Survival of the Coolest

Tired of mainstream fodder? Join the fetival with a difference in a celebration of all things audio and visual. P.Ramakrishnan picks some highlights.

It is not what you can expect to see at this year's Sound And Vision Festival that will make it a genuine music lover's gathering, but rather what you won't see. No one-hit wonders who've never touched a musical instrumment, no mediocre poster boys, no airbrushed calendar girls.

The third annual festival is co-founded and directed by the husband-and-wife team of Wong Chi-chung, Universal Music's international repertoire manager, and promoter Yvonne Siet. Fuelled by passion and caffeine, the pair have jumped hoops, and dodged wars andd disease to put this year's event together. "When we had our meetings in March, we were debating whether to move it to a later date. We thought last year was bad when our sponsors abandoned us. We had to get money from friends and family. If people had $20 to give, we were happy to take it. We had a company to sponsor the paper for the 8,000 programmes. Everything was done with a smile on our face and a very big please," Siet says.

This year, it was nearly strike three. "The financial situation hasn't picked up. Then Sars hit hard... we considered cancelling the event, but everyone said, 'Let's do it, by August, it'll be gone'."

It sounds quixotic, considering the number of large-scale events that were pulled, after multimillion-dollar campaigns and advertising, particularly for an event that began with a "zero budget".

One of the names returning to Hong Kong is Victor Hugo, the Venezuelan-born singer and composer who has helped spread the Latin music message in Europe and collaborated with legendary "Salseros" such as Tito Puente, Celia Cruz and Oscar D'Leon among others. Hugo will be supported by his regular sidemen, The Mambo Boyz, who have earned a reputation across Europe as hardy party starters.

"Victor Hugo and the band were going to visit in April and I told them not to come. It wasn't because of Sars initially, but the war. They had to fly over some iffy areas, which bothered me," Siet says. "They loved it here when they came last time and they were waiting for me to give them a firm date."

Local indie darlings Uncle Joe will join a raft of performers at the festival's finale concert. Guitarist and songwriter, Andrew Gardener, says, "The standard of Hong Kong bands has improved in leaps and bounds from when we first started playing a few years ago. Most of them are amateurs. The indie band thing is still very underground... it's for people who have a passion for music and love to play. We're not the bubble-gum attraction.

"Events like this are good for the performers too. You get to see a variety of styles, to see what's out there and what's popular," says Gardener, who also sees the festival as an opportunity to push their recently released full-length debut (go to www.unclejoeehk.com).

And while music-biz executives will be scouting for talent at the festival, Gardener insists this is not the motivation for taking part. "The Sound And Vision audience is your 20- to 30-something crowd. It's a good mix of Chinese and western people."

Local classical composer Kung Chi-shing agrees. As the festival's musician in focus he is looking forward to the range of events on offer. "I strongly believe there's a need for this sort of gathering. The music scene is dominated by Canto-pop which is very commercial and doesn't have much to do with music or art."

Kung will be leading a lecture on how film enhances an audience 's experiencee of music. "Films like Apocalypse Now, Clockwork Orange or [Japanese director] Akira Kurosawa's films have shown how a visual medium can enhance the musical experience. I don't much care for something as obvious as Chicago, or the main-stream film world. The producers may claim it was a big risk to make a musical in these times, but those films are the result of a lot of calculation. It's an adaptation of a very successful Broadway musical, has a popular cast to entice the audience. It may have been well made and entertaining, but it's superficial."

This year's festival has a few more surprises up its sleeve. Wong explains the theme ("Survival Kit") as he hands out brochures. "The Sars theme was an idea we played with, but it was dropped. Everyone was jumping on the bandwagon. It was something that happened and we didn't want to capitalise on it. Plug into some music and leave your worries behind. That's one way to survive, isn't it? This is our survival kit."

And it'ss an aural and visual smörgåsbord that's being served up. Fusion, indie, pop, rock, salsa, documentaries, films, seminars, lectures, multimediaa shows, interactive events, the list goes on.

Wong says: "Festivals are great place for people from everywhere to mingle. For local bands to get out there, to play in front of crowds of 500 or 1,000. People look forward to this every year. Everyone gets to interact. There will be a lot of crossover acts. It also gives artists a chance to experiment, to do something they wouldn't do at their normal concerts.

"Audiences must bring their mobile phones into the auditorium" is a line in the catalogue that will have everyone scratching their heads. Bring your mobile to a concert?

"Well, even I was surprised to hear that tri [a French multimedia group performing on August 29] want people to come with their phones on. They are a very interesting group-one member is a writer, a critic, another member is an installattion artist and the other is a musician. So it's an audio and vision show. They've been performing all around Europe and they're planning to be here and to interact with local audiences," Wong explains.