aflog

空气诗人的采撷 -《通俗歌曲·摇滚》interview

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:59:34 +0800

Scan from an article/interview from a widely circulated music magazine in China. Thank you LS for the article !

「i hold a wish for you」@ p*dis

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 15:52:29 +0800

"This album is filled with a simple elegance in it's beautiful sounds, much like a mix between Taylor Deupree and Haruka Nakamura... Singapore's electronic duo aspidistrafly's debut album is a masterpiece !" - excerpt from p*dis We are glad to announce that our CD currently sits at number 2 on the p*dis chart for the month of August. The album is temporary out of stock...2nd press is on the way.

「bounce」review

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:42:20 +0800

A nice positive review of our album 「i hold a wish for you」as recommended by Tower Records Japan on their monthly magazine「bounce」. "A gentle album thats shines like a jewel arrives from Singapore, like sunlight through the leaves of trees..." http://www.bounce.com/review/recommend.php/23619

空气诗人的采撷

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 18:14:27 +0800

This is an excerpt of a long but favorable review of 'i hold a wish for you' by LS from the October issue of 《通俗歌曲·摇滚》published in China. There is also an interview spread of us (maybe 2-3 pages) in the same issue, out in all good book stores now. *sorry, review is in chinese only" "从拆开CD起，关于aspidistrafly的两点疑问便一直在脑袋里盘桓：这个新加坡组合到底是在走Indie路线还是如他们所说的"非常态"Ambient？他们又是如何从众多独立小电中脱颖而出的？此时，无论是豆瓣还是其他媒体，都不约而同地对的其首张专辑《i hold a wish for you》做出高评，这让成员之一的Ricks直呼意外。算起来，此次作品前，aspidistrafly已经发行了两张EP《Children's Haiku Garden》及《The Ghost of Things》，并有单曲散见于各个厂牌的合辑，但似乎都没能激起中国乐迷的太大反映。这一回，依旧是不张扬的宣传策略，依旧主打极微自然主义，却红成一片，评论和口碑捷报频传。为什么？ "两个八十年代出生的年轻人，April Lee和Ricks Ang，怀着对转瞬即逝之美的敏感，将日常生活变幻为一次次有机创作——视觉艺术、设计、音乐、声音设计。零七年起陆续在马来西亚、日本和新加坡做现场演出，也为新加坡当地媒体艺术圈作曲。"大致上，aspidistrafly的履历可以被浓缩成如此，稍显干瘪的例行公事。好在他们的音乐要鲜活得多，并且从趣味性来讲，作品的形式也颇具创意：折叠拉页式摄影集加独立CD包裹。可以这样理解，他们有太多感触和情绪要传递给听众，因此，单纯的CD模式便无法满足其需求，必须有更加丰富的空间来充实、强化、拓展。从某种角度来说，最后听众拿到手里的成品已然是他们数次创作的融合，也是aspidistrafly独树一帜的表现平台。甚至可以想象，无论今后的音乐走向如何，外观始终承以这种形式，久而久之，会给aspidistrafly带来怎样清晰的辨识度。浏览一下各路讨论，《i hold a wish for you》被评说得最多的就是它的美曼氛围。写意、朦胧、温柔、随性，充斥着自然之声的轻盈飘逸，准确到位的声音采样和乐器演奏，这让专辑从内部延展出一种醇和的气质，并且通过Field Recording，与外部环境巧妙地烘托在一起。这就相当于一次水循环，自泥土蒸发，经过循环，化作雨水落下，滋养的仍是泥土和它孕育的生命。就旋律来讲，之前出现在《The Ghost of Things》里的冷冽、混沌、伤感，对无常和失落的抽象描绘几乎消失得一干二净，取而代之的是对言辞、记忆、旧日时光和稀松平常的日常生活的细致再现，更流畅、更温暖、更光滑、更甜蜜，总而言之，"易听"的本质加固了，实验的比重降低了——毫无疑问，这使aspidistrafly的亲切感大大提升——在氛围中加入中正的Pop线，既避免了Ambient/Experimental带来的生涩，又培育出一种新的表现形式，受欢迎也就意料之中了。除此之外，Indie倾向的摄影作品也为专辑挣得了更多拥簇。老式胶片机和Lomo的质感，包括被摄物体的选择，色调、光线、角度，均透露出浓厚的"Mini"气息。说它在抒情并不为过，因为专辑正是在这些凝固于画面的微观景象下延伸出统一主题的，从中，创作者的态度与接收者直接交流，相当于音乐的"易听"，画面的"易感"也在帮助听众理解aspidistrafly的意图。有心，有意，有力，《i hold a wish for you》在年轻乐迷群引起的热烈反响只能用四个字来形容——合情合理..."

「i hold a wish for you」@ Pastel Records

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:47:00 +0800

Pastel Records is a nice record store situated in Nara, Japan. Specializing in electronic and experimental CDs. 'i hold a wish for you' was highly recommended and is the top selling CD for the month of September. "Guitars, pianos and harmoniums melodies float in the space wrapped by April's warm vocals. It is both an experimental and a pop album, soaked into glittering cool electronic sounds which flash across soft acoustic instruments, field recording and crystal dance. a technique although not uncommon, we were enchanted by the sounds and rich content of this album which has fascinated many listeners. aspidistrafly and their label Kitchen. are noteworthy names for the future. " Link: http://www.pastelrecords.com

「i hold a wish for you」at Tower Records, HMV Shibuya (re-post)

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 00:35:39 +0800

Many thanks to shops in Japan for displaying and advertising our first album「i hold a wish for you」!! Here are some shots from the 2 main record stores in Shibuya, Tower Records and HMV where it is a recommended CD of the month. A Japanese friend pointed out that we were described as "Sigur Ros with female vocals" on one of the pop stands, something which is equally peculiar and fascinating for us. thank you to Ichiro and Chris for taking these photos !

「i hold a wish for you」at Tower Records, NU茶屋町店, Osaka

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 20:49:01 +0800

Our friend rika, travelled eastbound from Kobe to Osaka and finally arrived at Nu-Chayamachi where our cd 「i hold a wish for you」was found sitting on a display at the Tower Records' Classical section, where the experimental section is located. Many thanks to rika for making the trip !

「shining water, silent waves」photo exhibition

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 18:27:47 +0800

For those who would like to find out more about the photographs from our album「i hold a wish for you」, our on-going exhibition at BooksActually entitled 「shining water, silent waves」will be extended for another 2 weeks, ending 20th September. The album is also available on sale at the store. Thank you Erica for taking the photos of the exhibition !

「sampling air vol.1」live report

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:01:13 +0800

On this breezy Saturday afternoon, Kitchen. presented 「sampling air vol.1」 as hosted by The Asylum which is situated at the spiffy Ann Siang Hill district, a conservation area in Singapore. The Asylum shop is a beautiful concept store that holds an eclectic mix of goods from graphic books to experimental CDs. Chris Lee, the owner of the shop, is also the creative director of their design studio situated at the basement of the shop. This district resembles a little like the fashion and arts enclave of Naka-meguro/Daikanyama in Tokyo. This would be the 2nd time we are working with The Asylum (the last being the Piana Concert in May 2007) and we especially like the Kyouei Design lamp installation hanging above us and the excellent interior of the store. The show started with gentle backward acoustic guitar, quiet beeps and cascading piano textures from flica's laptop. flica, having chosen to arrive Singapore from Kuala Lumpur via a more scenic but tedious 10 hours train ride (a bus ride would take only 5 hours), brought along his first album「windvane & window」and latest limited EP called「coffee & spectacles」, which I mastered just a week ago. This is an artist which is probably more popular and well known in Japan rather than our very own scene locally, therefore this show serves as a belated launch for his albums in Singapore. During the interval, we see most of crowd streaming across the road to attend our photo exhibition entitled「shining water, silent waves」at BooksActually , a cosy bookshop and nook for the likes of Murakami, Salinger and Nabokov. They also stock an assortment of oddities including old film cameras, typewriters etc. Karen and Kenny (the 2 literary masters and owners of the shop) has been looping our track「花火」which serves as a very appropriate BGM for the installation. more photos soon Initially, we thought it would be a great idea to play in the sunny afternoon, however, the rain started to pour. I remembered fondly of a show we attended at Kissa Nico (Komazawa, Tokyo) where our musician friends, Akira Kosemura and Paniyolo were playing with the windows opened to the sounds of children playing at the park outside of the cafe. This time while we were playing, the sounds of the splattering rain somehow gives a quality of calmness, and we managed to recreate the flow of 「Moonlight Shadow」and 「cielo」better than any shows we did before. For the last song of the day, we invited flica back on stage to join us for「red toe nails」, as he had previously remixed the track. For friends who didnt make it to the show, you can still check out our photo exhibition at BooksActually which opens until 6th of September. Click on the DM below for more details.

p*dis staff recommends 「i hold a wish for you」!

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 00:38:18 +0800

Our Japanese distributor, p*dis, has selected 「i hold a wish for you」as the most highly recommended album for the month of August. The CD will be released in Japan at most major music stores next week. "taylor deupree meets haruka nakamura なんて言葉を思い浮かべてしまう、淡い電子音を纏ったメランコリックなサウンドとaprilちゃんの歌唱力＋表現力を兼ね備えた素敵なボーカル。エレガント" - masami shimomura (p*dis manager / buyer, Japan) "生楽器と電子音とフィールドレコーディングによる幻想的な世界観。温かみをかんじさせつつも、音自体はきわめてクール。アコーディオン式フォトブックレットも素敵です" - sin ohsaki (p*dis buyer, Japan) Link : http://www.inpartmaint.com/pdis/

「i hold a wish for you」 now available in Taiwan & Hong Kong !

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 00:57:08 +0800

「i hold a wish for you」is now distributed in Taiwan & Macau by Node Culture. And in Hong Kong by White Noise Records. "他們全心全意打造出一張滿載追憶與情感，卻跳脫文字，純粹以深思熟慮的聲音設計營造出獨特氛圍的專輯,「i hold a wish for you」每個細節都盡見aspidistrafly對他們心血結晶有多麼的重視！" - Node Culture Link : Node Culture : http://store.pchome.com.tw/nodeshop White Noise Records : http://www.whitenoiserecords.org

shining water, silent waves...

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:13:40 +0800

This is one of those nights, when i am dreaming of the cool breeze whispering across our ears at our secret space. April and Rika have many more captured on their film cameras. We are going to hold a mini photo exhibition very soon, a kind of extension from the set seen in our album 「i hold a wish for you」. shining water, silent waves...

就那麼簡單－我說，人生。

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 23:21:35 +0800

Fresh Music, an online magazine, with good coverage of the chinese independent music scene wrote a nice post about us here. "a s p i d i s t r a f l y 的音樂像兒時棉花糖，也像鄉間山上的枝葉，嘴裡甜甜的，風把臉吹得冰冰的。聽專輯時，我不斷想起在台灣山上寫意的日子，小時候不同的回憶也不斷湧入我的思緒。就那麼簡單－我說，人生。新加坡有這樣的音樂人，是驚訝是安慰是欣喜的。"

「Birth of Seanema」 @Old School Hall *more photos

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 01:06:47 +0800

「Birth of Seanema」 @Old School Hall

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 01:07:17 +0800

"I am your invented memories... I am your forgotten memories..." On this Saturday evening, we travelled to a secluded former school now renamed Old School to work on a special project for the film entitled "Birth of Seanama" directed by Sasithorn Ariyavicha for the opening of the ASEAN Film Festival. This film is a silent 70 mins black and white experimental film with no music and dialogues. It is based on Seanema, a city where the sea and the sky are one where memories of people and places weave across the cityscape and atmosphere. We did this improvised live soundtrack with our friends and frequent collaborators, George Chua and Yuen Cheewai. Below are some photos taken by April during our soundcheck. More about the film : http://www.criticine.com/interview_article.php?id=28