My first and favourite foray into the Beijing music scene was a MicroMu folk music night at the Jianjinjiu bar, a great little place between the Drum and Bell towers at Gulou. A friend of a friend, Mat, introduced me to Ed Peto of MicroMu, a record label run by his Beijing-based music consultancy, Red T Music. They host bi-monthly concerts at the Jianjinjiu – definitely worth checking out if you’re passing through Beijing.

Some of you may be thinking, as I did, “Beijing alt-folk music scene?” Yes – and it’s wonderful. The little I’ve heard and seen has been musically original and impressive. The gigs have been, for the most part, well-attended with enthusiastic crowds. Beijing Bohemian. Who knew.

That first night Ed was doing a live recording of Zhang Weiwei and Guo Long, two important musicians in the Beijing “alt-folk/ethnic” scene. Both were founding members of the group you heard the other day, IZ, and were also in the well-known bands Glorious Pharmacy and Wild Children. Apparently Zhang Weiwei is quite well-known, at least among Beijing musical circles, for his accordian work with Wan Xiao Li and increasingly for his own recordings.

The music you’ll hear today is from his first solo release, though it’s actually a new version of a song from a previous group, Wild Children. The title translates to “Stare at the northern sky”. It’s been stuck in my head for quite a few days now along with several other excellent tracks from the album. For this I am especially grateful since it finally released me from the musical clutches of that wildly irritating (but addictive) Beijing olympics theme song you hear on the radio every two minutes.

You can download Zhang Weiwei’s whole album – free and legal – on the MicroMu site. If you’re having a hard time finding the download links (the site is Chinese-only) try this: http://www.micromu.com/wp-content/uploads/MMDLLP004%5BMicroMu%5D.zip.

I’ll be posting music by another MicroMu artist tomorrow, and hopefully more in the future. They produce some really great sounds, and plus Ed is a good guy who has taught me much about the scene here.

A note from Ed,

“Here is a video of Gulou, Jiangjinjiu, Gangzi soundchecking and a massive firework going off. This was a practice for the Olympic opening ceremony fireworks a week later. You know the ones that went off in a row from Tiananmen Square through Gulou and on up to the Bird’s Nest…
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzgxNjc3OTY=.html
Really gives a good idea of atmosphere surrounding the whole MicroMu @ Jianjinjiu evenings.”

You can see another video of Zhang playing here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpoTubJqGFs

I’ll tell you more about MicroMu in the coming days and post some more of their music. Great stuff.

张玮玮 – 眼望着北方 (Zhang Weiwei – Stare At The Northern Sky)