DaWangGang at Ethno Jazz Festival: Chinese folklore, throat singing and the avant-garde

Ethno Jazz Festival invites you on a journey through ancient Asian landscapes, combining musical tradition with the present.

Over the past season, the avant-garde band from China has become a discovery of the leading ethnic music festivals. DaWangGang blur the boundaries between the singer-songwriter, Asian folklore, multi-ethnic sound art, Chinese opera and contemporary rock, creating a unique combination of tradition and the present.

Dawanggang is a band founded by Song Yuzhe, an eclectic musician from north-eastern China. Their music contains echoes of nomadic melodies from western China, experimental sounds, elements of folk tales and an extraordinary sense of space. The line-up is flexible, bringing together musicians from different musical, cultural and ethnic traditions to break conventions and create new musical dimensions. Critics have coined the term “soundscape” for this kind of music.

A DaWangGang concert weaves philosophical tales and poems about animals, children and sorcerers into musical worlds created by guitars, morin khuur, ghijek, throat singing, jaw harp, drums, percussion and samples in ever-changing combinations. It is an encounter with Chinese and Central Asian folklore, experimental soundscapes embedded in nature, an archaic sound of spaciousness, rhythmic trance, emotions full of expression and energy, and stories rich in imagination, wisdom and depth.

Song Yuzhe, the founder and creative mind behind DaWangGang, studied guitar and composition in Beijing. He initially played in various punk and rock bands. Before long, however, he decided to broaden his musical knowledge and spent ten years travelling to remote corners of China, learning from musicians of different ethnic groups and social backgrounds. This experience led to the creation of DaWangGang, a project bringing together musicians from different traditions and movements and frequently collaborating with other artists. Alongside its central member Song Yuzhe, on vocals, guitar, eight-string banjo and zither, DaWangGang comprises Hu Gejiletu on morin chuur, throat singing and jaw harp; ghijek virtuoso Adil; and drummer Zhang Yang, who plays in numerous punk, rock and jazz projects in Beijing.

In spring 2013, DaWangGang released their debut album “Wild Tune Stray Rhythm”, which reached No. 11 in the World Music Charts in its very first week.

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