Beijing’s live music fans haven’t had much to celebrate lately – venues have been closing their doors quicker than you can say “I no longer hear the music.” First there was Maybe Mars’ XP in July, then Mako Livehouse a month later.
But as the saying goes: when one door closes, another one opens. Or in this case, two of each. Because during the last month, Beijing’s art and music scene has received a much-needed boost with the opening of new spaces from a couple of veterans of the local scene: Modernsky Lab from Modern Sky Entertainment and J-Space from the team at Jiangjinjiu Bar.
We headed down to both and, on first inspection, the pair seem more than able to fill the void.
Modernsky Lab is the brainchild of the ubiquitous Modern Sky Entertainment. With the independent record label and festival organizer expanding in recent years (its Modern Sky Festivals will be held in New York, Seattle and Helsinki in 2015), a live music and entertainment space was the natural next step in its quest for world music domination. As manager Xiao Linfeng (also known as the promoter, DJ and recording artist X.L.F.) explains: “We’re in the music industry so we should have a platform [for artists].”
The venue’s name is apt: this is a lab for artists, musicians, photographers and designers to collaborate, perform and experiment together. The space comprises a live music venue, dance area and recording studio, plus a cafe-bar area and store. It’s bold and colorful, with an industrial-cum-school cafeteria (a really nice one though) feel to it. You can browse through the merchandise (Modernsky, of course) with a coffee in the daytime, or enjoy a beer with some live music after dark.
Since its launch party at the beginning of August, the Lab has regularly hosted DJs and bands on Friday and Saturday nights. But it also showcases art from some of the label’s artists. Our most recent visit coincides with the opening of an exhibition, ‘God Takes Care of Drunk & Fool’ by guitarist Li Zhao. Remnants of the exhibition – fluffy three-eyed monsters, bottles of coke – are strewn around the space as people mingle around the cafe-bar area and a three-piece synth band play in the stage room. We find parents with children, girls with bowl haircuts and couples alike.
Afterwards, as the Jägermeister promo girls arrive, we enjoy a couple of drinks at the small bar. It’s about the length of a sitting bench and the staff informs us that it will be expanded into two “later on.” Sonically, the set-up is solid: the sound system is as good as you’d expect from an operation like Modern Sky. Xiao arrives to oversee the sound check and he looks pretty pleased.
This looks like it may just be the beginning for Modernsky Labs. They plan to open 20 globally over the next five years, with the next one set to appear in Shanghai in 2016. The aim is to share Chinese music and “gain greater exposure for our artists,” Xiao says.
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J-Space, meanwhile, is comparatively understated. In fact, it’s barely distinguishable from its gray-bricked hutong neighbors. The venue is the latest venture from the owners of Jiangjinjiu, which is “one of the earliest livehouses in Beijing,” according to Forest from the J-Space team. But it’s also the shared goal of a group of likeminded friends (including musicians, artists and academics) to provide a multi-cultural space “for creative projects to be realized.” These projects include music, creative workshops and speaking events, beginning this month with an art exhibition, ‘Wuyu or Love at Second Sight,’ by Xia Tao.
The building was originally a private residence, though it has been rebuilt and redesigned to become J-Space. Grays, whites and teal dominate, with the simple color scheme designed to let the art do the talking. The downstairs area is split into three: the entry and main room make up the ‘exhibition hall,’ while a back room can be used for meetings and gatherings (the rooftop also serves as an exhibition space and a party venue). Each of the downstairs areas is separated by glass doors, which can be folded open for better ‘integration’ between them, which seems to be a central theme at J-Space.
“You have art and interesting creative things [here] but you also have life,” explains Forest. Indeed, during our visit on a quiet afternoon, we find a group of friends eating and talking in the back room, with the glass doors to the exhibition hall flung wide open.
J-Space is small but charming, and Forest is proud of the focus on original and creative art. He makes a not-so-subtle dig at the “more commercial and mainstream” spaces at 798, while also admitting that, as artists find greater success, there is “always the commercial temptation.”
But for now, there is an undeniably warm sense of community here. “The Beijing public is welcome to contact us, and to pitch their ideas,” Forest says. “We are not going to limit the space. We would like things to happen – that is all.”
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