[:en]During this October, Proximity Butterfly will spend their weekends out of Chengdu, touring across the country with The Medusae Tour, their latest conceptual live work. Not only will it be a psychedelic performance, but also a real-time score for a silent movie, and a stream-of-consciousness brought out by the convergence between light and sound.
Formed in 2003, Chengdu-based Proximity Butterfly is a multinational force with members from USA, Canada, China and the Czech Republic. They have released 7 albums, along with a host of live records, singles and compilation albums. Medusae, released by Maybe Mars earlier this year, is their latest work. Medusae is a record about women, whose everlasting forbearance and compromise of self-worth are the main inspiration of the album’s creation. There have been historical moments in which the evolution of the ‘woman’ has been applauded, but outside of academics and holidays very little attention has been drawn towards her perseverance and overwhelming endurance to overcome the struggles of modern-day society. Moreover, it is a philosophical treatise encompassing the ‘process of struggle’ through which one is faced with great self-contradiction, accepting purification and eventually reaching towards the path of a nirvana-like state.
After the release of the album, Joshua, songwriter of the band, filmed and edited an abstract movie from a great deal of varying visual materials, both familiar and unfamiliar. This movie is the footnote and decoding imagery of the album’s main theme. Despite being known for their colorful and explosive stage-presence, the upcoming Medusae Tour places the visualization of this particular experimental movie as the focus rather than the band members themselves. The band will then act as an orchestra in the faint foreground of the film. Material will be performed from the recent Medusa album as well as their most recently composed works. All of these elements will make up the whole conceptual live show.
Proximity Butterfly’s music is a complex blend of psychedelic music, folk, funk, soul, hip-hop and alternative rock. Their live performance is always associated with magnificent power and grotesque sound effects. The band’s lyrics combine obscure narration with deep philosophic meanings. The Medusae Tour will become one of the very few chances to explore the full embodiment of their music.
Catch their performance on Saturday November 28th from 8pm at New Little Bar.
Introduction
Proximity Butterfly was established in Chengdu, China, in 2003 by Joshua C. Love (USA), Chenduxi (China), NiuQingYang (China) and Heather Judson (Canada). Formed within a highly eclectic music scene, PB quickly became the spearhead of the Chengdu music scene, capturing audiences with their highly effected vocal landscapes, eerily contorting delays, cryptic lyrics and their diverse fusion of folk, funk, soul, hip-hop, alternative rock and psychedelia.
Proximity Butterfly‘s experimental, philosophically-charged collage of sounds and concepts have always reached out in an unusually deep manner with songs like “Kill the Popstar”, “Tiptoes of Shiva” and “Dance of the Hanged Men of Salahoudin”. Lyrically encrypting tales of lost power and the world’s unknowns, the focus on this anthropological/psychological history has made this band unique, raw and full of genuine expression. Upon the release of Reprieve (2011) and national tours of China and Australia the band began an industrious effort to compose three albums, the first of which will be released in 2015 (Medusae). Produced and recorded by Joshua C. Love and Manny Nieto (The Mars Volta, The Breeders) in Chengdu, Medusae is set to be their largest digital release yet, with a focus on capsules of artwork.
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