’s Rocket debut was a powerful document of kosmische transcendence fit to banish all or any talk of its originators’ collective histories firmly into the background.

JACK O' THE CLOCK "presents a fine lesson on what it means to write songs that are at once approachable and human while simultaneously being incredibly profound in terms of timbre, depth of emotion, and harmonic complexity," Progulator.