Sound maker Roslyn Oades was commissioned by Chamber Made to create a podcast series. Roslyn conducted a series of art dates with artists about their practice, with conversations particularly referencing how they have been listening at this moment in time.
Credits
To learn more about Rainbow Chan’s work and listen to samples of her work, visit her website here.
The mobile production tool app Rainbow recommended isVoloco.
A link to In the Mood, A love Letter to Wong Kar-Wai & Hing Kong starring Rainbow Chan, Eugene Choi & Marcus Whale, as part of the Sydney Opera House Digital Season (streamed live from Joan Sutherland Theatre in September 2020) can be viewed here.
This episode featured a sample from the track Lull ft. Chui Ping & Choi Lin from the album Pillar by Rainbow Chan. Lull was Written, performed and produced by Rainbow Chan, mixed by Matthew Hadley and mastered by Becki Whitton. You listen to Pillar on bandcamp here.
The current art crush Rainbow mentioned is Corin Ileto. You can listen to some of Corin’s work on Soundcloud here
Our Audiosketch podcast title music is by Fia Fiell. This piece, All in the Same Room, is from Fia Fiell’s 2018 album of the same name, which you can find on bandcamp here.
Transcript
{Signature title music by Fia Fiell}
Roslyn: Welcome to Audio Sketch, a Chamber Made podcast dedicated to innovative artists working across performance, sound and music. I’m Roslyn Oades, and in this episode of Audio Sketch, I’m on a virtual art date with the extraordinary vocalist, producer and multidisciplinary artist Rainbow Chan. Rainbow works across popular music and experimental club music, as well as video, sculpture and live art. If you’re not familiar with her work, you should be. And I strongly recommend a visit to her website.
{Signature title music by Fia Fiell}
Roslyn: Rainbow, the first question I wanted to ask you is, if you were a sound right now, what sound would you be?
Rainbow: I would be the sound of Mahjong tiles clacking against each other under the fingertips of middle-aged ladies with lovely manicured fingernails.
Roslyn: Oh, beautiful. And why that sound?
Rainbow: I watched Crazy Rich Asians recently. Again. And there’s a scene where the protagonist and the mother-in-law she’s trying to win over are playing a game of Mahjong. And for me, Mahjong has always been a family affair. In the Chan household we will play Mahjong for hours on end, as well as when I’m in Hong Kong with my relatives. And I guess at the moment, with everything that’s going on and COVID and not be able to travel, I have this really nostalgic yearning to play some Mahjong with my family in Hong Kong. I haven’t been- I was meant to go back twice this year for residencies, but I haven’t been able to travel. So, I’m getting my fix by watching Crazy Rich Asians.
Roslyn: And is that a sound that you’ve ever explored recording?
Rainbow: No, not yet. Even though it seems like such an obvious sound to record. It’s very tactile. Have you ever played Mahjong Roslyn?
Roslyn: No, I’ve seen people playing.
Rainbow: OK, so for listeners who are unfamiliar with what this might look like or sound like, you have these tiles that are about the size of a large ice cube. And you have to shuffle the tiles at the beginning. I can’t remember exactly how many tiles there. But they are like hundreds of tiles that you have to shuffle. And you have this big table that’s quite smooth. And everyone’s hands gets into the action. It’s like brushes against a snare drum. Almost like that kind of sound as tiles rub against the surface of the table. So that’s one layer of sound. And then the next layer is the actual tiles hitting against each other as tiles being mixed up. And then on a top layer, you can hear everyone’s fingernails clanging against each other every now and then, and people going, ow, ow, sorry, sorry. Oo, sorry. (laughs)
In those moments where you’re shuffling tiles, you’re gossiping or you’re preparing for the, the next strategy in your head for the next game or you have a little tea...
