When The Rain God Sings Storm Lions Are Born

Yunyu Ong, Emma Smith, Ryuji Hamada, Lee McIver, and Maddie Duncan

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract

Curiosity does not always kill a cat, sometimes it makes a god. Welcome to the world of ‘When the Rain God Sings, Storm Lions Are Born’ (‘Rain Gods’) by multi-award winning composer Yunyu. This is a supernatural world of cats, thunder and new gods. The old god has gone fishing, you see, so she leaves her drums for the next unsuspecting human to play, for this is how new gods are made. This is the world where drums play tunes and cats must first be appeased and fed so they can grow up and make thunder for the new gods. It is all very hard work. Commissioned by Taikoz, Percussion Australia and brought to life by the masterful Ryuji Hamada, Yunyu re-purposes a linear DAW, Logic X with a goal of turning a single performer into a performer/conductor. This is a seamless exploration of musical composition and instrument making, where traditional playing techniques of Taiko drumming are considered and mapped onto their electronic counterparts [Roland’s Taiko-1], pushing the limits of what taiko playing can be. This is a cautionary tale for the accidental gods amongst us. In a further development by Vfx Artist/Director Emma Smith, the performance intertwines sound and light with reactive weather patterns and a responsive ecosystem primarily comprised of cats, all changing in response to the playful musical landscape. Keep an eye out for the installation that accompanies this this performance – ‘Be your own Rain God’ where audiences can make their own thunderstorm. This is a tale of negotiation between environmental forces and human will, where humankind are not always in control although we often think we are.

Citation

Yunyu Ong, Emma Smith, Ryuji Hamada, Lee McIver, and Maddie Duncan. 2024. When The Rain God Sings Storm Lions Are Born . Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15027961

BibTeX Entry

@article{nime2024_music_3,
 abstract = {Curiosity does not always kill a cat, sometimes it makes a god. Welcome to the world of ‘When the Rain God Sings, Storm Lions Are Born’ (‘Rain Gods’) by multi-award winning composer Yunyu. This is a supernatural world of cats, thunder and new gods. The old god has gone fishing, you see, so she leaves her drums for the next unsuspecting human to play, for this is how new gods are made. This is the world where drums play tunes and cats must first be appeased and fed so they can grow up and make thunder for the new gods. It is all very hard work. Commissioned by Taikoz, Percussion Australia and brought to life by the masterful Ryuji Hamada, Yunyu re-purposes a linear DAW, Logic X with a goal of turning a single performer into a performer/conductor. This is a seamless exploration of musical composition and instrument making, where traditional playing techniques of Taiko drumming are considered and mapped onto their electronic counterparts [Roland’s Taiko-1], pushing the limits of what taiko playing can be. This is a cautionary tale for the accidental gods amongst us. In a further development by Vfx Artist/Director Emma Smith, the performance intertwines sound and light with reactive weather patterns and a responsive ecosystem primarily comprised of cats, all changing in response to the playful musical landscape. Keep an eye out for the installation that accompanies this this performance – ‘Be your own Rain God’ where audiences can make their own thunderstorm. This is a tale of negotiation between environmental forces and human will, where humankind are not always in control although we often think we are.},
 address = {Utrecht, Netherlands},
 articleno = {3},
 author = {Yunyu Ong and Emma Smith and Ryuji Hamada and Lee McIver and Maddie Duncan},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.15027961},
 editor = {Laurel Smith Pardue and Palle Dahlstedt},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {September},
 numpages = {4},
 pages = {9--12},
 presentation-video = {https://vimeo.com/942163293/b63853485c},
 title = {When The Rain God Sings Storm Lions Are Born },
 track = {Music},
 url = {http://nime.org/proceedings/2024/nime2024_music_3.pdf},
 year = {2024}
}