Distant Dialogues
‘Distant Dialogues’ is a creative collaboration between radio platform Worldwide FM, independent record label Merrie Records and the British Council and is supported by Chinese company Xintiandi. A remote artistic residency born out of the realities presented by the global pandemic, the project provides opportunity for experimental artists from the UK and China to create and explore human connections between musicians and audiences in very distant physical spaces. Six artists composed six tracks in just over a month, sharing and documenting their creative process and each with their own personal brief and direction.
Leeds-born Wonky Logic, Bristol-based Kayla Painter and London’s Hector Plimmer are participating artists from the UK who asked music-loving Chinese audiences and artists to contribute sounds, recordings and other media to inspire and inhabit their compositions, touching on themes of joy, vulnerability and geography. Wuhan’s Shii, Beijing artist Sheng Jie / Gogoj and Shanghai producer Gooooose solicited contributions from UK audiences to explore themes of staring, dancing and flowers in their productions. You can listen to the full radio programme featuring the tracks and exploring the journey for all our artists below.
For both Worldwide FM and Merrie Records, this project also represents an exciting partnership creating new professional connections and learnings across the independent radio and music industries in both the UK and China. The legacy of ‘Distant Dialogues’ will not only be a unique collection of recordings, but the beginning of new relationships and ideas across continents. In November Merrie Records released the compilation of material across all major platforms, which you can hear here.
More on the artists involved:
SHII
Shii is a Chengdu indie electronic artist currently residing in Wuhan, China. Her production draws elements from IDM, art-pop and dream-pop, merging them into catchy, fluent melodies. Shii has been invited to perform in Simple Life Festival, StreetVoice’s The Big Landing, Fete de la Musique and more. She signed with Beijing label Merrie Records in early 2019, and her debut Floating Signifiers” and EP record “Duration” were released in July and November 2019.
Sheng Jie / Gogoj
‘Listen’ and ‘Watch’ are two major elements in Beijing artist Sheng Jie’s work, creating a circulatory system of perception in the space. Her creative outlets find many forms, from experimental music, sound, video and painting to film, installation, composition and audio and visual art performance. Sheng Jie founded Shan studio in 2010, is manager of Maybe Ensemble and founded DOT audio-visual art laboratory in 2018.
GOOOOOSE is Han Han. His multi-instrumental approach of making music usually leads the audience into a place where ambient soundscape, heavily synthesized texture and syncopated rhythms find their harmony, yet still fighting with each other. Apart from making music, Han Han is also a visual
artist and software developer, also front man of one of China’s electronica band “Duck Fight Goose” and owner of Miniless Recordings.
Kayla Painter
Depending on where you land in Kayla Painter’s universe, the outlook could be very different. From one angle, she sculpts subversive rhythm tracks that play on club tropes while crackling with an energy sourced from somewhere far away. Earlier work left listeners enshrouded in her beatless, textural studies. Often she strikes in between these extremes, using micro-sampling and musique concrete principles to propel her unique clusters of deftly sculpted sound design. Painter uses her platform to explore specific themes both personal and external, while placing great emphasis on the visual representation of her work.
Wonky Logic
Leeds born producer Wonky Logic’s current projects include his own band with Nache aka Edward Hick (Sons of Kemet) as well as The General Elation Soundsystem alongside Brother Portrait and Nadeem Din-Gabisi. He plays keyboards for Bryony Jarmon-Pinto, synth bass with afrofuturism band ONIPA and has recently played on Emma Jean Thackray’s project Um-Yang alongside Soweto Kinch.
Born and raised in South London, Hector Plimmer is a multi-faceted producer, composer and DJ who’s debut full length record, ‘Sunshine’ was met with rapturous acclaim. He hosts a monthly programme on Worldwide FM and most recently released a second LP with longtime affiliates Albert’s Favourites.
Collaborative Playlist
To give a sense of the influences and inspirations our artists in residence are channeling throughout the Distant Dialogues project, they have contributed to this Spotify playlist. Full of tracks old and new, these are picked by our six artists and really function as a small insight into the breadth and depth of musical experience across the programme.