The Sages

The Sages (竹林七贤) is a new world music fusion band project based in London that draws inspirations from different music elements throughout time and history. With the main focus on traditional East Asian music, the band mainly consists of young students currently studying at SOAS, University of London, as well as members of the SOAS Chinese Silk and Bamboo Ensemble. As a diverse cosmopolitan generation growing up under an age of globalisation and other social changes, the band aims to explore the concepts between “East” and “West”, cultural identity and musical “genres” through both original composition and adaption of traditional folk music. “The Sages 竹林七贤” is a reference to a group of 7 literati, artists and scholars in ancient China who chose to escape mundane and hypocritical secular life and status to live in the remote natural countryside with the companionship of music, poetry, art (and wine) in search of a higher spiritual fulfilment.