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“Think of this as a chance to talk to your 17 year oldself” was the advice given to all mentors preparing forTeens Unplugged 4. I couldn't help thinking “If only”. Ifonly there had been something like this available before Itripped off, fresh-faced, excited and totally clueless, intothe world of tertiary education.An unfortunate side effect of being grouped strictlyby age throughout our school career is that often thereisn't very much meaningful interaction between people ofdiffering ages. I know that I certainly would never havetried to strike up a conversation with anyone more thanone year older than me at high school which is a pitybecause there were so many things that I would have lovedto ask and I know now that a lot of them would have beenmore than happy to answer me.Kath LiuTEEN MENTORThis is where Teens Unplugged is onto something reallykey: it bridges what often appears to be an irreconcilablecommunication gap between those in their late teens andthose in their early twenties and opens up a space foran honest exchange of information and ideas. Havingthe opportunity to participate as a peer mentor at TeensUnplugged 4 was an immensely satisfying experience.Having been through what they are about to experienceand knowing both the joys and the pitfalls that areinevitably a part of life beyond the sheltered environmentof home it felt really good to be able to provide some hintsand pointers that I wished I had known when I was intheir position. I really hope that they found this afternoonas worthwhile and rewarding as I did. I would do it againin a heartbeat.It’s been a great summer formusic in Taipei, and what betterway to bring it to a close thanwith the release of Big BigIntersecting Clusters! ( 大 大 星 簇 交錯 ) by Taipei’s very own eclectic,experimental jazz project FlâneurDaguerre ( 音 符 漫 遊 者 ). The group,led by American expat composer andsaxophonist Louis Goldford, cametogether over two years ago andhave been exploring alternatives tomainstream jazz and improvisationever since.In Flâneur Daguerre you’ll heara balanced diet of swing, gypsy,p o s t-b o p a n d o t h e r r e l a t i v e l y‘conservative’ stylistic approachesalongside a punk, Zappa-esque,atonal, free jazz or Avant-gardeclassical edge and a pinch of humormixed in for good measure. But whysuch a broad spectrum of sound inthe same band?“Because that’s how we remembermusic anyway,” Goldford toldCentered on Taipei.FLÂNEUR DES TAIPEI“Instead of searching for ouridentity within one set of stylistic‘rules,’ we’re looking at what eachof our members brings into thegroup and reconstructing it in thisdreamlike collage of material.”G o l d f o r d p o i n t s t o I t a l i a ncomposer Luciano Berio and hisorchestral work Rendering forinspiration. In the piece, sketchesfor Schubert’s unfinished 10thSymphony are ‘completed’ or ‘glued’together in an imagined sound world,including quotations from otherSchubert pieces, that sometimessuggests to the listener Schubert’sfading memory in his final days.What may seem stylistically tooambitious for one band is actuallya purposefully executed study incollective memory — with all thereward, excitement and humor ofperformance.“It’s more of a social way ofimprovising, just as you tend tom a k e j o k e s w h e n y o u’r e w i t hpeople,” pianist Martijn Vanbuelt o l d f i l m m a k e r P i n t i Z h e n gin an independently produceddocumentary of the band, T heFlâneur in Taiwan.It’s no wonder that in today’s age,with the ability to rapidly pit distantstyles of music against one anotherusing our very own iPods, that aband like Flâneur Daguerre shouldemerge in such a multi-culturalcity as Taipei. with much recentcommentary on music and memory,such as Oliver Sack’s immenselypopular Musicophilia: Tales ofMusic and the Brain, the public isshowing a growing concern for howwe collectively experience sound inthe broader sense.Flâneur consists of Goldford onsoprano saxophone alongside LionelPinard (France) on accordion andmelodica, Vanbuel (Belgium) onpiano, Kelvin Chuang (Taiwan) onbass, and Weichung Lin (Taiwan)on drums. Together they borrowideas from the mid-century Germanintellectual Walter Benjamin forinspiration and organization of theirmusic. And what they’ve turned outis a fine-tuned, accessible debut albumthat hit the shelves earlier this month.The album features the quintet intheir acoustic state and a numberof electronic ‘interludes’ that weavein and out of the tunes, resulting inan almost non-stop hour of originalmusic and sounds you didn’t thinkgo together, but do. Flâneur hasmade their round of appearances tocelebrate the album launch, includingan appearance at the TEDxTaipei‘The Road Less Traveled’ salon eventon September 10th.Big Big Intersecting Clusters!is available in Taiwan throughH i m a l a y a R e c o r d s i n m a j o rmusic retail outlets such as EsliteBookstore, and it can be downloadedon iTunes as well. More of theirmusic can be heard and seen atwww.flaneurdaguerre.com.entertainmentwww.communitycenter.org.tw october 201115