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European music trio strikes right chords with Chinese audience
By Xu Wenwen |
April 16, 2012, Monday
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THE only European music trio in Hangzhou, Binks Lu, says music helps them become part of city life, but there's some culture shock and a bit of dismay about noisy audiences.
Binks Lu, with two French musicians and an Italian, plays every Friday at L'amour Cafe and every Saturday at 9 Club in Hangzhou. Singing mostly in French, with some English, it has taken part in various music festivals in China, including the Xihu International Music Festival in Hangzhou.
The band founded last spring features Frenchmen Arthur Links on guitar and Pierre William, vocalist, and Italian bassist Andrea Galliverti.
"Music leads us to greater knowledge about the city and country and I hope people can know more about us through our music," Galliverti says.
The three were all musicians in their home countries. Links, a Parisian, has made music his career and has worked with several well-known bands in France. He also established a jazz quintet.
William, who hails from Nantes, has been a singer for six years and toured around France with his own band. Galliverti has studied bass for a decade and has toured and performed more than 200 times in Italy with his band Last Minute to Jaffna.
And none of them came to China to pursue careers in music. Links studied Chinese geography and has completed his studies. William is studying Chinese in a university, and Galliverti is an exchange student in Chinese studies.
The band got together by chance when a Hangzhou beer festival was looking for a foreign band. Links and William decided to give it a try.
Their debut was a successful and Galliverti, who was looking for a band, suggested they form a trio, and so they did.
The band plays jazz, pop, blues, funk and a mix of various genres. Most songs are in French and some are in English.
The three also study traditional Chinese instruments such as erhu (a two-string bowed instrument) and guqin (a seven-string plucked instrument in the zither family).
"I am interested in how Chinese instruments work so I can incorporate some methods into my guitar-playing," Links says.
"I do music for fun, so I want to understand more about Chinese music and musicians," he says.
The band has many gigs, including festivals, ceremonies and weddings.
They have also encountered some culture shock. For one thing, they realized that the information from those who invite them is often different from reality, perhaps due to language problems. For example, once they expected to show up at a cafe, but instead they performed in a stadium.
They also find audiences to be rather noisy and disconcerting at times. Cell phones ringing, people talking, children shouting and people coughing all make it difficult to concentrate.
But the band is adapting.
"If you decide to come and stay, you need to accept the reality and try to influence people with your art," William says, adding that the band plans to learn some Chinese pop songs and compose music that combine Chinese andWestern elements.
Binks Lu, with two French musicians and an Italian, plays every Friday at L'amour Cafe and every Saturday at 9 Club in Hangzhou. Singing mostly in French, with some English, it has taken part in various music festivals in China, including the Xihu International Music Festival in Hangzhou.
The band founded last spring features Frenchmen Arthur Links on guitar and Pierre William, vocalist, and Italian bassist Andrea Galliverti.
"Music leads us to greater knowledge about the city and country and I hope people can know more about us through our music," Galliverti says.
The three were all musicians in their home countries. Links, a Parisian, has made music his career and has worked with several well-known bands in France. He also established a jazz quintet.
William, who hails from Nantes, has been a singer for six years and toured around France with his own band. Galliverti has studied bass for a decade and has toured and performed more than 200 times in Italy with his band Last Minute to Jaffna.
And none of them came to China to pursue careers in music. Links studied Chinese geography and has completed his studies. William is studying Chinese in a university, and Galliverti is an exchange student in Chinese studies.
The band got together by chance when a Hangzhou beer festival was looking for a foreign band. Links and William decided to give it a try.
Their debut was a successful and Galliverti, who was looking for a band, suggested they form a trio, and so they did.
The band plays jazz, pop, blues, funk and a mix of various genres. Most songs are in French and some are in English.
The three also study traditional Chinese instruments such as erhu (a two-string bowed instrument) and guqin (a seven-string plucked instrument in the zither family).
"I am interested in how Chinese instruments work so I can incorporate some methods into my guitar-playing," Links says.
"I do music for fun, so I want to understand more about Chinese music and musicians," he says.
The band has many gigs, including festivals, ceremonies and weddings.
They have also encountered some culture shock. For one thing, they realized that the information from those who invite them is often different from reality, perhaps due to language problems. For example, once they expected to show up at a cafe, but instead they performed in a stadium.
They also find audiences to be rather noisy and disconcerting at times. Cell phones ringing, people talking, children shouting and people coughing all make it difficult to concentrate.
But the band is adapting.
"If you decide to come and stay, you need to accept the reality and try to influence people with your art," William says, adding that the band plans to learn some Chinese pop songs and compose music that combine Chinese andWestern elements.
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