Gong Linna and her music-composer husband Lao Luo return to Hong Kong this weekend to perform Tante, a song without words that turned Gong into an overnight singing sensation. Chitralekha Basu met the duo.

Gong Linna and Lao Luo still remember their first meeting more than 12 years back, down to each moment of the three hours they ended up spending together. Gong was attending a concert given by Lao Luo in Beijing and at the end of the show went backstage to congratulate him.

Soon Lao Luo found out Gong was a bit of a singer herself. She had trained at Beijing's Chinese Conservatory of Music and her folk album Kongque fei lai (The Peacock Flies Hither), released a year previously, had become a chart-topper. So he strummed his zither and invited her to jam.

"It was three hours of just music, without words," says Gong. "It relaxed my body, freed up my mind and heart. I cried, laughed and danced... felt a strong energy exuding from me." When it was over, it seemed to her "this was the path for me, if I were to find myself".

Lao Luo, for his part, felt he had "found a large diamond", albeit somewhat "uncut", at that stage. Gong's tremendous vocal range and irrepressible, effervescent energy were just the things he needed. For a while he had been trying to move away from the lyric-driven Chinese music scene and do something in the realm of pure sound.

Lao Luo was born Robert Zollitsch, in Munich. He took the Chinese name after attending Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He had been working as a composer and producer of indie music - Chinese in flavor and spirit and Western in terms of the inherent tension and dramatic progression. It seemed to him Gong Linna's robust, full-throated singing and natural flair for theater and spectacle was well in sync with his own artistic ambition.

The Tante phenomenon

Lao Luo has written at least 50 compositions for Gong to sing since the day they met. One of them, Tante (Uneasy), took home the prize for best vocal at the Europe World Music Awards, and went viral on the Internet in 2009. Celebrity actor-performers, Chapman To, Faye Wong and Eason Chan have given a thumbs up to this startlingly original song, which has no words and no meaning, only sounds that suggest something like a call to battle but could in fact be just a vehicle for displaying Gong's amazing skills with vocal pyrotechnics.

Or, it could be just a fad. While Gong's fan base keeps growing there are detractors who feel Gong, who often appears on stage in outlandish costumes and quasi-Peking Opera make-up, might be imitating Lady Gaga while lacking the American performer's obvious talent.

Anne Lee, who recently put together a book, On Our Own Way (Joint Publishing), based on Gong and Li's musical journey, disagrees. "I think the composition is a combination of opera and other different singing methods, to express an imaginable world full of color. If I can see correctly, Gong and Lao Luo will present new art music from China to the world in the future."

Lee has known Lao Luo longer than she did Gong. "He is an honest, intelligent artist with very high standards. With his help Linna changed a lot and found her own value."

Whether Lao Luo and Gong's labor of love is hailed as a fine and original piece of music or dismissed as plain ridiculous will be tested once again this weekend, when they take the stage at Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. This would be the first time "Tante: Uneasy and Beyond" played with a 150-member-strong ensemble, from the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, conducted by Maestro Yan Huichang. Gong herself will sing a lilting, soulful number, Song of Love, based on a poem by Song Dynasty poetess Li Qingzhao (1084-1151) - which is something of an antithesis to Tante.

Tante is one of those catchy numbers. Love it or hate it, it's difficult to stop it playing inside your head, once you've heard it.

"When I first heard Tante, it felt dizzying. I couldn't imagine how I might sing it without cracking my voice," says Gong. "But I like the fact that Lao Luo sets me fresh challenges every time. I realized I would have to forget myself to be able to sing this one."

Lao Luo concedes it was a tough task to accomplish. "It's a composition that catches energy and keeps growing along the way," he says of the nearly four-minute-long track that Gong seems to belt out in one breath. "There were too many chords, involving a complicated technique. Only a musical instrument might be able to play this amazing range, not a vocalist."

In perfect sync

"In music we are a perfect match," says Lao Luo, "which is not to say we aren't in life." Gong and Lao Luo married not too long after their artistic partnership began. Since then she's been both his muse and medium - giving voice to almost all the songs he writes. "I'd love to write for others but if you've found your soul-mate it's not so easy to find another," says Lao Luo.

Gong, who is chirpy, bubbly and generally more demonstrative of her passionate side compared to the more composed Lao Luo, gushes like a loved-up teenager. "We've been together 12 years and it feels like I'm still dating him. Our love seems larger than what you see in romantic movies. I love his music, he knows my voice. We inspire each other and every day seems like a new beginning."

Contact the writer at basu@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 12/19/2014 page4)