Hello from -30 everyone! I want to tell you about an incredible experience I had a few weeks ago collaborating with Chinese musician Moxi Zishi 莫西子诗. A few months ago I was invited to work with Moxi here in Yellowknife to create a documentary of Moxi's visit and a music video for a new song we would create. I spent a month working on my Mandarin so that I could say a few phrases. Luckily several of the film crew were fluent in English and Mandarin so communication was not an issue.
Moxi was very excited to see the Aurora (or Je Guong in Mandarin) and the sky cleared up the night he arrived so we got to see some! Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate again until the day before he left. We spent the intervening time taking in everything Yellowknife had to offer: ice fishing, setting a net, ice recording, ski-dooing.
The most amazing part of the experience for me was sharing musical instruments with Moxi. He showed me some amazing flutes, mouth harps, and I showed him my collection of drums, my melodica, and a very old portable pump organ on loan from the Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Yellowknife. Using these instruments we composed a brand new song called Aurora. We also filmed a music video for the song in my Yellowknife home and out and about the Yellowknife area (special thanks to Yellowknife Tours and Enodah Lodge for all the amazing experiences).
Check out Moxi's album "The Wilderness" available through all major outlets.
Here are two videos that came out of the collaboration!
