Years active 2004–present Website moshang.net Name MoShang MoShang | Role Musician | |
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Origin Bellville, Western Cape, South Africa Occupation(s) Musician / music producer Labels Onse Plate, Lemongrassmusic Albums Chill Dynasty, Made in Taiwan, Further East, Groove Suite, Stone Bell Similar Tafubar, Eskadet, Weathertunes, Roberto Sol, Kou Chou Ching | ||
Music director A Month of Hungry Ghosts | ||
MoShang Making Music (2008)
MoShang is a downtempo musician and music producer originally from South Africa. He is referred to as the Sound Jeweler and has been living in Taiwan since 2003.
Contents
- MoShang Making Music 2008
- MoShang Live Unsung Heroes album launch Taipei
- Early life and musical background
- 2010 to present
- Discography
- Various artist compilations
- References
MoShang Live @ Unsung Heroes album launch (Taipei)
Early life and musical background
MoShang is the Chinese moniker of SESAC-affiliated composer Jean Marais. He began as a choral singer in the early 1980s in Cape Town, South Africa – at which time he acquired his first computer, a Commodore VIC-20. It would take some time, however, for his love of music and computers to find its ideal expression. Marais first earned acclaim as lead singer/frontman of the South African art-rock band Duusman and as saxophonist for the group Tsunami; he also served as producer on three award-winning albums honoring poet Breyten Breytenbach and formed half of the Afrikaans pop duo 12 Hz with Riku Lätti. He garnered South Africa's prestigious Avanti Craft award for his score to the short film "Angels in a Cage."
Marais relocated to the Taiwanese city of Taichung in 2003; his first release as MoShang, Made in Taiwan, was released on his Onse Plate (Afrikaans for "Our Records") imprint in 2004. His second, Chill Dynasty, followed in 2006. His music was selected for the Discovery HD production "Fantastic Festivals of the World." In 2009, he was selected as the winner in the audio category of the Ubuntu 9.04 Free Culture Showcase and his song "Invocation" was distributed with that version of the OS. In 2009 he teamed up (as Jean Marais) with Andre van Rensburg and Louis Minnaar and released the project/album 'Eentonig'.
2010 to present
MoShang released his fifth full-length album "Further East" on Lemongrassmusic label (2010). He has released more than 100 episodes of his Live Online podcast – each episode is an hour-long recording of a live performance of his original music and is released under a Creative Commons license. MoShang recently completed the original score for the National Geographic Channel (Asia) documentary "Koxinga: A Hero's Legacy".