CD review by David Chen - Listen to the Atayal in Taoshan
Friday, May 13th, 2011Listen to the Atayal in Taoshan (聽見桃山) is not exactly an audio documentary, but it provides an interesting look at the daily lives and culture of a group of Atayal (泰雅) Aboriginal residents from Taoshan Village (桃山村), located in the mountains of Hsinchu County.
This collection of on-location recordings of traditional Atayal music, oral storytelling and nature sounds was conceived as an audio travelogue by sound artist Yannick Dauby and visual artist Tsai Wan-shuen (蔡宛璇).
Under the name Atelier Hui-Kan (回看工作室), Dauby and Tsai spent six months collaborating with students from Taoshan Elementary School (桃山國小). Along with Atayal musician and teacher Pawang Iban (錢玉章), the pair organized workshops and games that involved the students learning the Atayal language and creating their own sound art.
Though sound art as a discipline tends to be experimental or downright esoteric, Dauby and Tsai keep this project down to earth by focusing on the village’s efforts at cultural preservation.
This CD is a pleasure to hear. In some ways, it’s like listening to a radio program, but with the commentary coming only from the subjects.
Dauby blurs the lines between social documentary and sound art aesthetics, and that works very well. Rope Pulling (拔河) is a two-minute track that captures a tug-of-war contest at the school. His editing focuses on the excitement of competition, with the crack of the starting gun and the students yelling and screaming as they root for their team.
In A Weird Travel (泰雅奇幻之旅), a Taoshan Village elder tells the surreal tale of a hunter that gets kidnapped and travels to the future. Dauby subtly splices in recordings of Taoshan schoolchildren imitating the sounds of cicadas, as well as the frogs outdoors at the village, and manages to avoid making the track sound like a New Age recording.
There’s also plenty for listeners interested in world music or traditional musical instruments. The CD includes a cappella renditions of traditional songs, performances by Taoshan students singing and playing bamboo xylophones and a sampling of the wide variety of bamboo mouth harps used by the Atayal.
Though he shies away from calling these recordings ethnography, preferring to see them as artistic pieces, Dauby writes in the liner notes that “an effort must be made” to preserve Atayal musical culture. This CD is fully convincing in this regard.
For more information on this recording, visit Atelier Hui-kan’s Web site or contact Taoshan Elementary School in Wufeng Township, Hsinchu County, (新竹縣五峰鄉桃山國小) at (03) 585-6040.
— David Chen
