Reviews




Short Quote


"one of the most original outfits working in the world music arena today"

"...delicately balanced between many worlds, Songs Beyond Words provides an entryway to Eastern music and artful expression of the human condition"

"...influences from China, Mongolia , Kazakhstan , India and other stopping points along the Silk Road" whole article

"The music is really beautiful, and beautifully presented. It's just about the nicest music I've heard from the last WOMEX."

"stunning performance at the annual World Music Expo(WOMEX)...AMS demonstrated their ability to transfix their audience with a mesmerizing integration of Chinese tradition and contemporary folk... Nothing short of visionary" whole article

"an exciting development in the progression of both traditional and contemporary Chinese music…..joyous, evocative and enchanting"

"Chicago’s reaction to A Moving Sound was a joy to see"

“Mia Hsieh is a great young woman singer putting a new spin on old traditions........AMS has a fine and unusual album just out and beautifully packaged, the album is entitled “Songs Beyond Words”.

“Grand Performances’ commitment to finding virtuostic artists from Asia and the Asian diaspora has struck gold with the Taipei-based A Moving Sound. The ensemble has carved out a unique niche, incorporating movement and sound to create a magical, expressive musical experience.”

“Great music from Taiwan......A Moving Sound seems to have found its opportunity!”

“Your unique and energetic music was successful in capturing the imaginations of our enthusiastic audience…….we are proud and honored to have worked with you"

"Powerful and beautifully touching... Mia's voice soars"

"A Moving Sound took Simmons College by storm... the concert truly was incredible."

"one of the most joyous musical experiences that I have had the pleasure to program. The ensemble infused the space with a heart-warming, love-filled vibe that truly rocked our souls"


Full Quote


"A Moving Sound is one of the most original outfits working in the world music arena today, an inspired marriage of Taiwanese traditional sounds and Western pop experimentation that forges an important new musical dialogue."

"Based out of Taiwan, A Moving Sound offers up a unique and exciting new development in the progression of both traditional and contemporary Chinese music. A Moving Sound's music explores the outer regions of the avant-garde while remaining firmly rooted in the rich, earthy aesthetic of ancient ethnic music and dance from the Far East. The band utilizes traditional Chinese instruments and melodic themes but combines them with modern compositional concepts and spirited experimentation to produce music that is joyous, evocative and enchanting."

"On behalf of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, it was a rare treat to have A Moving Sound perform for the City of Chicago. They were showcased in three completely different settings during their stay for the seventh annual World Music Festival: Chicago 2005. At the first, a local music club, they were overwhelmingly received playing on a double bill with French band, Nouvelle Vague. The second was an afternoon outdoor county fair with a family environment. Again, A Moving Sound seemed to move and win over the crowd. For their third and final performance they shined for a packed, 300 seat traditional theater style setting. They had the audience captured. The wonderfully positive response of the audience was a fitting goodbye for our musical guests. Chicago's reaction to A Moving Sound was a joy to see"

"Powerful and beautifully touching………For Small World it was a rare chance to present music from the Far East and I found it very compelling. Mia's voice soared over a strong rhythmic impulse supported by a unique blend of instrumentation that reflected a wide range of cultural influences."

"On Wednesday, September 21, 2005, A Moving Sound took Simmons College by storm. In an auditorium packed with over 300 attendees the pioneering performance troop wooed their audience with gorgeous harmonies, innovative styling, and humorous anecdotes. After the concert, students mobbed the group to buy CD’s and request autographs, shooting photos with their cell phones and recounting having goose bumps throughout the show. Mia’s vocal range astonished, and the players, while blending effortlessly into the whole, were each remarkable in their own right. The concert truly was, as several students commented, incredible."

"Their music is clearly rooted in Chinese tradition, yet true to the group's name, the music is constantly surprising and moving in different directions, cleverly avoiding new age cliches. A Moving Sound has an experimental edge that keeps the listener engaged and leaves you feeling you've been on a magical mystery tour. Compelling stuff!"

"A Moving Sound was one of the most joyous musical experiences at Galapagos Art Space that I have had the pleasure to program. The ensemble infused the space with a heart-warming, love-filled vibe that truly rocked our souls. The music was a salve to jangled spirits. The harmonies and tempos touched forgotten primal places and made the audience one. I look forward to working with "A Moving Sound" when they return to New.York City."

"A Moving Sound, just like their name says, makes a sound that MOVES! Their music is free from the limitations of labeling. They aren't pop, traditional or classical, or anything else really. Their creative work flies freely, carried by their own imagination's inspiration. The experimental quality of the music is not intellectual it is liberating. Their music brings together eastern and western instruments, African rhythms, jazz improvisation, poetic narrative, magic, dance and chanting to create a warm and passionate musical celebration. A Moving Sound is not afraid to explore a wide range of musical styles and presentations. They stay true to their creative inspiration and are led by it. They confidently inhabit a creative environment where ideas are expressed as effortlessly as clouds changing shape on the horizon. I think this CD has a deep quality that is beyond words and is one that is worth listening to again and again."

"The group's energy vibrates audience's hearts creating a flowing, transforming scene that gives a feeling of freedom. They are especially good at creating a space, like a container, open and encouraging everyone to find their own creativity."

"Vocalist Mia Hsieh’s performance guides the listener through vast expanses of (e)motion and stillness. Audiences are transported the moment she appears on stage."


Magazine/ News Publication Links

Not quite pop, nor folk, nor art music (but a little bit of each), this Taiwanese group’s second album blends Eastern and Western instruments, traditional and modern sources and influences from China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and India and other stopping points along the Silk Road. Lyrics from a famed poet of 1000 years ago nestle next to modern musings about visiting the outermost planets; a day in the market gives way to ghosts in the night; a political marriage from the year 641 becomes a metaphor for multiculturalism and feminism today. You might not understand the words (apparently neither will Taiwanese listeners since Mia Hsieh sings not only in a variety of dialects but also in her own-made up languages – the elegant book contains extensive notes in English). But delicately balanced between many worlds, Songs Beyond Words provides both an entryway into eastern music and artful expression of the universal human condition.

Giving a stunning performance at the annual World Music Expo (WOMEX) in Seville, Spain in October 2006, A Moving Sound demonstrated their ability to transfix their audience with a mesmerizing integration of Chinese tradition and contemporary folk. Driven by a high-spirited, unrestrained passion for celebrating the exquisite properties of dissonance wrapped thoughtfully within properly-earned dramatic tension, they combine multiple harmonic languages, drawing from the pentatonic basis of Chinese music but not allowing the music to be limited by its implications. This dynamic group maximizes the haunting and often brittle, sharp melodic quality of traditional Chinese music, such as the cry of the erhu, giving it good reason to converse with acoustic guitar and other “Western” folk predispositions. This blending of the two stylistic vocabularies integrates all elements so naturally and gracefully that the lines between the genres and centuries of time are transparent and permeable. Nothing short of visionary, their music is not only brave but humble, challenging the voices of their chosen instruments all the while respecting the inherent nature of each one, in order to allow it to be what it is, regardless of exceptional, musically-ambitious stretching.

A Moving Sound was featured in a very nice profile by the Taiwan government publication Discover Taipei.

Scott was interviewed by the highly respected world music publicist, Dmitri Vietze of Rock Paper Scissors in an on line article called A Day in the Life of a Band preparing for WOMEX"

Global Rhythm is the largest international world music magazine and website



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