words rachel mok

SIU2’s debut album introduces an unusual harmony of the ancient and the modern

When, as a child, Ng Cheuk Yin signed up for a course at the Music Office, his only wish was to learn the violin. With little interest in anything else, on the application form he answered all the questions not relating to that musical instrument randomly. That was how the sheng came to be second on his list. “I mean, a six-year-old doesn’t even know what a sheng is,” he says. “Maybe the officer finally saw someone wanted to learn it, so they assigned me to that right away.” Ask why this ancient Chinese wind instrument made with vertical bamboo reed pipes attracts him now, he cannot say exactly. Except he thinks it is interesting that the sheng is the only instrument in its category that can play chordal accompaniment or various notes simultaneously.

Ng’s band SIU2 (Sheng It Up2) – the 2 stands for the continuation of the spirit of the show they did for last year’s HK Arts Festival – are about to release their debut album Open Door, a title chosen as an invitation to listeners to enter an altogether new experience. “I don’t know how people will react to the way we present Chinese music, but we hope to open the door and ears of people with our first album… so they can check out our music,” Ng says. Undoubtedly some of the album’s tracks are ‘ear-opening’. Take Double, for instance. From its cowboy-sounding intro to the punchy music of a cinematic thriller with a bit of jazzy piano in between, the six-minute track pushes the limits of an East-West fusion. So it is not easy to pigeonhole SIU2’s music – ‘Chinese music blended with rock’ certainly doesn’t do it, nor is a label something Ng is looking for. “The marketing people don’t know how to market us because it is so difficult,” he says, believing it is impossible to find a word in the common vocabulary to describe something one has never come across before. “I can’t explain in a few words, but our music is whatever you say it is after listening,” he ventures. However, he would rather you describe it as ‘quirky’ than feeling nothing for it at all. “It is good, whenever you experience something new, to be inspired,” he states.

Even applying the word ‘band’ to Ng’s group feels a bit odd. While SIU2 have the usual keyboard, bass and drums players, guitars give way to sheng, sanxian and zheng. It is neither a younger, smaller version of the HK Chinese Orchestra nor a mixed version of the 12 Girls Band, but Ng wants to give Hong Kongers a whole new aural point of view – and challenge a few expectations. “I don’t like the stereotypes that indie music equals noise, Chinese music means people sipping tea and arts festival music must be for the upper class,” he says. Replace the traditional cheongsam with a pair of old jeans and you can still be a master of Chinese music: “It is another angle from which to see things, which I think is what Hong Kong lacks,” he believes.

That may sound a little idealistic, but, as a man who has struggled in the HKSAR’s music scene for more than seven years, Ng is essentially a realist. He is one of the founders of the Gay Singers, an artist associate at the HK Sinfonietta and is firmly knitted into the Cantopop scene (Hins Cheung’s Under the Sakura Tree was a recent hit). It is that pragmatism that has him placing fulfilment in his work ahead of money and compliments. “People’s comments have nothing to do with whether I am satisfied with a piece of work,” he says – if he has written a hit he doesn’t really like, even others ‘going crazy’ over it won’t particularly thrill him.

Does that mean he is happy with all his work? The answer is a straight no – a full-time musician cannot live off inspiration every moment of the day. “Say if I only got a few hours to finish an assignment, I will need to just use my technique,” says the graduate with a master’s degree in composition from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “It may not be something I am very happy with, but at least it will not be bad.”

SIU2 are Ng Cheuk Yin (sheng, Chinese percussion and keyboards), Peter Fan (piano), Cass Lam (sanxian), Jason Lau (zheng), Liang Chun Wai (bass) and Melchior Sarreal (drums). Experience SIU2 yourself at their mini-live show at 7pm on August 2 at Delay No Mall. (A free ticket will be given with the purchase of the deluxe version of Open Door.) Or catch them at on August 16 at the Fringe Club’s Fringe Gallery. Showtime is 10:30pm. Entry is $125 at door including one drink.