搬運自：網(wǎng)易云音樂專欄【All About Music】（在原文基礎(chǔ)上添加了英語原文與排版調(diào)整）

翻譯：Bromantique_Victime

The soundtrack to an imaginary theme park where people reconnect with nature and spirituality, the Beijing producer’s album combines traditional Chinese references with wild electronic experimentation.

作為一個存在于想象之中的主題公園的原聲帶，在那里人們重新構(gòu)建起自然與精神世界的橋梁，這位來自中國北京的制作人的個人專輯將傳統(tǒng)的中國元素融匯進(jìn)瘋狂的電子實驗樂之中。

There’s a reason rural escapism in China has risen over the past several years. Millions are drawn to lifestyle vloggers like Li Ziqi and Dianxi Xiaoge, who portray idyllic countryside lives spent creating everything from food to clothing from scratch. There’s even a small but notable group of young people called fanxiang qingnian, who, in a departure from China’s mass rural-to-urban migration of the past four decades, have opted to return to farm life. Of course, Chinese nationalism and the state’s push to promote Chinese culture do play a role, but the fact remains that China’s rapid economic growth, not unlike that of its American counterpart, has left its people wanting something more.

在過去幾年間，在中國桃源主義的興起是事出有因的。數(shù)百萬人被李子柒和滇西小哥所描繪的田園牧歌式的鄉(xiāng)村生活方式吸引，從食到衣全部從零開始創(chuàng)造。甚至還有一小部分被稱作“返鄉(xiāng)青年”的年輕人，他們一改過去四十年來中國從農(nóng)村到城市的大規(guī)模遷移，選擇回歸鄉(xiāng)農(nóng)生活。當(dāng)然，中國的傳統(tǒng)民族主義和國家弘揚中國傳統(tǒng)文化確實發(fā)揮了作用，但事實上，中國所取得的快速經(jīng)濟(jì)增長與美國的經(jīng)濟(jì)增長并無大異，其中心仍位于滿足中國人民對擁有更多東西的渴望。

On Birdy Island, producer Howie Lee takes this desire and projects it into the future, applying it to the question of what follows society’s collapse under capitalism. The artist imagines a scenario that is by turns dystopic and hopeful, in which a Chinese investment company has decided to fund a theme park aimed at reconnecting people with nature and spirituality. The park is located on a floating island (the album’s namesake), where birds and ancestral spirits commingle. Lee, as a character in this musical metafiction, has been hired to score its soundtrack.

在《鳥島》中，制作人李化迪將這一愿想投射到未來，應(yīng)用于資本主義下社會分崩離析后的情景。藝術(shù)家想象了一個兼具神秘感和希望的場景，在這一場景之中，一家中國投資建設(shè)公司決定資助一個主題公園，旨在搭起人們與自然和精神世界的橋梁。這一公園坐落于一個懸浮小島上（即專輯的名字《鳥島》），那里棲息著鳥類和人類祖先精神魂魄。李化迪，作為這一音樂小說中的一名角色，被聘請來為其配樂。

In reality, the Beijing producer, née Li Huadi, began piecing together Birdy Island in late 2018, between multiple albums, EPs, and single releases. Since 2011, when he co-founded Do Hits as a club night, and later an independent label, Lee has pushed the bounds of what Chinese electronic music can be. Like much of his work, Birdy Island concerns itself with the social and economic questions of contemporary life in China, while looking to the (admittedly bleak) future. At once fine-grained and expansive, Lee’s work combines traditional Chinese music and historical references with wild electronic experimentation. But where past releases (2020’s 7 Weapon Series, 2019’s Tian Di Bu Ren, 2018’s Natural Disaster) were more abrasive, tongue in cheek, and club-influenced, Birdy Island admits more daylight, often conveyed through washes of ambient sound, even as it continues to cast long shadows.

實際上，這位來自北京的制作人李化迪，自2018年年底開始就在多張專輯、EP和單曲發(fā)行的間隙中逐步拼湊出《鳥島》。自2011年，當(dāng)他聯(lián)合創(chuàng)辦了俱樂部 Do Hits，以及后來的獨立音樂廠牌時，李化迪的作為已經(jīng)為推動拓展中國電子樂的界限貢獻(xiàn)力量。就像他的大部分作品一樣，《鳥島》聚焦中國當(dāng)代生活的社會、經(jīng)濟(jì)問題，同時也展望著（公認(rèn)的暗淡）未來。李化迪的作品既精細(xì)又開闊，將傳統(tǒng)的中國器樂和史料與瘋狂的電子實驗樂相結(jié)合。但是，過去的作品（2020年的《某種武器》、2019年的《天地不仁》、2018年的《自然災(zāi)害》）則略顯粗糙、口無遮攔，頗受俱樂部音樂影響；而《鳥島》接納了更多的日光，選擇通過環(huán)境聲波的沖刷來傳達(dá)，即使它相繼會投下更為漫長的陰影。

Like many works of science fiction, Birdy Island blurs the line between the natural, supernatural, and man-made. The result feels something like a mash-up of a Daoist landscape painting and Coney Island, situated on Ghibli’s Laputa. There, during the day, feathered life forms announce themselves via digital blips and whoops. At night, bits of industrial debris rattle down alleyways, as if suggesting the presence of unseen forces. On opening track “Time to the Sun,” a tottering medley of machine parts, synthetic owl hoots, and tama-like drum licks gathers in the glow of dawn. An otherworldly voice (belonging to artist and frequent collaborator Yehaiyahan) emerges, singing in Mandarin, “Push open the door of aspiration/Hide the chaos of yesterday [...] It is time/To face the sun.” Here, as throughout the album, the human voice serves as a touchstone to both earthly and spiritual worlds. “Wave, Wave, Wave,” for example, follows a jaunty synth-based accordion melody over unstable percussive terrain before resolving into a choral arrangement reminiscent of Daoist temple chanting.

?同許多科幻作品一樣，《鳥島》模糊了自然、超自然和人為之間的界限。其最終塑造出道家山水畫和科尼島的混搭效果，而立于吉卜力的拉普達(dá)——天空之城上。在那里，白天，披覆羽毛的生命形態(tài)駕馭數(shù)字脈沖和呼嘯聲宣告著自己的存在；晚上，工業(yè)碎片在鄰里間響起，仿佛暗示著無形力量的顯現(xiàn)。在開場曲“Time to the Sun 光陰向太陽”中，由機(jī)械零件、合成貓頭鷹啼叫和塔瑪舞曲般的鼓點組成的搖擺不定的混合體在黎明光輝中匯集閃耀。一個另類聲音（來自與李化迪常常合作的藝術(shù)家 YEHAIYAHAN）出現(xiàn)了，用普通話唱道："推開神往的門/祈望隱藏起昨日的混沌……光陰/向太陽"。在這里，就像在整張專輯中一樣，人的聲音是通往塵世和精神世界的敲門磚。再例如，“Wave, Wave, Wave 波、波、波”在并不平穩(wěn)的敲擊聲中緊隨著一個歡快的合成器手風(fēng)琴旋律，隨即演變成讓人想起道教寺廟的誦經(jīng)合唱聲。

Yet while the park attempts to manufacture an experience that provides respite from capitalist destruction, it is also inherently tied to those very forces. As a result, it is impossible to shake a creeping sense of discord. (“The Door of Aspiration”). In “Island Birdy,” the trills of a yangqin (Chinese hammered dulcimer) needle over washes of ambient synth as a low, pulsing synth foreshadows the ominous dagu war drumming to come. At other times, Lee taps into easily identifiable sonic tropes, such as “Caribbean” cruise music or video-game soundtracks, to evoke alternate realities (“Feather Signifier”). These constantly shifting settings trigger a sense of disorientation that reflects the strangeness of his elaborate sonic fictions.

然而，雖然公園試圖制造一種體驗，來為資本主義的破壞提供喘息的機(jī)會，但它也同與這些破壞力量有著內(nèi)在聯(lián)系。因此，也尚不可擺脫一種蠕動蔓延的不和諧感。在許多情況下，一個玩偶盒主題下的變體便現(xiàn)身了，這其中包括一個從左聲道插入的聽起來像古箏的不和諧演奏音（“The Door of Aspiration 神往的門”）。在“Island Birdy 島鳥”中，揚琴的顫音在環(huán)境合成器的沖刷下變?yōu)橐粋€低沉的脈沖合成器，預(yù)示著不祥的達(dá)古戰(zhàn)鼓即將到來。在其他時候，李化迪則利用更易辨認(rèn)的聲學(xué)套路，如“加勒比”游輪音樂或電子游戲配樂，來喚起另一現(xiàn)實（“Feather Signifier 羽毛能指”）。這些富于變化的環(huán)境音引發(fā)了一種迷失感，也正是他精心設(shè)計的虛構(gòu)聲學(xué)的怪異之處。

Despite all of this, the album is not exactly nihilistic. In the end, Birdy Island proposes a kind of hopeful syncretism, reaching back into traditional Chinese spiritual practices and finding a place for them within the destructive wake of neoliberal economics. It is also a documentation of both the beauty and the corruption of a culture that is sometimes romanticized, frequently villainized, but always human.

盡管如此，這張專輯并不全充斥著虛無主義。在最后的尾聲，《鳥島》提出了一種頗具希望的融匯論，回歸中國傳統(tǒng)的精神實踐中，并在新自由主義經(jīng)濟(jì)的破壞性災(zāi)況中重新為其尋得立身之所。它也同是對一種文化中美好和腐敗的記載，這一文化有時極具浪漫色彩，又常常被描述為惡棍，但內(nèi)核始終仍是人。