Flying Over the CityThis is where it all began.In 2001 LinDi and SuYong recorded a seven song demo at Huge’s Shanghai studio and Cold Fairyland was born. Famous as a pioneer of MIDI in China, Huge himself was the sound engineer for “Flying Over the City”. This is primal Cold Fairyland. Dark, atmospheric, even gothic - before the traditional instruments and progressive leanings later years would bring. Recorded in two weeks that winter, this underground release is how it all began … newly born, the legend took flight.Never widely available outside of China, and long out of print, “Flying Over the City” is now available world wide in the same format in which it began - an MP3 download. A little about the songs, themselves …After a bright “Morning” comes the twinkling, liquid and dreamy “Sea Rose”.The lyrics for “Sea Rose” are from a poem by American imagist poet, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle). How exactly it escaped literary circles and washed up on the shores of Shanghai is a mystery.Sea Rose Rose, harsh rose,marred and with stint of petals,meagre flower, thin, (flower)sparse of leaf,more preciousthan a wet rosesingle on a stem—you are caught in the drift. ( you are a sea rose)Stunted, with small leaf,you are flung on the sand,you are liftedin the crisp sandthat drives in the wind.can the spice rosedrip such acrid fragrancehardened in a leaf? (you are sea flower, sea rose.)Next is the stylistic “Black Wing”. Even today LinDi refers to unique components of Cold Fairyland’s sound as “Black Wing style”. The intro is a pre-dawn whisper with candy-floss guitar. A blushing synth signals the forthcoming flight. The bass, a moment’s ornament, triggers the takeoff of the sparkling verse. Gathering momentum, the verse climbs till another ripping bass run pitches headlong into the full flight of the dizzying chorus. Here, the drums are kaleidoscopic. Suddenly, it banks and gently glides back into the intro, only to begin anew.“Who Knows” is a spooky and delicious little tune features Su Yong on lead vocal. Chiming guitar, bubbling synth, syncopated cymbal, the clang of church bells and great washes of reverb set a dark and disturbing tone. At a minute and forty five seconds in, LinDi’s other worldly and wordless vocal puts a knife into the heart and gently twists. The heartbeat of the bass drum ends as the synth’s EKG blip flatlines - “Who Knows” has a fatal conclusion.After the wistful “Only One” and the dark, minor key sorcery of “Very Much”, “Flying over the City” concludes with a quieter, embryonic version of the anthematic “Waiting for Farewell”. Perhaps the most beloved of all the CFL library, this song has a new generation of hopeful Chinese rockers covering it in their basements and lofts while they wait for their own wind, the wind that will take them ...Flying Over the City. Waiting for FarewellWaiting for the wind to drive me awayI know I got to leave no matter how tight I graspEverything ends the sameBut the beginning is much better.Waiting for the wind to drive the sadness awayNothing would stop in the cityI could no longer hold your handAnd I should be used to the freedomWithout the pale sunsetand the sea waves silentlyI would never realize the green treesand the dreamer in the looking glassThe flowers still blossom in that mid-winterAnd bell of death sounds in the airAlong in the deep dark fieldI could only watch the future dieAll is no longer 'All'I wait for the final farewell in the windWaiting for the endWaiting for the empty seaWaiting for the purist nightI come back to this world from the heavenBut they never let me look at your facethat I nearly forgot.