SWISS CHINESE CULTURAL EXPLORATIONS
„Sonic Calligraphy" is a group consisting of five musicians with European, Chinese and American origins. The Swiss trio with Peggy Chew, Adrian Frey and Willy Kotoun invited two Chinese guests, Coco Zhao and Wu Na.
Coco Zhao is the most famous jazz singer in China. He performed at prestigious festivals in Europe and North-America, (i.a.) at the Montreal Jazz festival and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Wu Na plays the Guqin, a 7-stringed cither. Apart from her master playing of the Guqin in the traditional way, Wu Na has developed a great new amount of expression in rock, jazz and classical music.
This quintet went on a widespread China tour in autumn 2009, in the framework of the "Swiss Chinese Cultural Explorations Program" launched by Pro Helvetia. They developed a partly very familiar and at the same time very new, unusual cosmos of sounds. The language they all understand - that of improvisation - enabled the musicians to unify elements of jazz, folk and Chinese music in a most surprising and fascinating way. At the same time as the tour starting in autumn 2010, the CD "The Flow of Things" they recorded in Shanghai, will come out with the label altrisuoni (AS300).
