There’s a new player in town and they go by the name of Omni Space. Actually, Omni Space is essentially the latest incarnation of Jiang Jin Jiu, the scrappy little venue which shuttered their doors last year in the Drum Tower area. Clearly, the folks behind that place have something bigger in mind as Omni Space already rivals some of the mid-tier competition (particularly Modernsky Lab and Yue Space – and for that matter Mao Livehouse). Great space, great sound, and a good head of their shoulders as the space hosted the Pixel Echo AudioVisual Festival hosted by local label Bwave, who release music and organizes events around some of the scene’s more mischievous characters – genres including hardware noise, ambient, minimalism, instrumental music, sound art, and improvisational music. I was lucky enough to swing by there the first night where audiences were treated to an array of performances – from the reappropriated pop arsenal of DJ Strausss, the layered atmospheric soundscapes of sound artist Hong Qile, alongside pianist Yue Xuan, visual artist Mao Wengweng (with the added WTF bonus of dancers Gu Jiani and Lei Yan who appeared from the structure’s balcony seemingly out of nowhere), another glitch-filled color-bursting set from Hong Qile and Yuan Ren, the always reliable iimmune joined by visual artist Ding Xin, and finally a mind-blowing guitar set from the otherworldly Li Jianhong – one for the books if you ask me. It’s nice to see such an eclectic crowd of musicians and artists join forces for something different – something that Beijing too often lacks. Follow Bwave on WeChat (ID:b-wave) to see what they cook up in the near future.
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