La Fete de la Musique Comes to Beijing, Jun 20-21
Created in 1983 by then culture minister Jack Lang, La Fete de la Musique, a festival taking place on the official first day of summer, Jun 21 to be exact, was originally contained to the streets of France where thousands of concerts across the country take place.
The festival took off and spread around the world from 1985 onwards, but didn't really develop in China until after 2010.
As one of the organizers of the festival in Beijing for many years, this author has also been involved as a musician, an artist, and a promoter for the event.
While the Covid years didn’t make it easy for the FDLM to survive, as bands couldn’t come from France to tour in China for a few years, the FDLM pushed onward by getting local bands to play when it was possible. Acts like Fake Gentle, Mountain Junkies, Pierre Pradat, and others made it possible for the event to go on spreading and bands from France are back this year to play in Beijing, but also bands from Shenyang, Shanghai, Chengdu, and a few other places. (check this link for more information).
Personally, I do remember one of the first events of the FDLM at the French Insitute in Beijing in 2009, at 798, and then later at MAO, Yugong Yishan, and many other places.
This year, the main event in Beijing will take place on Jun 20 at DDC while other bands will play at Blue Note on Jun 21.
All the events are free.
Here is the calendar for Beijing:
Jun 20
Where: DDC (Dusk Dawn Club)
Bands: Structures, Ours Samplus, Charlie Motto, Octopus Villain
Jun 21
Where: Blue Note Beijing
Pierre Pradat Jazz-Funk Sextet
Where: Temple 东景缘/Voyage by 回Orange Dub
All About the Bands
While old-timers of the Beijing scene Pierre Pradat (Jazz sextet), Nicolas Mege, and Peter Stone (Orange Dub) will take to the stage on Jun 21 at Blue Note and Temple 东景缘, respectively, the bands coming directly from France and touring China will play on Jun 20 at DDC, with local act Octopus Villain completing the line-up.
Structures
Hailing from the French town of Amiens, Structures are inspired by '80’s UK bands such as Joy Division, Depeche Mode, and New Order. The band also takes inspiration from French bands such as Taxi Girl and Indochine.
Listen: https://music.163.com/song?id=1346289120&userid=1399604863
Ours Samplus
Ours Samplus is an instrumental electro/hip-hop band from Lille, a major city in the North of France. We felt a lot of '90’s French hip-hop vibe while listening to them, but you can be the judge of that.
Charlie Motto
Charlie Motto is a singer in the tradition of French electro-pop music, and as such is the most pop-forward act in the list. Influences of '80’s pop can be found in her music, with some distinct Kate Bush accents.
Octopus Villain
Octopus Villain is an interesting modern electro band from Beijing that I encourage you to listen to. We’ve listened to their album Bedridden and were nicely surprised by the quality of the compositions, definitely one of the more interesting bands coming out of the Beijing scene these days.
Listen: https://music.163.com/song?id=1977013493&userid=1399604863
Pierre Pradat
As far as we can remember, we’ve always seen Pierre playing jazz piano in Beijing. The guy sure is at the top of the game when it comes to this style of music in Beijing and China. This time he will play as a funk sextet mixing jazz and funk at Blue Note, the best venue for Jazz in the capital.
Orange Dub
Peter Stone and Nico Mege will showcase their brand of Dub at Temple with Orange Dub, a band mixing electronics with drums and good bass.
TiensTiens is also participating this year as a venue with classical music and “hippie” guitar as well as a DJ, DJ Kaize.
It’s all free so don’t hesitate to go!
La Fete de la Musique is happening on Tuesday, Jun 20 from 7pm-11pm at DDC, and Wednesday, Jun 21 at various times at Blue Note Beijing; Voyage by 回; and TsiensTsiens (the latter is from 7pm-midnight). All events are free entry but pre-booking is recommended for the event at Temple 东景缘. See above posters for details.
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Images courtesy of the French Institute of Culture
