| MoShang | |
| Origin: | Bellville, Western Cape, South Africa |
| Instrument: | saxophone, wind controller |
| Genre: | Downtempo, chill-out music |
| Occupation: | Musician / music producer |
| Years Active: | 2004–present |
| Label: | Onse Plate, Lemongrassmusic |
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.
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 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[1] 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.[2] He garnered South Africa's prestigious Avanti Craft award for his score to the short film "Angels in a Cage."[3]
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.[4] In 2009 he teamed up (as Jean Marais) with Andre van Rensburg and Louis Minnaar and released the project/album 'Eentonig'.
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".