Review: Sound Strokes: A Harmonious Blend of Chinese and Scottish Music, Camden People’s Theatre, London

Before seeing Sound Strokes, I knew only one thing about Scottish and Chinese traditional music: both make use of the pentatonic scale – but they sound vastly different. I wondered how two musical traditions, separated by thousands of miles, histories and cultural contexts, could possibly make music together.

Any scepticism I held faded away within the first minute.

This Scottish-Hong Kong collaboration is an intercultural music partnership between Wan Xing (guzheng), Eleanor Dunsdon (Celtic harp/clàrsach) and Gregor Black (bodhrán and drums). The 60-minute concert seamlessly blends music from both Chinese and Celtic traditions, while also experimenting with new ways of making music.

The guzheng – a zither with a history of over 2,500 years – has a wide emotional range, moving from deep, resonant tones to bright, airy textures, and its plucked strings pair beautifully with the lightness of the Celtic harp, itself an instrument with over 1,000 years of history. The highly expressive instrumentation is balanced by the percussion; the rhythms bringing a more mellow tone to the pieces.

The three musicians’ mastery over their instruments is a delight to experience but it’s their sensitivity to one another that makes the show come alive. Sometimes the instruments seem to answer each other like in a call-and-response; at other moments they merge so completely one can scarcely believe they come from different musical traditions.

The performance is structured around the ancient elements of Earth, Wind (or Qi), Fire and Water, giving the music an environmental vocabulary. Earth feels grounded, melodic and conjures feelings of finding home. Wind, or Qi, features a new composition by Wan Xing that demonstrates the guzheng’s range and feels a lot more avant garde than the other pieces. The work begins quietly but soon gathers force, like a gale wind, with heavy glissandos; in the small space, the music is loud and thunderous. Fire, a crowd favourite, splices a galloping Chinese racing tune with a lively Celtic polka, and one can imagine riding over open plains with wind in the hair. Once again, I was captivated by the ease with which Celtic and Chinese music blended so harmoniously.

The heart of the show, though, lies in the storytelling. Woven through the performance, the stories deepen the intercultural exchange. The musicians generously explain not only what they are playing but where the music comes from and what it has meant within its original culture. One of the most memorable pieces, Flowery Dialogue, connects women’s labour in Scotland with women’s work in China. The piece’s infectious rhythm is enough to get audiences moving, but the stories behind the original tunes give the music a much deeper resonance, reminding us that the human experience is remarkably similar despite thousands of miles separating them.

Sound Strokes is the rare show that truly embodies what it means to create intercultural work. There is a deep respect for each other’s musical traditions, but also an excitement about wanting to break new ground. Rather than simply placing Scottish and Chinese music side by side, the music is reinvented to find something new.

Fittingly, the performance ends with The Ways of Water, composed by US-based composer Maeve Gilchrist. Stretching beyond ten minutes and unfolding across three movements, the piece is sweeping, evocative and immersive, bringing together live instruments, percussive effects and ambient sounds. It’s a beautiful culmination to the evening, a testament to how tradition is being honoured while flowing, changing, and finding new forms through international collaboration.

Producer: Sky Sum

Production Manager: Cynthia Cheung

Set artwork by Qiu Yangzi

Project Coordinator: Natalie Chan

Sound Engineer: Ewen Green

Sound Strokes has ended its run in London.