BJ experimental music scene founder, Yan Jun, talks Mini Midi
Anytime I hear the words “sound art” or “experimental music,” I think of stuffy shirts and straight-faced, intellectual seriousness. Yan Jun, sound artist, poet, music critic and event organizer behind the Mini Midi Festival, puts these clichés to rest.

“It’s hard to describe the festival exactly, but I’d just call it a relaxing time in nice surroundings with music,” says Yan as a swarm of workers behind us lay out luxurious new layer of lawn outside of 2 Kolegas “We’ve made progress each year we’ve done Mini Midi, and everybody involved is getting much more professional... except for me,” he quips.

Yan's festival focuses on the more adventurous and experimental music being made in China. “Just like in our everyday lives, there are all kinds of music. You know, even your neighbor's remodeling can be music in a way,” Yan muses. Though I admire the sentiment, I have yet to fully appreciate the jackhammer beats and nail gun melodies my neighbors excel in.

Musing about the hutong hollering of the “knife sharpening guy,” Yan maintains that the city's changes will eliminate some sounds forever. “When everybody goes to live in apartment blocks, we won't hear those unique sounds of local culture anymore.” In his own work, Yan integrates such samples of everyday life.

Although the “knife sharpening guy” may not hit the stage, Mini Midi covers a wide array of adventurous modern music. This year’s lineup includes Andy Guhl from Switzerland’s Voice Crack, and Zero and Sound, a noise project from Taiwan, as well as internationally recognized sound sculptors and local favorites FM3.

Mini Midi has been going strong for four years, and though stages are smaller than Midi proper, performances I saw last year were larger than life. Dead J performed clad in a space suit, Sulumi danced like electric eels and one guy even climbed the light rig. You don’t get that kind of spontaneity on the main stage. “It is a performance; it’s a show,” Yan admits. “But this year you'll see all kinds of things used for sounds. If there’s just one laptop up there and the performers don’t go the extra mile to make
it special it could be boring.”

Michael Armstrong