Bristol New Music Festival: Shui Mo - Sea, Shadow and ink

Shui Mo 水墨 premieres on BNM on Sunday 26 April 2026.

 

潮汐之影，水墨之间

潮の影、水墨のあいだ
April 26th, 14.30 (doors 14.15)
Bristol New Music
Victoria Rooms, Bristol

In Sea, Shadow and ink • 潮汐之影，水墨之间 Shui Mo 水墨brings four newly commissioned works by Hong Kong, Taiwan, Uk, and China-Japan-UK composers to Bristol.    Highlighting the programme is Dancing Ink, a propulsive new commission from Cardiff-Hong Kong phenom,邵丽堂 Kiko Shao that revels in the East Asian, familiar from her earlier work, but rarely found in their acoustic form whilst in the UK except through recordings.  Changing light, sea and reflection are central to the imagery of (Shui Mo cellist) George Owen’s inspiration from master 吉田博 Hiroshi Yoshida’s tracing of a day over a vast water in changing light. Beijing-Bristol (Tokyo) composer SU Lia’s work The Ink-Coloured Tide • 墨色之汐;  墨潮 infuses the air with sounds of transformation and changeability, as Su's always-visually-informed aesthetic, rooted in Beijing opera and guqin sensibilities, to BNM audiences for the first time.  The inspiration for Taiwan-Germany composer Yuting Chang is the essence of smoke, ‘which I think of as another form of fluid existence,’ breath sounds of the shakuhachi and taegeum along with extended possibilities of the guzheng keeps Chang’s sounds ever-shifting, effervescent.  Back by audience demand are the exquisite sounds of JIA Guoping’s Misty Frost and Faded Ink 寒烟淡墨, a work drawing on the timbral delicacies of Shui Mo’s traditional instruments, premiered by Shui Mo in Arnolfini in January to a rapt audience. 

All pieces commissioned by Shui Mo in 2026.

Kiko Shao’s new work Luminous Ink Shadows (墨影浮光) is commissioned with support by the Vaughan Williams Foundation. Yuting Chang’s Smoke Coiling is supported by the National Culture and Arts Foundation, Taiwan.