post-taiwan trip reflections
I got back from Taiwan monday night after the Ukai Cultural Technologies Lab art residency. I went with Dorraa and we played three shows, did one radio livestream, and had a booth at the Goblin Market for Borscht Radio. Two shows plus Toha Radio were in Taipei, and one show and the market were in Hsinchu, along with three days in the mountains in Jiufen. It was not an easy trip, but it was very affecting, and Taiwan will always hold a special place in my heart. I especially fell in love with Taipei, a city I hardly knew anything about before.
Major impressions / feelings / thoughts I’m left with:
Temple altars everywhere — in both the city and the countryside. We’d be walking down any ol’ street, whether a small alleyway of apartment buildings or a major city road, and there would be a temple altar in a window. Apparently there are about 1,200 of them in Taipei, similar in number to convenience stores. They lack any obvious signage and constantly caught me off guard. What I felt most strongly from all these temples was how it made me feel almost like I was constantly being watched by the gods, not in a creepy way, but when you’re constantly being faced with images of higher beings, it does something to the psyche, at least it did for me. It felt like being constantly faced with being asked whether I was behaving in my own highest nature.
Here is a good article about them:
That’s not even to speak of the impressiveness of the larger temples.
The greenness of the city, which is mainly the work of homeowners and businesses. There were gorgeous potted plants lining all the streets. Apparently some of it is to claim private space so motorcycles don’t park there. But either way, it was so beautiful to walk those streets and see all that lush greenery. Also, trees growing out of the sides of buildings.
How casually amazing all of the artists I saw play were. There was a very high level of sophistication to all of the musicians, in a way that seemed so effortless. The two sets I saw by Y.F. Tamashi (with Cheng Daoyuan and then with nc.n20) were some of the best noise sets I’ve ever seen, and I’m going to need to reflect a lot more about why that is exactly, if not obviously in part because of Luhung’s vocals. Sundiall totally blew me away, as did all the other acts.
I was put in touch with Luhung after a call-out on Instagram for promoters in Taipei, and without us knowing each other, she arranged two shows and our sets on Toha Radio. It was a big reminder that this community of weirdo musicians is truly a worldwide community. I loved experiencing a totally foreign scene and thinking about that if I lived there, this would probably be my community.
BB ICEFUN x Ouro Yang
Badger Gam
e3p
Spectral Pulse in Hsinchu arranged a beautiful show. The performance by Lisa Teng, Zia-Ning Tai, and Kai-Yu Lin was amazing—experimental violin and guitar with science objects adding sound textures and visuals. With projections of space-related images, the whole thing felt so psychedelic, beautiful and deep.
This sense of the art in Taiwan being “casually amazing” also extended to the artists in Ukai’s Goblin Market. There was a beautiful depth of concept and feeling to the artists in the market, and also this sort of… sweetness? to it all that really touched me deeply.
Touring is better when you have someone like Dorraa to do it with. We were truly in it together, lugging all our gear around from place to place, playing shows with 11 hour jet lag, setting up our radio together… true partners in crime.
Taiwan is seriously beautiful with lush green mountains everywhere. Wish I could have explored the nature more but we went on a hike at Teapot Mountain near Jiufen.
I feel very blessed to have had this opportunity and experience and a huge thank you to Ukai Projects for supporting this adventure. Major shoutout to Luhung Hsia, Toha Radio and Spectral Pulse for hosting shows with us. I hope to be back someday. I’m feeling inspired to pour this inspiration back into my work and my own musical community.
