Vietnam's indie, experimental and improv music scene is still in its early days. Keyboardist and electronic musician Tri Minh is one of its driving forces. He's the mastermind of Vietnam's first international electronic / experimental music festival, Hanoi Sound Stuff. And he brings together traditional and modern instruments and motifs both as a sound-artist and bandleader. His innovative trad / modern hybrid quartet is on its first US tour thanks to the US State Dept's Center Stage program - which aims to build mutual understanding through cultural exhange. Tri Minh's Quartet brings its international goodwill mission to WFMU tonight! 

Here’s more on Tri Minh and the group’s background, courtesy of ace world music publicity crew Rock Paper Scissors: 

The twang of the zither against the overtone-laden bamboo mouth harp, hinting at tradition one moment, and the analog experiments of midcentury electronic music the next. Sweet jazz piano and hand drums, juxtaposing electronic and organic. These are the sounds of Hanoi, where open-ended experimentation is coming into its own in Vietnam’s capital city. 

At the hub of this scene, contemporary sound artist Trí Minh, the Hanoi Conservatory-trained composer, jazz pianist, and all-around musical instigator, has created his own platform for creative work at home and abroad. As founder of the Hanoi Sound Stuff Festival, Trí Minh has worked with musicians from highly diverse backgrounds, collaborated with internationally respected DJs and electronic musicians like Robert Henke, Robin Scanner, and Dickson Dee, and played sets around the world. 

In a program titled Sounds from Hanoi, Trí Minh’s Quartet uses improvisation—a vital, though differently expressed component of both Vietnamese traditional forms and jazz – to create a dialogue between instruments in ways that echo Hanoi’s experimental side, a side Trí Minh and his friends connect with the growing voice of civil society in Vietnam. 

Listen to the story here.