A project born from the mind of Yan Jun, who has edited this beautiful velvet hardback book and CD. Yan Jun gave friends and contemporaries very simple instructions - "what comes to mind when you hear the phrase 'music will ruin everyything'?" The responses came in the form of both text and audio. This very special limited run book and double CD is the collection of these results.
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“the very reason i initiated this project was vanished in time. however, it’s not very long time since it has suspending into this “physical object is dying” and “society is dying” situation. and it’s long enough to coming back with ideas of “connecting objects and bodies over language” and “connecting an outer territory”. so i have diving back to the files again, starting editing and translating, inviting few more physical entities and fortunately yihao joined as designer at this perfect moment. The way this project runs is very simple: i show my friends this sentence “music will ruin everything” then ask them to contribute audio track and text or images. i tried my best to show it while we meet physically. but some were sent by emails, exceptionally. there is no rules and no clue. i don’t explain why this title because i have no idea what it means.
for me what these people doing is a huge cluster of mass such as constellation. they are connected and growing. there are much more alikes surrounding them. the way they are connected is more important than their works. if you dig more on any one of them, you will find its own genealogy of sense and mind. which i have spent years to following and enjoying.
so pls, you make it anything and everything.
thanx everybody who participate this project ! you have ruined some parts of me.”
Yan Jun - 2016
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yan jun, a musician and poet based in beijing.
he works on experimental music and improvised music. he uses noise, field recording, body and concept as materials.
sometimes he goes to audience’s home for playing a plastic bag.
“i wish i was a piece of field recording.”
yanjun.org
For this event, Yuko will read this poem by her mum, Kazuko Shiraishi, called ‘ bus stop'. This is the English translation of it:
BUS STOP
On top of the shifting sand a
Shadow is seeping in like a dot
It is a bus stop
No sign telling from where to where
There is no one
To answer all the questions
Like purpose and what then or
Why
Even what is called meaning
Has worn out and. in the old dictionary
Now gritty and sticking out a stone tongue just laughs
(Even the little room inside the brain
The wind has flown off somewhere
So . . .)
Saying so
I go out get on my bike but even though I get on
I don't have a destination but to go back
Inside, too
That place also is a destination that doesn't exist
Maybe the bus stop. has come to the door
And might be building a fire
Maybe the bus stop with a huge ancient eye
Like an iguana might be watching. passengers
There might be an angel lying face down like a puppy
Pretending to be asleep
There is Sister Maria who became
A green birthmark simply because she was afraid of committing adultery
Also sweat-soaked deserters
In dirty combat boots who can't even become devils. or. lazy angels
The bus stop may be watching them
Smudging. in the color of sand
Around the eyes with the shifting sand
Something that is a dot
On the shifting sand!
Certainly existing that
Phantom existence!
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from ‘Let Those Who Appear’, Kazuko Shiraishi
New Directions Publishing
Translated by Samuel Grolmes & Yumiko Tsumura
