Ling Peng: The Open Fund for Music Creators

For:

Written In Dust: live music and film

Event date:

November 2013-April 2014

Find out more by visiting:

www.ling-peng.com/latest-project.html

Written In Dust is a silent film and live music performance event: a contemporary silent film set in Beijing with live music performance using traditional Chinese instruments and state of the art electronic music re-mixing.

The film tells the tragic tale of three young Chinese rural migrants who come in search of the new life that modern Beijing promises. The tensions created by the pursuit of money and the repression of love lead to moral corruption, betrayal, lies and the ultimate tragedy.

Ling Peng uses the Erhu (a two-stringed Chinese violin) and Xun (a gourd-like flute) to haunting effect, tracing the journey through moods of early optimism, internal struggle, violent threat, tragic melancholy and tenuous hope. DJ and electronic musician Si Tew samples her live performance, reworking and looping her melodies as the three migrants find themselves morally lost in the in the dark shadows cast by the city lights.

Shot without permission from the Chinese government, the film shows contemporary Beijing as we rarely see it, and tells a tale which resonates universally. The fusion of traditional Chinese music with electronic live music performance underlines the themes of tradition and modernity within the film, and offers a powerfully moving experience for the audience.

Written In Dust is an exciting cross-cultural, film and music collaboration, rarely seen before, and which can only be experienced live.