For those who know, tonight (Friday 14th) is one night to anticipate, with eyes and ears locked on Tanghui, for a performance by Akufen - sampling this city of 16 million for the first time ever. Akufen (a pseudonym derived from the French word "tinnitis" meaning "ringing of the ears") is otherwise known as Marc Leclair, hailing from Montreal. Leclair, a man with a motive, began his journey into electronic music when a teenager in the 80's, at a time when pop was top and anything remotely like the micro music we hear now was alien to the ears. Akufen is the artist infamous for his breakthroughs in Minimal Techno, Glitch, Click hop, and in particular Microhouse - a term coined by him and developed into a genre we can recognize in Shanghai's widening music scene today. His 2002 release entitled "My Way" introduced his own concept of "microsampling" - essentially a way of using miniscule clips of samples he had randomly recorded off of FM radio. As icing on the cake to Akufen's DJ set, we can also anticipate his new audiovisual project entitled "5mm", an incarnation of the project/album "Musique pour 3 Femmes Enceintes". Check his MySpace for more details of "5mm", which curiously takes inspiration from three pregnant women.
