During China's National Day holiday (October 1-7), several Nordic and Chinese artists will join together to hold the first NOTCH Music Festival in three Chinese cities. This festival aims to enhance cooperation between China and Northern Europe in bringing Nordic art and culture to Chinese audiences, an organizer told China.org.cn exclusively on Sunday.

According to the festival's official website (notch06.blogbus.com), 18 Nordic artists and 18 Chinese artists will present varied shows to Chinese people unfamiliar with the culture of Northern Europe, a land of spirits and epic tales, breeding people and producing music in touch with nature.

"NO of NOTCH are the first two letters in Nordic, CH are the first two letters in China, and the T can be interpreted as a '+'; altogether, the word speaks for itself. Additionally, NOTCH also means a small groove, such as on a record. It's as ubiquitous as on the surface of a CD or vinyl record, representing a high quality of music," explained Yang Lei, the curator of the festival.

All the stars from Europe's two biggest independent record labels Jazzland and Smalltown Supersound will be visiting China, profiting from this tour to release four brand new albums in Asia. In addition to famous Norwegian acts, including Bugge Wesseltoft, Audun Kleive, Joakim Haugland and Ola Kvernberg Trio, Finland, Sweden and China will also be represented, with Steadycam, PST, Bangkok Impact, Terry Tu, Mickey Zhang scheduled to perform.

"Personally, I'm very interested in Northern Europe's nature and culture. I have been there four times and met many local artists and musicians," Yang, who also is a P&G manager and the founder of the very famous web radio Take10, told China.org.cn. "So the idea of organizing a festival was naturally born."

He said the festival's goal is to promote cultural exchanges between China and Northern Europe. He hopes that all people loving cultures, arts and life will come to the concerts.
 
The name list was decided by him and Norwegian musician Bugge Wesseltoft. Yang said the reason to hold concerts in three different cities is because Nordic artists are coming from faraway places. "They should go to more cities and communicate with more people."

However, though Northern Europe has become the globe's hottest place for the development of new wave music and attracted many independent labels and fashion observers, those kinds of jazz and techno are not mainstream in China where Western pop or rock performers maintain the lion's share of the market. 

Yang Lei denied the hints that those kinds of music are somewhat alternative, marginal or experimental, defending them saying they are of high quality.

"We would like to use this festival as an opportunity to introduce more great music to more people, who shouldn't be limited to only popular music and stars. If only people have chance to listen to (Nordic music) and see it live, they will fall for it," He said confidently and insisted more NOTCH-styled festivals should be organized in the future in order to change the status quo and make breakthroughs.
 
The tickets have been on presale since early September. Yang Lei was optimistic about it, but said it was too early to know the results.

The festival is strongly supported by Norway's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Royal Norwegian Embassy in China, Yang said, adding that no domestic Chinese agency is involved. "I hope there will be some in next year."

"The NOTCH will be different from other music festivals held in China, since it is content-oriented, people-oriented, and life-oriented. It is small but lovely." Yang said. He may know or not, at the same time during National Day holiday, they will encounter a big rival – a rock carnival involving over 70 Chinese rock acts along with drinking feast of beer will be banging Beijing for 7 days.

Although Yang Lei's website bears the introduction "Life is void without art and music. Radio Take10 will evolve your life into the future," he admitted that "I can only say Nordic music is one alternative for future music. The development of music is free and cannot be foreseen."

He also noted that Chinese modern musicians should embrace all unknown worlds with open minds stimulating inspiration.

The NOTCH Music Festival will be held in Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing from October 3-6.

(China.org.cn by staff reporter Zhang Rui, September 26, 2006)