The Chung Brothers and Bossa Negra try to change it up in the local music scene
Two music releases look to break the city's commercial pop barrier with multilingual, multicultural tunes, writes Robin Lynam
Hong Kong has always been an internationally minded city, and that fact is increasingly reflected not just in the way local musicians think, but also in the way they record.
Two albums recently released through Universal Music illustrate the point. Edge, which came out on July 26, is the third album by The Chung Brothers, Roger and Henry, who made their debut in 2009 with a "Canto-Gospel" album, The Chimes. Their latest release features an all-star cast of local and international musicians recorded in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Los Angeles.
This is a city at a crossroads. We want to tackle some of problems that Hong Kong is facing
Bossa Negra, released just before the World Cup began, is a collaboration of various artists, including Asia-based singers and Brazilian based musicians, produced by Hong Kong-born drummer and percussionist Howard Lee and Brazilian bassist Sergio Brandao.
The instrumental parts were recorded in Rio De Janeiro, and the vocals in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and on the mainland.
Both albums are multilingual, with the Bossa Negra songs performed in Putonghua, Cantonese and English. Lee's concept is to make Brazilian music more accessible to Chinese speakers by matching the rhythms to lyrics they can understand.
The songs on Edge are also performed in those three languages/dialects - plus several more, including Spanish, Hakka and Hindi.