Shui Mo 水墨 premieres on Bristol New Music!

Sea, Shadow and ink • 潮汐之影，水墨之间

潮の影、水墨のあいだ with
April 26th, 14.30 • Bristol New Music
Victoria Rooms• Bristol

Tickets £15/7 at Headfirst

https://www.bristolnewmusic.org/programme/shui-mo-ensemble-sea-shadow-and-ink/

In Sea, Shadow and ink • 潮汐之影，水墨之间 Shui Mo 水墨brings four newly commissioned works by Hong Kong, Taiwan, UK, and China-Japan-UK composers to Bristol.    

Highlighting the programme is Luminous Ink Shadows (墨影浮光), a propulsive new commission from Cardiff-Hong Kong phenom, 邵丽堂 Kiko Shao that revels in the East Asian, familiar from her earlier work, but rarely found in their acoustic form whilst in the UK except through recordings. The inspiration for Taiwan-Germany composer Yuting Chang’s Smoke Coiling is the essence of smoke, ‘which I think of as another form of fluid existence,’ breath sounds of the shakuhachi and taegeum along with extended possibilities of the guzheng keeps Chang’s sounds ‘ever-shifting, effervescent.’  

Changing light, sea and reflection are central to the imagery of Shui Mo cellist George Owen’s inspiration from master 吉田博 Hiroshi Yoshida’s tracing of a day over a vast water in changing light. Beijing-Bristol (Tokyo) composer SU Lia’s work The Ink-Coloured Tide • 墨色之汐;  墨潮 infuses the air with sounds of transformation and changeability, as Su's always-visually-informed aesthetic, rooted in Beijing opera and guqin sensibilities, to BNM audiences for the first time.  

Added to this are the exquisite sounds of JIA Guoping’s Misty Frost and Faded Ink 寒烟淡墨, a work drawing on the timbral delicacies of Shui Mo’s traditional instruments. We look forward to seeing you there!

All pieces commissioned by Shui Mo in 2026. Kiko Shao’s Luminous Ink Shadows (墨影浮光) is commissioned with support by the Vaughan Williams Foundation  

Yuting Chang’s Smoke Coiling is supported by the National Culture and Arts Foundation of Taiwan.

Harmony and Faded Ink

​​共声而和 · 消隐之墨
共鳴と消えゆく墨

조화 담묵

Tickets £15/£8 concession here

In Harmony and Faded Ink  Shui Mo 水墨 brings five new commissioned works by East Asian composers to Bristol.  Highlighting the programme is the renowned JIA Guoping’s Misty Frost and Faded Ink 寒烟淡墨, a work drawing on the timbral delicacies and ‘irregularities’ of Shui Mo’s traditional instruments.   Jia’s unique background includes playing banhu in local Shanxi opera troupes, and founding ConTempo Beijing, one of the first ensembles in China to use traditional instruments within cutting-edge contemporary music.  

Breath sounds of the shakuhachi (Kiku Day) and taegeum (Dasom Baek 백다솜), along with the sheng (mouth organ) are central to Eunseog Lee’s SPIRIT 霊・息 breath invoking the beginning of time and the Holy Spirit as a divine breath, a serene vocal chant forming a point of lucidity within.    Wang Tianyi 王天仪’s Variations of the Wandering Sound takes a richly heterophonic folk tune as its basis, then ‘wanders’ to referencing dances of Tibet, (medieval) chant and the honkyoku 本曲 (Edo-period) tradition of Kiku’s shakuhachi.   Jazz-influenced composer  Zhang Bohan 张博涵 takes this even further, inspired by the eastern cinematic warrior tradition (Kurosawa’s Ghost of Tsushima) in Edge Among Leaves, a work based upon layers and layers of the Japanese In mode.   

Harmony 和 in Chinese philosophy (‘not pursuing simple uniformity, rather seeking to fuse diverse elements into an organic whole while respecting their differences’) is invoked by Chengdu composer Xu Zhengtong in Symbiosis, the concert's opening work.  Interludes of traditional and improvised solos reference the sources of Shui Mo’s scintillating instrumental soundscape, accompanied by visual stills drawn from the vast water-ink (shui mo) tradition.

Tickets:
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/bathspalive/t-qmvzlmx

Shui Mo’s 20 November Bath Spa University iteration programme blank canvas features Yuting Chang’s (Taiwan) reflection on impermanence in her Kintsugi, Eunseog Lee (Korea/UK)’s Shaking Mountains, Roaring Rivers (2024), features special narrator Niall Hoskin. Michael Ellison’s (USA/Turkey) shamanic-rhythms-inspired Doğu Invocation (2024/25), and Yingying Wen’s Camel Xiáng (2024) evoke the arid landscapes of Sichuan province, Korea and Xinjiang.  Zhihong Guo’s The Vanishing Parasol Leaves (2024) also reflects on impermanence, with the composer’s evocation of the sound of wind, and fleeting timbres.  

Previews may be found here https://www.shuimo.org.uk/projects

from BBC Radio 3’s New Music Show.

Musicians and instruments:

Kiku Day キク デイ(shakuhachi), Hyelim Kim 김혜림 (daegeum), PENG Cheng 彭程 (érhú), HE Shuiqingqing 何,水清清 (guzhēng), Jingyu Chew 周荆玉 (shēng), George Owen (‘cello).

https://www.shuimo.org.uk/

https://www.instagram.com/shuimoensemble/

Contact: ensembleshuimo@gmail.com