Description
Theres a reason rural escapism in China has risen over the past several years. Millions are drawn to lifestyle vloggers likeLi Ziqi and Dianxi Xiaoge, who portray idyllic countryside lives spent creating everything from food to clothing from scratch. Theres even a small but notable group of young people calledfanxiang qingnian, who, in a departure from Chinas mass rural-to-urban migrationof the past four decades, have opted to return to farm life. Of course, Chinese nationalism and the states push to promote Chinese culture do play a role, but the fact remains that Chinas rapid economic growth, not unlike that of its American counterpart, has left its people wanting something more.
OnBirdy Island, producerHowie Leetakes this desire and projects it into the future, applying it to the question of what follows societys collapse under capitalism. The artist imagines a scenario that is by turns dystopic and hopeful, in which a Chinese investment company has decided to fund a theme park aimed at reconnecting people with nature and spirituality. The park is located on a floating island (the albums namesake), where birds and ancestral spirits commingle. Lee, as a character in this musical metafiction, has been hired to score its soundtrack.
Birdy Islandproposes a kind of hopeful syncretism, reaching back into traditional Chinese spiritual practices and finding a place for them within the destructive wake of neoliberal economics. It is also a documentation of both the beauty and the corruption of a culture that is sometimes romanticized, frequently villainized, but always human. – Pitchfork
Label: Mais Um Discos MAIS042LP
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: UK
Released: 16 Apr 2021
Genre: Electronic, Folk, World, & Country
Style: Experimental, Ambient, Chinese Classical
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