Muffled

RATA: new grounds, new sounds 

An idea that has been brewing in my head since 2019 when Akileshwar Vm & Esplanade posed a challenge to me for a special showcase at the now ready Singtel Waterfront Theatre. 

The world is a different place right now and we are definitely different beings since then. Most of us are still trying hard to navigate this familiar yet strange mental states in our daily lives.

It is with this uncertainty I seek the assistance of Cheryl Ong, Azrin Abdullah, Rizman Putra, Chew Wei Shan & Andy Chia to plunge into a sonic abyss with me to find some versions of our new selves, which eventually birthed RATA Orkestra. With Cui Yin being our eyes and ears from the outside, the explorations have led us to something and the journey in itself is very hard to put into words. 

Can’t wait to share this new world we have been building with more help from Brandon Tay, Akbar Syadiq, Adrian Tan, Rong Zhao.

29 - 31 Dec 2022
7:30P
Singtel Waterfront Theatre
Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay

Tickets Here

Boasting an eclectic line-up of established musicians from diverse fields, RATA Orkestra makes its debut with RATA: new grounds, new sounds (RATA), a visceral audiovisual experience in the new Singtel Waterfront Theatre at Esplanade.

Named for the Malay word rata, meaning “flat” or “even’, RATA Orkestra is a project by Safuan Johari featuring Azrin Abdullah (oud), Andy Chia (dizi, didgeridoo, electronics), Cheryl Ong (percussion), Safuan Johari (electronics), Rizman Putra (vocals) and weish (vocals). This new ensemble aims to create new aural topographies by gathering diverse local and international musicians to experiment with collaborative compositions, break old boundaries and new grounds across the traditional, the experimental, and the popular, and create a transcultural ambient soundscape of harmonious interplays and poignant discordances.

A production two years in the making, RATA also features guest artist Nova Ruth (vocals) and multimedia designer Brandon Tay. Audience members will also move around the performance space, to experience and encounter the visuals and sounds from various corners.

RATA invites you to mark the end of the year and this season of change with an opportunity to discover something new and ground-breaking.

A programme of In New Light – A Season of Commissions, in celebration of Esplanade’s 20th anniversary.

Concert for the Haunted | Alunan Siapa (Whose Melody)

7 October 2022
Singapore Courtyard
National Gallery Singapore

NADA presents a haunting of Nusantara melodies, drawing on the tradition of lagu-lagu rakyat (national songs) and their distortion and repurposing for political and nationalistic means throughout history.

About Concert for the Haunted
As the sonic programme accompanying October Gathering, Concert for the Haunted invited sound artists, musicians and movement artists to respond to the thematic threads and inquiries arising across its sister programmes. How do binaries of self/other, nature/culture, body/mind continue to haunt us even in the present? Through encouraging deep listening, sound becomes a seeding moment for healing, cross-pollination and the unearthing of neglected but deep connections between the human and non-human. Concert for the Haunted proposed a re-alliance with intuitive and embodied ways of knowing and encouraged expanded imaginings of togetherness through modes of listening.

About October Gathering
October Gathering was a series of programmes in 2022 that explored critical issues in the field of Southeast Asian art. The series featured performance lectures, tours, readings of texts, closed-door workshops, panel discussions, film screenings, a mini-exhibition and a temporary library. Each programme aimed to take a closer look at prevailing art historical and museological issues while creating space for dialogue, exchange and free play. 

NEW RELEASE: PETIK-PETIK

Links to other streaming platforms: https://push.fm/fl/v0fa1jo3 

SIFA 2022 +DISCUSS | Holding On and Letting Go 

Bangsawan Gemala Malam can be described as crossing the worlds of Bangsawan and Shakespeare; the ‘traditional’ and the ‘contemporary’; and between the individual and the company/state/country. In Holding On and Letting Go, the featured artists share their personal and research journeys for the work, and reflect on what they each hold dear in this production that is the culminated effort of many. 

Featuring:
Aidli Mosbit | Director   
Mohd Fared Jainal | Dramaturg, Production Designer, Artistic Director  
Safuan Johari | Composer and Sound Designer 
Moderated by Chong Gua Khee 

Don’t miss their works in these SIFA 2022 programmes: 

BANGSAWAN GEMALA MALAM 
By Teater Ekamatra (Singapore) 
 2 – 4 Jun, Thu – Sat 8pm 
Victoria Theatre 
In a merry night of theatre, Singapore ethnic minority theatre company Teater Ekamatra remakes Shakespeare’s classic A Midsummer Night’s Dream, inspired by the splendour of Bangsawan opera and Nusantara. 

For more please visit sifa.sg

COMMON TONALITIES

Common Tonalities is a project that explores Southeast Asian tuning systems and scales through modern music technologies for the creation of new music.

Widely available music production tools are largely based on the Western system of twelve tone Equal Temperament and the tuning reference of A = 440 Hz. Recent software development by collaborations of artists such as Khyam Allami with software developers like Counterpoint (Leimma, Apotome) and Aphex Twin and Oddsound (MTS-ESP) have been pushing to allow creative access to systems outside twelve-tone equal temperament.

Nusasonic advocates for an expansion of sonic palettes with a focus on music from Southeast Asia. We invite participants to a series of workshops, led by Khyam Allami, that focus on the subject of tuning and the cultural biases in music technologies, the practical analysis of tuning systems of Southeast Asian music based on published resources and archival recordings, and how to use them in various creative musical processes. Participants are expected to attend all workshops and create new pieces of music with tonalities, scales, and rhythms endemic to Southeast Asia. Common Tonalities will culminate in a freely accessible compilation album grouping the resulting new tracks.

Following an open call, 20 musicians/researchers were selected to participate in the project: Alicia de Silva (Singapore), Ayankoko (Laos), CJ Camelia Jonathan (Indonesia), Corin Ileto (Philippines/Australia), Drago Katzov (Philippines), Elisha Tiga (Brunei Darussalam), Ha Thuy Hang (Vietnam), Kasimyn (Indonesia), Kengchakaj (Thailand/USA), Lieu Niyomkarn (Thailand/Belgium), Lynn Nandar Htoo (Myanmar),  Pinky Htut (Myanmar), Rani Jambak (Indonesia), rEmPiT g0dDe$$ (Malaysia), Safuan Johari (Singapore), Septian Dwi Cahyo (Indonesia), Tam Thi Pham (Vietnam/Germany), wanhazan (Malaysia/USA), Yaboi Hanoi (Thailand/China), Zach Sch (Vietnam).

A live recording from an ambient/soundscape improv set which took place at the Fashion & Textiles Gallery of the Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore, on 8 October 2021 as part of the Happy Hour at ACM: WONDERLUST program.

DANCE OF THE GOLDEN THREADS

HAPPY HOUR: Wonderlust
Fashion & Textiles Gallery
Asian Civilisations Museum
8-15 October 2021

Dance of the Golden Threads pays an ode to the artefacts with golden brocades and embroideries from the Nusantara region found in the Fashion & Textiles Gallery. The intricate motifs of these shuttle-woven fabrics shaped by the intertwining yarns make one wonder how these patterns are formed.

This screen-based presentation continuously generates patterns that sway and swivel to the tones and melodies of a music composition which is created with the slendro scale, an essential tuning system used in gamelan music of the Nusantara region.

As a generative audio-visual piece, Dance of the Golden Threads is not a recorded content playback. The piece is continuous and constantly generates new alternations of sights and sounds. The meandering sonic modulations and visual ornamentations seem familiar from cycle to cycle, they are however, never the same.

LANGIT TINGGI RENDAH

Been experimenting with TouchDesigner to see how I can create audio-reactive visuals. This is a self-imposed homework following a tutorial by Bileam Tschepe with NADA’s latest single. 

Stream/Purchase Track: 
Spotify: https://bit.ly/spotifylanggit
Apple Music: https://apple.co/3jxdUKi
Deezer: https://bit.ly/DeezerLangit
Bandcamp: https://bit.ly/BandcampLangit