NEW SINGLE RELEASE – TRUNC ‘BORED’
12 May 2023
As I walked down Byers Road, I approached The Alchemy Experiment and suddenly felt my nerves wash away. Warm light spilled out of the cafe windows, and small groups of people huddled outside the door. Half of the founding team, Catherine Allison ushered me in and not far behind was Esme Stewart. The girls, in between stamping wrists, told me that after they left university they found that there was little space for them in the art world, forcing them to take matters into their own hands. After spending my evening at the one year anniversary celebration of the Flos Collective, I believe they have achieved this goal.
Hanging on the walls were pieces by artists Sasha Beteeva, Kristina Haritonova, Olivia Ausin Gonzalez (one part of Clay Rings, who we interviewed last month!) and many more. The pieces differed vastly in style and media but many carried the theme of womanhood and femininity. The diverse range of pieces were discovered through an open call for female and non-binary artists, and so were the performers, yet the collective managed to avoid presenting a miss-matched jumble of voices, instead bringing together similar sentiments in a lovely atmosphere of kindness and support.
First on stage was Peilin Shi, whose voice immediately commanded the room to the point where a microphone was obsolete. She was inspired by her own Hakka dialect, which originated in China but has lost prominence to make way for Mandarin. Peilin interspersed the enchanting mountain songs with the English translations and read these out like poetry, therefore not only fusing language but genre too.
Where is my Hakka identity? In the past twenty years, I can count on both hands the number of times I’ve spoken my mother tongue. When I forgot those colloquialisms, those unique expressions, it felt like discarding a way of understanding the world that I was supposed to be born with. I can’t even remember what I have forgotten, leave alone know where to start asking questions.
Her words conjure up the loneliness felt when your culture is erased, as even Peilin’s ancestors move away from the Hakka traditions. She begs the question; can one person reinstate a whole culture by themselves?
I don’t even know what keeps us connected, what makes us love, miss, or think of each other. It’s like groping in the dark… I increasingly feel like a rootless tree, a sourceless river, gradually withering away, with no past and no sight of the future.
Before the show, Peilin told me that after moving to Glasgow, she managed to find a community of Hakka Chinese people, and her love of the language made a resurgence. Now, we see her combining Hakka not only with English, but with another added twist. Taking a seat to the left of the stage, she brought out an Irish drum, or bodhrán, typically made of goatskin and endorned with Celtic knots. Producing a steady, pulsating rhythm, Peilin seems to have found the perfect instrument to match the strength of her voice. Having situated herself at the crossroads between Scotland, Ireland and China, Peilin is a testament to the vibrancy and diversity of Glasgow’s music scene and safely the most unique musician I have come across this year.
After an emotional poetry reading from Ella Mayne, Lola Aluko took the stage. The singer-songwriter let her words and voice speak for themselves, accompanied only by a keyboard or simple bassline. Words like ‘these thoughts are haunting me’ became all the more raw when Aluko stripped them back with nothing to hide behind except a few notes – bringing to mind some of Summer Walker’s early acoustic sessions. Although most of Aluko’s work is influenced by R&B and bedroom pop, she also highlights elements of drill in some songs, which offsets her smooth vocals with a layered beat. Lola is primarily an actress, but her musical abilities show clear potential, and I’m excited to see what the new year might bring for her.
Finally we saw Irish-born Mokulsa perform. Hypnotising is an understatement. Mokulsa’s enthralling, echoing vocals, paired with the intimate cafe setting, made for a dream-like feeling that could only be truly immersive when experienced live. There is something hauntingly other-worldly about Mokulsa’s sound, but I was brought startlingly down to earth when her grandmother’s voice featured in one of her songs. It’s safe to say I wasn’t the only one brought to tears by something so familiar paired with such a solemn and ethereal sound – almost the musical rendition of nostalgia and yearning. Mokulsa has been featured on BBC Introducing Scotland, as well as Nialler9’s Best New Irish Music Playlist and will be playing the First Footing festival at The Hug and Pint in Glasgow on January 7th, if you’d like to experience the transformative powers of her music for yourselves.
All in all, Flos Collective produced a night of genuinity and connection, and although a celebration of their one year anniversary, they did well to introduce me to the work that they do and the valuable community that they’re creating. The intimate setting allowed for true connections to be made with artists and musicians, and other members of the art world in a city where it’s easy to feel lost in the crowd.
At the end of the day, the gender gap in the art world can seem immovable when facing it alone, and the collective is making big moves to bridge this. The cause is inextricably connected to the work we do here at The New Age Magazine, as we strive for the same community in the music world in which many struggles are similar. Instead of taking a seat at the table, we are making our own table, one that promotes inclusivity, accessibility and allows for talent to be nurtured rather than dismissed.
Follow @floscollective_ on instagram to see more of what they do, and what they have planned for the new year.
