Old Bomb Shelter Studio with Yangjima

Yesterday I spent the evening recording another track with Yangjima again.

The last time we recorded I wrote a bit about it here:
https://steemit.com/music/@owain82220/recording-session-tibetan-film

This time the music was more experimental. They said they were up all night drinking whiskey last week, discussing the general direction and feel of the songs.

The studio is in an old bomb shelter on Huashan Road. It’s pretty common practice for artists and musicians to use these kinds of spaces in China. The area where JZ club is set up used to be an old bomb shelter too.

Unfortunately the producer told me the government will take possession of the space next year, so they’ll have to find another place to set up.

Here's a bit of a tour anyway:

I arrived at 7pm, but they were still recording the organ for another song, so I didn’t get going until 10pm or so.

Playing the phrase, Yangjima would sing a little and imitate how she wants it to sound.

These things are always hard to put into words. Especially when you’re talking in another language. So singing or making noises is usually the best way to communicate in music. “Can you make it more: Pom Pom Pom Pom Pommmmm…….?”

We figured out that they wanted more attack on the line, and some sustain on the last note of each phrase.

Once that was established it was recorded and that was it…. I felt a little sorry for the keyboard player cause he was playing much more difficult stuff, and he spent the whole afternoon and into the evening doing it.

We did try some other things, like some percussion on the body of the bass. But the producer said tomorrow they’ve got a cello player coming in to double on top of the bass line. So they wouldn’t keep any of that anyway.

These songs have a kind of dark minimalist vibe. Just the bass line, a simple drum and there will be multi layered vocals on top.

Looking forward to hearing it completed.