Yin: Guzz’s “Fleeting Whispers”

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in Chinese on Wooozy.cn, a blog dedicated to chronicling the history and lifestyle of new music from across China. It has been translated and re-posted here with permission.

Guzz, an electronic music producer from Hainan currently based in Beijing, recently released his latest EP, Koi. The EP features three songs that record his thoughts during a recent trip through Southeast Asia, and his reflections on the origin of his culture. It also shows the direction of where his musical style is headed in the future.

Following the release of Koi, Wooozy spoke with Guzz about what he’s been thinking about recently.

On the episodic structure of Koi:

The reason I made the music in episodes is to strengthen its artistic tension. When I’m home, I either listen to ethnic/folk music or original soundtracks from films and games, because of their content and vivid imagery.

On finding inspiration in Southeast Asia:

During this trip to Myanmar, I spent two afternoons at the Shwedagon Pagoda. It seemed that people went there to pray to the Buddha, but in my eyes, they were actually there to talk to their own inner worlds. In general, people don’t realize that they can talk to themselves, so they need an external image or religion. They talked about everything, left all of their expectations and miseries in the temples, then walked out clean to positively face the next day. This is good. In fact, it doesn’t matter where people live. All religions and cultures look different, just because they put different layers or coats on simple humanity.

Photo by Guzz (via Noisey)

On club music:

I didn’t really go to the club last year. First of all, I’m not at an age where I should be clubbing a lot, and I can’t listen to violent music for too long, haha. Secondly, my music is not club music any longer. And to be honest, even in China, club music is not fresh any more. So I want to play something else now, because there really is a lot of music that we can play. Actually it’s not that my music changed into something else, but that I have changed. I changed, so the music I produce changed.

A new goal:

I want to make a 10-minute song next as a personal challenge — something like telling a story. After all, it’s 10 minutes long, so it will need a lot of arranged content to support the story or the emotion that I want to convey. It’s not like a club track, which is just 3 or 4 minutes long, with percussion and bass to support it. The difference is like the difference between making a film and making a video. Right now I’m not capable of making music like this, so I figure that I need to spend this year learning. Additionally, I have a new full-length album planned — I already have a demo of it. I can tell you that Gamelan is used more in the next album.

Yin (音, “music”) is a weekly RADII feature that looks at Chinese songs spanning classical to folk to modern experimental, and everything in between. Drop us a line if you have a suggestion.

Cover image: Noisey