THE musical theme this month is experimentation. Not only does the Musicarama Festival (starting tomorrow) showcase new compositions coming out of places as diverse as Bucharest, Buenos Aires and Beijing, but the Arts Centre is launching a new series called Music Lab with new wave work produced in Hong Kong.
They claim it is 'not just another conventional experimental concert series' (a contradiction in terms I would hope) but 'an experimental experimental series'. Beat that! The Music Lab festival runs from October 26 to 29 and the programme is full of intriguing terms such as 'virtual reality of sound', 'nirvana', 'romantic piano and feedback' and 'touchable studio'. Details on 2877 1000.
The British Council is also bringing in the new, with their British Film Week '95 which starts tonight in City Hall. It is a chance to see the films that have either been ignored by local film distributors or have come and gone faster than you can say 'Ticketmaster'. The programme includes Tom and Viv, starring Miranda Richardson and Willem Dafoe, featuring the passionate yet tragic love affair between T S Eliot and his first wife Vivien. Other highlights are A Man of No Importance, starring Albert Finney as an Oscar Wilde-like bus conductor, To Die For, which is a gay pastiche of the movie Ghost, and Butterfly Kiss, a women's road movie full of macabre comedy.
Dark humour can also be seen at the Pao Galleries in the Arts Centre, with its exhibition, Comic in Revolt: The Shanghai Comics in the 30s and 40s.
Comic artists in China were often the more progressive members of the arts community, eager to improve devastating social conditions by highlighting people's plight with humour. The show, which demonstrates a strong influence from European avant-garde movements, continues until October 11.
On a more traditional note, the Hong Kong Association of University Women is presenting a scholarship fund-raising concert at Government House next Wednesday, called Dance! It promises to be a festival of madrigal songs and folk dance with music by Bach, Britten and Bartok, performed by the HK Chamber Orchestra, Cecilian Singers, Youth Arts Festival Dancers and others. Tickets, priced $350, are available from Diana Martin on 2550 5149.