Andrea Yu finds out how Primary Shapes and DJ Tommy take inspiration from crop circles for their new show Blending Worlds

Tang Chi-wai and Yuen Cheuk-wah of Hong Kong indie band Primary Shapes, and DJ Tommy of LMF, are incredibly elusive when describing their upcoming music-based project. But it’s all part of their masterplan, they say.

“We are trying to make it as ambiguous as possible,” says Yuen, referring to the English title of their multimedia show – Blending Worlds. In Chinese, the title becomes even more obscure – 23 by 57 equals 1974. It represents the width and height of a binary-coded message sent into outer space by the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) group, as well as the year the message was released.

That message reportedly came back to Earth in 2001, as a reply embedded within a crop circle. This mysterious phenomenon was, according to Yuen, ‘the point of departure’ for their project when it was first commissioned by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department two years ago.

“[Crop circles] are a piece of artwork on the ground, in the field,” Yuen says. “Nobody tells you about the meaning. There is no annotation. No remark. No professors trying to explain how it was done.”

Observers are left to ponder the origin and meaning of crop circles, as Yuen explains. And he, Tang and Tommy hope that as their show progresses, a similar opportunity for interpretation will arise.

According to Yuen, early on in the performance, the audience will experience the contrast of Tommy’s beats alongside Primary Shapes’ music. Added to this are projections of text and images on screen. “There’s going to be a lot of words, but they’re not necessarily the lyrics that we’re singing,” Yuen says.

If Primary Shapes’ previous show An Eternal Golden Braid, commissioned by the Hong Kong Arts Festival in 2009, is any indication, don’t expect a traditional concert performance.

Combined with a warning on their promotional material (stating that the show contains ‘coarse language, strobe lighting and loud sounds’) it’s about as much detail that we can gather about Blending Worlds. But the reason why the artists are reluctant to reveal too much is to allow viewers to draw their own conclusions from the experience.

“It comes down to the decision of the audience,” Yuen says. “They have to choose to pick [through] these different elements and make their own interpretation.”

The trio shy away from details, but they’re not ashamed to share the great results of their collaboration. “We think that the music is very new… and very good,” Tang says. “We have to make an album from this project.”

While Tommy is a regular contributor to pop or jazz tracks, his work is normally just an extra addition to the music, or ‘adding extra spices on the song’, as he says. But Tommy knew that his collaboration with Primary Shapes was something unique.

“My experience working with other groups is like ‘Tommy plus some others’, whereas the collaboration with Primary Shapes is more like ‘DJ Tommy inside Primary Shapes’,” he says.

Shortly afterwards, Tommy flips through a recent issue of Time Out and stops at a page in the Food & Drink section – a feature on Kaiseki, an upscale and complex Japanese cuisine, and draws yet another culinary reference.

“This is our show,” Tommy says, pointing to the feature. “It’s not Genki Sushi, it’s something really delicate and designed by a chef.”
The show’s poster, which you may have come across in an MTR station in the past few weeks, doesn’t help to solve the mystery surrounding this performance. The minimalist poster, designed by Tang, features a wall of blonde wigs, the names of the artists and the two contrasting titles in Chinese and English.

What the blonde wigs have in relation to crop circles and the show itself, again, leaves us – and probably most passers-by – puzzled. But again, it’s just another part of Yuen, Tang and Tommy’s show.

The aforementioned wall viewed in person is, in fact, striking. Standing at around three metres high and five metres wide, and covered in curly, wavy and straight blonde wigs from edge to edge, the wall’s creator – Tang – says he originally wanted to use grass as the material. Perhaps this is another clue to the mystery.

We asked whether Tang, Yuen or DJ Tommy were concerned with alienating their previous fans or potential audience members with such an elusive marketing campaign, but Tang says it’s the least of his worries.

“I’ve worked in the commercial music scene for a very long time, and I know how to [get sales],” Tang says, who admits that the aim of the show isn’t to sell out. “We really want to scale down the people, to those who really want to know what’s going to happen.”

By the end of our hour-long chat, we’re still left perplexed as to what their upcoming multimedia show is about. But rather than feeling frustrated, we’re all the more intrigued – and that’s precisely what the trio was hoping for.

Blending Worlds HKAPA, Drama Theatre Friday 16 and Saturday 17
Tickets: www.urbtix.hk and hkticketing.com