Lin Di
private Lindi : The Gossypium Era (CN,rec.2005,mix.2008,pub.2011)****’
I loved the package of this book/CD so I did make an order of it. It had to go over the US, so the customs charged me again 23 euros for this product packed in a huge box with nothing else in it. I guess the Belgian administration still considers such extra “import / administration” charges rather normal. I am still paying them well.
LinDi I already knew some years now as being the pipa player from the first Chinese band I did hear who really showed a truly original and creative music style, which are Cold Fairyland from Shanghai. But she also did a number of solo albums.
This concept used in this album seemed to be a pretty interesting one too. In 2005 LinDi collected a couple of folk songs in the Guizhou Province. She noticed how much people lived there outside time, with the same dresses and way of life as thousands of years ago. What amazed me in the results here is how the singings that are expressed here so brightly also fit well with (short words-based) singings that were once inspired by Quartet Jorgi on “To I Tao” after having stayed a long time in the remote Carpathian mountains.
Although there is noticeable a small contemporary and very creative element in the arrangements on pipa on the first two tracks (which I can express as a kind of plucked pingpong rhythms), like a modern idea of composition, most elements might really come from the folk origins, like the singing and beautiful balance between dialogues in singing (male/female singers and a few children occasionally), in the rhythms, and in the special colour balance between the instruments for which fresh alive rhythms are used (double bass, deep bass and stick/clay pot rhythms), followed in theme by at least one flute and of which flutes also mostly provide the upper layered melody-based part. The themes equally express powerfully it’s subject like a group dance and its consciousness.
LinDi had begun to learn pipa at age four in a primary school attached to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. She graduated at the Conservatory at the Folk Music Department, Specializing in ethnic instruments, synthesizer music and orchestral composition. The band Cold Fairyland was formed 2001. This solo album still shows best her folk music interest and research. In this she also shows a great vision for compositional and sonic balance. It shows very refreshing music with an inspired effect.
Homepage: http://www.miyadudu.com/
