XONG FOR THE BLUE MOON
Irene Becker, Charlotte Halberg and guzheng virtuoso Yu Jun collaborate to combine the musical cultures of Europe and China.
Composer and pianist Irene Becker is Danish. Through years of extensive travelling - in Bali, Gambia, South Africa, China, Vietnam, Siberia and Greenland – she studied ancient ethnic musical cultures and brought these sounds into her own experiments with modern music.
Also a native Dane, flautist Charlotte Halberg received her basic musical training in London and New York. She continues to find her musical inspiration in journeys all over the world.
Chinese Yu Jun is the third generation in a family dynasty of guzheng players. At an early age she began to incorporate western jazz influences and improvisational techniques in her music.
The story of these three women’s collaboration began in 1996 when Pierre Dørge’s New Jungle Orchestra – of which Irene Becker is a member – performed at jazz festivals in Shanghai and Beijing. At one of the Shanghai concerts Yu Jun joined the orchestra on stage. In the following years, this initial meeting lead to several other projects with the orchestra. Yu Jun now resides in Berlin, and Dørge has often invited her to Denmark to perform with his musicians.
During one of Yu Jun’s visits in Copenhagen in 2000, she and Charlotte Halberg met for a recording session which resulted in 45 minutes of improvised music. In 2003 they invited pianist Irene Becker to join them for yet another session. Since then, the three of them have recorded several times. The fruit of these inspired musical meetings is on XONG FOR THE BLUE MOON.
Now the CD is ready to find its audience. A few tracks are result from a joint effort. One such piece is Lullaby for Emilio, dedicated to Yu Jun’s son. Other tunes are the product of collective improvisations – some feeling their way in freeform limbo, others extremely structured. Yet other songs are offers created solely by one of the musicians.
The CD is a happy result of an East/West musical summit. You will find romantic music, free atonal improvisation, and geographically indefinable carrousel sounds. It all grew out of a very inspiring collaboration, says Charlotte Halberg.
- Playing with Yu Jun is a challenge, and the combination of guzheng, grand piano, synthesizer and flute is very satisfying. We are very enthusiastic about the way the instruments match – the merging of the flute with the Chinese idiom of the guzheng and the chord-based sound of the keyboard. Together they combine the sounds of China, Europe and Scandinavia.
XONG FOR THE BLUE MOON – RAINCD 8013 – release in April 2007
