This work combined recording of acoustic instruments (violoncello and violin), synthesizer outputs and environmental sounds. My approach here is very close to anecdotal music: the sound sources became unimportant; they are merged together in a new context musically. The sounds left their original environments and meet in an unknown space.

Departure

Commission work by Musica Assoluta for the project "Vortex #2, Pandemic Whirls".  The text of "I Wish You Be Negative" is from the instruction of SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Antigen Test produced by Roche,
- "Let the Birds Take Over"
- "I Wish You Be Negative"
- "We Are Always Connected"

"We Are Always Connected"

"I Wish You Be Negative"

"Let the Birds Take Over"

Sound materials from SYNTRX synthesiser, composed during the residency in EMS Stockholm in 2022. Originally 4-channel.

Cruelty of Obedience (stereo)

Original work with 8 channels.
An error is not just a mistake, it has a consequence. But an error is also not a crime, not a sin, don’t take it personal. The error-notification-like sounds are all from the Buchla 200 synthesizer. They remind us the moment of feeling regretful of the errors but not being allowed to have this feeling.

Error (stereo)

Composed with the materials created during the dance project "I WANT TO BE A SWAMP" by Yolanda Morales and the team.

Soft Contamination

Tangeled nostagia and hostility are nibbling her heart. She tried to end the pain, but indeedly became the source of the pain. She is the reason, also the result. She is like a silkworm, binding herslf but can not metamorphose. After all finished, only the cyclic pain is accompanying her to nirvana.

Silkworm(2015)

Double Bass: John Huges
Violin/Program: Dong Zhou
recorded on 28.02.2025 in Hörbar, Hamburg
photo by Tangible Art

Etude for Somax2 II, for violin, double bass and Somax2 (feat. John Huges)

An experiment with Buchla Synth and samples from Egmont Overture, performed by Orchestra TSUMUGI on 10th Mar. 2024, Fukuoka Symphony Hall, Japan.

Folding Egmont

The Canadian scholar R. Murray Schafer voiced a critique by describing radio as source for ‘defamiliarisation’ from the everyday environment. Identified as a sensual alienation by Schafer he portrayed this media experience as ‘schizophonic’. When Schafer coined radio as schizophonic, he criticized the perceptional split of sounds. This piece is a further explanation of ‘schizophonic’, which takes out not only sound but also image and narrator’s experience from the original context. Audio and visual materials recorded in Shanghai, Osaka and Hamburg are intermingled with solo bass clarinet to show a memory with trauma and distorted landscapes stored there.

Schizophonic(2016)

Peony Pavilion/ Yin Yang is a multimedia theater which premiered in Shanghai Theater Academy in October, 2013. It explained the ancient Chinese story "Peony Pavilion" from a modern view. Actors and audience move in a 3-floor space to create a conversation between ancient time and today.

Wake up

Dream

Dance in Industrialized World

Angels and fairies are going to fall from heaven to the earth. They are preparing, preparing, but always not ready. I am waiting for that day, but till now, I am also not ready. Most of the sounds in this piece are based on recorded singing/ talking voice.

Preperation, for stereo electronics(2016)

This is a series of pictures of being hanged for seven days until die. The seven pictures are: departure, farewell, struggle, longing, euphoria, life review and back to heaven.

Back to Heaven, for piccolo and electronics(2017)

The verb "marry" in Chinese has two different words particularly for different genders: 娶 Qu(let a girl into your family) for male, and 嫁 Jia(let yourself out of your original family) for female. And in old time people usually get married without knowing each other before, the bride wears a red cover to cover her face until the wedding ceremony ends. When I and violin met each other without our own intension, we have both left our own land, but where can we go? The quoted violin concerto "Butterfly Lovers" by Gang Chen and Zhanhao He is based on a story also about the traditional marriage in China. All sound material(except a few voices) are from recorded violin.

Jia, for violin, electonics and performance(2017)

In the second year of college, I must go to a “Chinese characteristic” Marxism lecture every Friday at 10 a.m. The teacher led a roll-call to check the attendance. Sometimes we also responded to the names of our absent classmates’ or told the teacher they were in the toilet. When I recall these moments, I don’t remember many Marx’s thoughts, neither the propaganda of CCP’s, but just the sounds around me that time, and those from the imaginary toilet.

Friday 10 a.m., fixed media, stereo version(2018)

The text of the song is in this context: when I was 17, there were many weird ideas in my mind. I wanted to write lyrics, but notebook was not a reliable place. So I always got up, when it was very late and everything was in silence. In the moonlight, with an ink pen, I wrote on a mirror. I wrote and wiped it out, wiped it out and wrote, until the whole mirror became blue.

This is quotes from Chinese writer Xiaobo Wang’s novel, which was written in 1980s. The action is a symbol, that even under power rule and high stress, people will not stop thinking. And if people insist to think, their thoughts will remain in this world in their special ways. The Song is showing the impulse and conflict of the circumstance, and the poetry from the heart which cannot be suppressed.

Die Lyrik

The tubes sing secretly in your mechanic life. They connect things in darkness, underground.
There is also a 6-channel version of this work. Please contact me for requesting it.

Tube Song (2018)

An audio only, stereo version of "Elysion", audio-visual version: https://youtu.be/eHnfvNjvdWM

Elysion (2019)

Golden Age (2020)

#4 publicized part of #pajamaopera
More Information about #pajamaopera : https://dongzhou.live/2020/03/17/pajamaopera/

Tele - Call (with Itaru Ouwan)

It is recommended to listen to it with headphones.
This work is based on a 7-hours field recording I did in 2017 while spending the night with my partner at that time.

Always (2020)

“Sloup” is a poem written by Neal D. Retke. This piece worked on the phonetical and musical possibilities of the language. The initial reading material was generated by a reading program.

S - Lou - P!

Trashy artist from Planet Keron. No pronouns, for grammatical reasons "she" is acceptable.

Popular tracks by Dong Zhou (Shimo)