LeiLuo Studio is a small record label based in my former home of Beijing, China. The track reviewed today is a fusion of musics from Zhejiang from the She ethnic group. The label/band’s Bandcamp site explains further below:
This is a piece of new fusion single composed and arranged by the duo, Wang Lei and Yile, in February 2018. Aria of Yunhe is copyright Beijing Chuanzong Culture Development Ltd., Co.In mid January, the duo had participated in a field trip to Jingning County in Zhejiang Province, China. We were introduced to a type of local music that had existed for over one thousand and two hundred years. It is called “Music of She”. She, as one of the minority groups in south China, calls themselves as “Shanha”, meaning “Guests in the Mountain”. They relocated to the hilly areas of Guangdong as early as Qin dynasty, and started singing their own tune since then. We were very fortunate to be able to record vocal samples from elderly generations and group singers at their village in Jingning County during the trip, and these ancient melodies, narrating the ancestors’ stories of settling and mythes of creation, were so beautiful and surreal.With a very simple conga loop and fragmented bass line, our interpretation is to accentuate the sorrow and mysterious ancient tune, in the mid section of the piece we have invited Australian jazz trumpeter Toby Mak to improvise with his understanding of the She melody. The climax of the song features an ensemble of a group of local She female singers from Gangshi Village. We were honored to be invited to compose this piece, this was a rare opportunity to hear these ancient melodies from a thousand years ago, and we were even luckier to be able to bring these melodies back and reinterpreted to the world.
