Featuring Yunggiema, World’s End Girlfriend, Sainkho and more
GUINNESS® MORE Music, the iconic stout brand’s initiative to spearhead China’s emerging contemporary music scene, will hit new heights from Nov 1st to 3rd with the GUINNESS® Wood+Wires Festival in QianShuiWan Center in Shanghai.
Headlining a diverse and exciting lineup of Chinese and international independent musicians is 2013 China idol runner up Yunggiema, popular for her renditions of the Menba minority’s traditional songs; Japan’s master of the post-rock opera, World’s End Girlfriend; and Sainkho, Tuva’s most renowned throat singer.
Held at the grand riverside creative center QianShuiWan, the GUINNESS® Wood+Wires Music Festival will be a weekend-long celebration of great music, great food and simply the greatest beer. An eclectic mix of music acts will be taking the house down simultaneously on three stages across the multi-level venue.
GUINNESS® should be enjoyed at MORE Music events, and any other occasion, responsibly.
For more information, please visit www.moremusic.cn or www.weibo.com/guinnessbeer.
The first round lineup for Wood+Wires Music Festival
Yunggiema
Celestial songstress – Yunggiema
Skyrocketing to fame through her participation in “Chinese Idol” 2013, Yunggiema is one of few artists not to have been spoiled by stardom. Her organic, genuine talent blew the TV audiences away, and quickly established her as a household name.
Yunggiema is a rare talent; as an ethnic minority her voice possesses a distinct, striking purity that flows like the movements of the Menba people who emigrated from Bhutan to the southeast region of Tibet over 300 years ago. Yunggiema’s performances transport audiences to another world; vocal melodies ring with the sound of the distant chants of Tibetan temples, and evoke images of the restless Menba roaming through bustling streets.
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World’s End Girlfriend
Post-rock symphony: World’s End Girlfriend
After hearing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 at the tender age of 10, Katsuhiko Maeda set off on his very singular musical journey. After a decade of honing his craft, he debuted his solo project in 2000: World’s End Girlfriend (WEG). WEG is an amalgamation of sonic experiments that brings together elements of electronic, post-rock, and contemporary classical music, resulting in captivatingly complex sound structures and charming melodies.
Following this debut, WEG has gone on to release several albums (including the acclaimed Hurtbreak Wonderland in 2007) and has toured the world, playing at festivals such as Sonar in Barcelona and All Tomorrow’s Parties in the UK. In addition, World’s End Girlfriend’s unique musical style and cinematic sensibilities have earned him a presence in the soundtracks of movies including Late Bloomer, Air Doll and Starry Starry Night.
Following these musical successes, Katsuhiko Maeda launched Virgin Babylon Records in 2010, releasing the music of like-minded musicians such as Matryoshka and About Tess, alongside his own album Seven Idiots.
WEG’s next release is in the works: his unceasing productivity a result of his unabated creative passion.
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Sainkho Namtchylak
Tuvan temptress: Sainkho Namtchylak
Sainkho Namtchylak embodies a collision of cultures, each of which provides a sinew for her bold voice. Her homeland of Tuva is familiar with the passing of migrant minorities and resettled peoples. Its Turkic roots are shared with Mongolia, Xinjiang Uighur and the Central Asian states. Sainkho’s career is marked by a free-flowing nature that reflects the constant movements of these groups.
Isolated in a village on the Tuvan/Mongolian border, Sainkho used the richness of her surroundings and exposure to the local art of Tuvan throat singing to secretly cultivate herself into a rare talent. This was against the will of her people, where such arts were reserved for the men. Drawing on her grandmother’s traditional repertoire, mastery of throat singing and knowledge of the shamanic traditions of the region, she eventually broke free from the confines of the mountains to study music in Moscow.
Sainkho’s music encompasses avant-garde jazz, electronica, and modern compositional techniques that draw on her Tuvan influences. After joining experimental band Tri-O where her sense of melodic and harmonic adventure wandered freely, she made her way to the West in 1990, travelling widely like the nomads who influenced her so deeply and recording a number of albums that revolved around free improvisation.
Sainkho cannot be easily labelled, having recorded over 30 stylistically diverse albums and collaborated with all manner of musical figures including Wolfgang Puchnig and Nick Sudnick to name a few. Her varied career has placed her in a creative firmament between Yoko Ono and Björk, and attracted the interest of international talent including Jethro Tull’s very own Maartin Alcock, a renowned multi-instrumentalist who will be joining Sainkho on stage for her ‘Celtic-Tuva Tribal Sound Art Project’. This project will feature Dickson Dee, Maartin Allcock and Jerry Cutillo, who will join forces with Sainkho to produce a set that promises to envelop audiences within the atmospheric overtones of both electronic and live instruments.
With her performance in Shanghai, audiences will have the rare opportunity to witness an icon of contemporary music.
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Hanggai
Hanggai (also informally known as Hanggai Band) is a Chinese folk music group from Beijing who specialize in a blend of Mongolian folk music and more modern styles such as punk rock. All the members of the band are either Mongolian or of Mongolian descent. The band has toured the world extensively, and is well acclaimed both locally and internationally.
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Wan Xiaoli
Previously as a bar singer, Wan Xiaoli’s folk music is based on City life. It stands for grass roots and daily life in cities. In such a chaotic society, his music sounds especially simple and touching. With only a guitar, a harmonica and his unique voice, he can bring audience an emotive and sincere live performance.
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Buyi
Currently based in Beijing, Buyi has been hailed as pure and emotional, combining traditional Chinese music with local folk music of Northwest China. In 2000 they released several singles from their self-titled debut album including Fall, The Free Bird and A Place Called Sanshi Li Pu, many of which feature traditional Chinese instruments such as the guzheng (a plucked zither). In 2004 Buyi Band had the great fortune to be interviewed by the BBC. The band continues to remain active and performs live on a regular basis.
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Low Wormwood
In 2003, Low Wormwood was formed in Lanzhou, and since then its inception has inspired fans with its distinctive philosophy and independence. Their style is impassioned and always strikes close to the heart. Their music can be described as independent and psychedelic, sometime simple and delicate, sometimes violent and swift. Their yearly tours have earned them a passionate and loyal fanbase, the debut album also justified their reputation as one of the best bands in Lanzhou and Northwest China.
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Witch Hats
Expertly treading the fine line between basement underground and the pseudo-indie radio-industry complex, Witch Hats began in 2007 when guitarist and vocalist Kris Buscombe moved from Tasmania to Melbourne to start a band. Buscombe recruited Duncan Blachford to play the drums and his little brother Ash to fulfill duties on bass. The band worked with Phill Calvert of the Birthday Party on their debut LP Cellulite Soul and two EPs, Wound of a Little Horse and Solarium Down the Causeway Era.
Alternately described as “disagreeably loud,” “remarkable… acidic, misanthropic rock” and “play[ing] pop songs that sound as if they’d spent twenty years in a trashcan before stumbling to life,” the group has drawn flattering comparisons to The Jesus Lizard, The Scientists and The Veils, all with amps turned to 11 and distortion that would make The Jesus and Mary Chain proud. On their second album, 2011’s Pleasure Syndrome, the band enlisted American producer/engineer Casey Rice (Dirty Three, Tortoise) to produce an album that retains their distinct musical identity, where squalling guitar feedback and a powerful rhythm section underpin the late-night hallucinatory tales of songwriter Kris Buscombe, while showing signs of maturation from the sonic vulgarity that characterized their beloved earlier releases.
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Neemah
Neemah is a three-piece Tibetan folk group. The music they produce is often a melting pot of traditional Tibetan folk, country and a variety of sounds from neighboring areas such as Nepal and Bhutan.
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Bloody Woods
Bloody Woods is a Chinese neo-folk project begun in early 2005 by Baishui, the guitarist of the doom metal band Ji Mo Chao Sheng (Solitary Pilgrim). In December 2005, Gu Dao joined as guest vocalist but left in September 2006.
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The Randy Abel Stable
The Randy Abel Stable is an “Americana” or “Alt-Country” band from Beijing. Formed in 2011, The Randy Abel Stable combines honky tonk, country, bluegrass and blues to produce a unique sound that has been described as having “the realism and sadness of Townes Van Zandt, the imagery and lyricism of Hank Williams Sr. and the excitement and raw energy of the Ramones.
More Artists are coming SOON!!!
About Guinness:
Originating in 1759 in Arthur Guinness’s brewery at St. James’s Gate, Dublin, the popular Irish dry stout GUINNESS® has become one of world’s most successful beers. Guinness today falls under Diageo PLC, one of the largest beverage companies in the world, after a merger with Grand Metropolitan in 1997.
While consolidating its appeal in Ireland and Great Britain, supplying more than 10% of the total UK beer market, Guinness increased its presence in overseas markets rapidly. In 1959, the brand expanded in Asia after its 200th birthday in 1959, coming to greater China in 1979 with the formation of GUINNESS® Hong Kong, and celebrating the launch of GUINNESS® Original, a bottled product, in Shanghai in 2012. Now Guinness products are available in over 160 countries around the world.
About Split Works:
Split Works is China’s biggest independent promoter, owner of 3 music festivals and organizer of over 500 Chinese tours to 30 different cities since the company was founded in 2006.