Sohu Music News: on March 15, the 1^st Chinese Pioneer Music Festival will be open in Beijing D22 Bar. More than 10 domestic and foreign individual / band groups will appear in the two-day event. The daily evening performances is going to last from 6:00 to midnight.

In recent years, domestic experimental music artists and the audience base has begun to take shape. A number of people are active in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Fujian and Guilin Province. Earlier, the most eye-catching large-scale campaign activities in the music industry are the Second Paper Music Festival and Mini midi (Beijing MIDI outdoor music festivals at small experimental stage). The former as a Chamber Music Festival, initiated by the experimental musician Li Jianhong and others, has so far been held five times in Hangzhou. The latter has been on the lawn in Haidian Park for a three-year journey.

Beijing is an important audible location in a domestic experimental music scene, where the Waterland Kwanyin performed such a series of activities (initiated by the experimental music critic Yan Jun / series of impromptu performances, basically once a week), as well as the domestic and foreign artistes¡¯ occasional performances. The last major independent experimental music performance dated back to 2003, which was held at The Loft in the Beijing Sonar Music Festival.

The Pioneer Music Festival this time is co-initiated by the free jazz saxophonist Li Tieqiao and the D22 Bar owner Mike. Li said that he participated in a number of experimental music festivals when he lived in Norway. He thought of the idea of the initiation of similar activities in China, but he did not expect this day to come so quickly. The end of 2007, Mike found Li after one performance, and he looked for cooperation with him, planning a large-scale performance, which coincided with Li Tieqiao¡¯s idea.

For the small-scale music activities with no commercial hotspots and potential image projects, the biggest obstacle is certainly from the economic aspect. The organizer from D22 Bar took care of all funds of the performance. At the same time, during the intense preparation, the organizer Li Tieqiao and some other friends did make efforts to get sponsorship but without any result. In addition, such performance could hardly access to the extensive media attention like the mainstream rock and contemporary art. The main means of music festival publicity is through Internet publications and friends.

Li believed that the experimental music is at a rising stage. With the support of colleagues, the current difficulties can be overcome or ignored. It is called the 1^st Music Festival because music festival is going to be a long-term intention. Mike, the D22 Bar boss, who has been committed to promoting the development of the new rock generation, is also full of confidence. He hopes Music Festival will develop into a large open Festival.

Performances in this festival are mainly about the experimental music or improvisation. Few artists will use computer to perform. However, the overall style is still very rich, for instance, free jazz, Progressive Rock, noise improvisation, folk music, folk songs and other free music types will appear in the arena of D22.

In addition, on the eve of the performance, the organizers will also invite a number of musicians and music critics for exchanges and discussions about music.