Sydney pop songstress by way of Hong Kong, Rainbow Chan records her music in the same place that her zany garb and shoes reside: her closet. After realizing her original artistic focus of being an oh-so-experimental singer/songwriter was not for her, Chan turned to something a little more her: infectious pop music out of left field. What resulted from this genre jump is the Long Vacation EP (Silo Arts), which is named after a 1996 Japanese TV drama. She claims the inspiration for the six tracks consist of, but not limited to, glockenspiels and music boxes, Frédéric Chopin and Steve Reich, girl groups and electronics, Hong Kong pop, Shanghai jazz, American rhythm ‘n’ blues and Japanese television theme songs. Chan will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all this week. Read our brand new feature on her.
Chan: I’ve seen three of Katie Paterson‘s works, and they have all blown my mind. I had just finished seeing Björk’s Biophilia concert in Manchester and stumbled across an art gallery. It featured Paterson’s Earth-Moon-Earth, where she transcribed Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata into morse code, reflected it onto the moon’s surface and finally played the new score. Information is lost in the radio transmission so the famous piece is deconstructed and rewritten. What I found enriching is that Paterson’s reimagining of the piece spans across space. It made me feel very small and in awe of the infinite world we live in. She has also created a work with ice records from Icelandic glaciers that melt and warp as they play. Combining sound, art, Iceland? Ticks all the boxes for me.
Video after the jump.
