This is a searchable list of my archive of unofficial (and unapproved) audio recordings I captured at events while I was living in Mainland China from 2010 onwards, as well as those made after I moved to Hong Kong in 2018. The list ends in 2020 when I stopped making these recordings and just learned to listen.
This is presented as a resource for research. I should stress it is not an encyclopaedic record of every event taking place during this period, or even every experimental music event; I was very selective about which events I went to, and I was not able to go to every single event. This list represents my interests and my research, and are therefore mostly of performances in “underground” spaces and of “experimental” sounds.
Recordings of some of these events by other people may also exist elsewhere – for instance Zhai Ruixin of fRUITYSPACE and Nerve of Twenty Alpha have both been recording events at their respective spaces for many years, and some of the performances have been officially released on various record labels. When time permits I will update this list with links to these releases, and with the photographs I took during the events (but don’t hold your breath for these).
I am also not going to share the audio files on this site. Getting everyone’s permission would be a lot of work, server space would be expensive for the downloads, and to be honest the recording quality is not great as they were made while standing in the audience, using various iPhones.
Nevertheless, I think that this list is a useful resource recording a remarkably active period for underground experimental music spaces and performances in Mainland China and Hong Kong.
If you have any questions, drop me a line, or check out my blog for more information on the subject of non-mainstream sound and music from Mainland China and Hong Kong.