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Screenshot from NONE SOUNDS YouTube channel showing the two DJs performing their electronic music.
Uyghur culture remains largely underrepresented and little known outside its homeland. One of the few venues for its global visibility is music, something two young Uyghur performers of electronic music are harnessing to raise awareness about their culture while living in exile.
Uyghur culture, rooted at the crossroads of Turkic and Persian history in Central Asia, has a rich musical tradition that includes classical music such as muqam, folk, and pop music. Music also became one of the sole representation of Uyghur identity through colonial prism in China, where most Uyghurs live today, and where, first exoticized, their music and overall culture is now being eradicated or appropriated by mainstream Chinese culture.
Many Uyghurs, including artists, have left their homeland to simply escape imprisonment, torture, and death but also to be able to create and revive their culture outside of China. Among the many writers, fashion designers, painters, and musicians living in exile is the duo NONE SOUNDS, two young Uyghur who perform electronic music mostly in Western Europe, where they now live.
Global Voices interviewed them over email to hear their story of art, exile, and visibility.
Global Voices (GV): Can you tell us about your journey to Europe and how you became performers of electronic music?
NONE SOUNDS (NS) We are both from the Uyghur region in China, Aishan was born in Ürümqi, the capital city of Xinjiang, and I, Erpan, was born in Keriye, located in the Hotan region). We started playing electronic music together in 2014 in Shanghai. Then in 2015, Aishan left China and moved to Spain. I had to wait until 2016 before I was able to complete all the paperwork to leave China, then I decided to move to Japan to grow both artistically and technically. After spending two years apart, we were finally able to start our journey to Europe as NONE SOUNDS in September 2018 by performing in a Rave Festival in Cyprus. Back then we already realized that electronic music was the best way to express our own vision of “Future Music.” We both come from the rock music scene, so we are more like an electronic band rather than DJs, and we believe that many bands in the future will eventually evolve into electronic bands.
Photo from NONE SOUNDS Facebook page announcing their Rennes concert.
Find a Spotify playlist with an assortment of NONE SOUNDS music here:
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