This album is released in conjunction with the third anniversary celebration of Dama’s concert production “Spring Kisses Lover’s Tears”.

We are indebted to Datin Maggie Teh for giving us the much indeed momentum to put this second album project into full swing. Her fund-raising charity project for the Kiwanis Down Syndrome Building Fund produced a Dama-collaborated recording album entitled “Passage Of Time” whose repertoire provided a source of inspiration for us.

“Scent Of Autumn Rain” is a selection of evergreen Mandarin popular songs or shi dai qu featured in Dama Orchestra’s Spring Kisses Lover’s Tears concerts between 1997 and 2000.

Shi dai qu, which literally means “contemporary songs” or “period songs”, refers to songs sung in Mandarin between 1930s and 1970s, composed with both western and Chinese folk influences and oriented towards a mass market.

Having originated in Shanghai in the 1930s, shi dai qu first became popular throughout China during World War II, largely due to the widespread reception of radio broadcast, the movie casting of singing stars and the large number of songs in the films.

Subsequently in the 1950s and 1960s, the tradition of adding pop songs to films was brought over from Shanghai to Hong Kong following the influx of filmmakers, singers and songwriters. The popularity of shi dai qu and movie music rose to its peak with the music penetrating into Chinese communities pop music and cinema in the 1970s.

It is the music of this great bygone era that this album celebrates. A departure from Dama’s debut

“Spring Kisses Lover’s Tears” CD and the concerts with the same title, the album is an instrumental presentation of the hauntingly melancholic tunes that have touched us.

Sincerely,

Khor Seng Chew

Pun Kai Loon 

Gan Boon We