Abigail Washburn & The Shanghai Restoration Project Honor One Year Anniversary Of The Sichuan Earthquakes
Digital & Limited Edition EP CD Available May 12
Portion Of All Proceeds To Benefit Sichuan Quake Relief
 Abigail Washburn |
In honor of the one-year anniversary of the Sichuan Earthquakes, Abigail Washburn & The Shanghai Restoration Project, two pioneers in entirely different genres – folk and electronica – have merged to increase knowledge and understanding of the continuing aftermath of the earthquake. More than 88,000 have died, with upwards of 5 million left homeless or relocated. A portion of the proceeds from this EP will benefit the Sichuan Quake Relief organization.
Afterquake is a collection of raw, remixed field recordings of post-earthquake soundscapes, as well as performances by relocated children and their faraway parents captured and produced by Abigail Washburn and Shanghai Restoration Project creator Dave Liang, in cooperation with Sichuan Quake Relief. Currently in the Chinese countryside, they will complete the entire record start to finish in two weeks time.
The collaboration was inspired in 2008 through Abigail's volunteer work for Sichuan Quake Relief where she performed in 'relocation schools' with kids from pre-school to high school - most of whom were relocated from mountain villages to schools in new locations far from their families.
"The children and teachers expressed intense grief at the loss of home and family," says Washburn, a former Sichuan resident featured in Newsweek for her "weirdly wonderful" blend of Chinese culture and American-roots music. "I wanted to return and record their stories and songs in their own voices."
A kindred spirit was found in collaborator Dave Liang, whose Shanghai Restoration Project combines the sounds of traditional Chinese instruments with hip-hop and electronica. His project has been featured on NPR, KCRW, KEXP and the Beijing Olympics.
Despite the tragic nature of the events inspiring this record, the sounds of the children captured by Liang and Washburn are encouraging and uplifting: playground noises - ping pong, basketball, jacks, handclapping games – are melded into a danceable rhythm; a 7th grade student performs a traditional Qiang minority dance song for her classmates; Tibetan sisters recite a bedtime prayer their mom used to sing to them; a relocated boy sings a ballad about missing his mom over the sounds of his parents rebuilding their house.
Afterquake will be available May 12 as a digital EP and limited edition CD, exactly one-year to the day of the earthquakes.
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