There are certain people who always manage to leave me totally inspired each time I talk to them. Dave Liang of The Shanghai Restoration Project is one of those people.

He recently collaborated on a project with folk musician Abigail Washburn called Afterquake

While folk music remixed with electronica and sounds Dave recorded on his trip to Sichuan doesn’t sound like a likely mashup, if anyone can pull it off, it’s The Shanghai Restoration Project.

The album releases on May 12th, the anniversary of the Sichuan earthquakes.

More information here:

In honor of the one-year anniversary of the Sichuan Earthquakes, two pioneers in entirely
different genres – folk and electronica – have merged to increase knowledge and
understanding of the continuing aftermath of the earthquake. More than 88,000 have
died, with upwards of 5 million left homeless or relocated. A portion of the proceeds
from this EP will benefit the Sichuan Quake Relief organization.

Afterquake is a collection of raw, remixed field recordings of post-earthquake soundscapes
as well as performances by relocated children and their faraway parents captured and
produced by Abigail Washburn and Shanghai Restoration Project creator Dave Liang, in
cooperation with Sichuan Quake Relief. Currently in the Chinese countryside, they will
complete the entire record start to finish in two weeks time.

The collaboration was inspired in 2008 through Abigail’s volunteer work for Sichuan
Quake Relief where she performed in ‘relocation schools’ with kids from pre-school to
high school – most of whom were relocated from mountain villages to schools in new
locations far from their families.

“The children and teachers expressed intense grief at the loss of home and family,” says
Washburn, a former Sichuan resident featured in Newsweek for her “weirdly wonderful”
blend of Chinese culture and American-roots music. “I wanted to return and record their
stories and songs in their own voices.”

A kindred spirit was found in collaborator Dave Liang, whose Shanghai Restoration
Project combines the sounds of traditional Chinese instruments with hip-hop and
electronica. His project has been featured on NPR, KCRW, KEXP and the Beijing
Olympics.

Despite the tragic nature of the events inspiring this record, the sounds of the children
captured by Liang and Washburn are encouraging and uplifting: playground noises – ping
pong, basketball, jacks, handclapping games – are melded into a danceable rhythm; a 7th
grade student performs a traditional Qiang minority dance song for her classmates;
Tibetan sisters recite a bedtime prayer their mom used to sing to them; a relocated boy
sings a ballad about missing his mom over the sounds of his parents rebuilding their
house.

Afterquake will be available May 12th as a digital EP and limited edition CD, exactly one-
year to the day of the earthquakes.

Visit the site: http://www.afterquake.net

Follow Dave on Twitter: @daveliang

Dave Liang of The Shanghai Restoration Project with Abigail Washburn