White Box Mental Knobs 白鹤神牛
Improvisation, Live Electronics, Experimental Rap

The improvisation duo AUUF consists of Budhenau and Tian Fu. “白鹤神牛 White Box Mental Knobs” (WBMK) is their first project that brings their music and craft to the wider audience. WBMK centers around the concept of creating bridges between unfamiliar cultures through improvisation. By embracing differences and fostering collaboration between different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, the project promotes cultural exchange and mutual understanding. It is an exploration of interconnectedness, flexibility of language, and non-attachment through openness to new and unexpected directions.

The rapper responds to the improvised beat being created by his counterpart. The rhythmic and melodic components of the beat dictate not only the development of the rap flow in Chineses language (Mandarin) but also the direction of storytelling, which may lead to an unexpected story or a theatrical situation.

For the musician creating the beat on semi-modular synthesizer, the Mandarin is perceived only as musical material, rather than semantic content. This creates a space for openness and collaboration, where the musician is free to respond to the development of the rapper’s flow in a way that generates a “feedback loop” of creativity and inspiration.

Instrumentation:
Budhenau (Synthesizer)
Tian Fu (rap, vocal)