KUCHING: The second night of the Borneo World Music Expo (BWME) on June 17 was a demonstration of cultural and musical diversity as Korphai from Thailand, the Aye Su Kyaw Ensemble from Myanmar, and Tuku’ Kame from Malaysia performed a showcase under the theme of stringed instruments.
Aye Su Kyaw from Myanmar playing the harp.
Korphai from Thailand.
Jerry Kamit playing a six string ‘sape’.
Narawi from Tuku’ Kame.
Narkkong playing the ‘seung’.
Wilbert from Tuku’ Kame playing ‘sape’ bass.
‘Salo’ played by Ratchavit from ‘Korphai’.
Thanawat playing a ‘khene’.
Dancer from The Aye Su Kyaw dancing to the tunes of a harp.
Established in 1980 by AnnantNarkkong, the musical director of Korphai, the group played a selection of Thai folksongs from North, South, Northeast and Central Thailand.
Korphai, which means ‘bunch of bamboo’, played a diverse array of string instruments which included a plucked string instrument from northern Thailand called ‘seung’ and a bowed string instrument called ‘salo’.
Other types of traditional Thai musical instruments included the ‘khene’ a mouth organ from north-eastern region that produced violin-like sound.
According to Narkkong, this orchestration was unusual for Thai folk music culture since the musical instruments came from different cultural backgrounds and diverse musical concepts in Thailand.
In Myanmar, the harp is described in a riddle: ‘cuddled against the chest, but is not a child; has a crooked tail but is not monkey; has a beard but is not a man; is able to produce sweet sounds, but is not a maiden.’
The Myanmar group Aye Su Kyaw Ensemble featured the harp as its star musical instrument played by 25-year-old harpist Aye Su Kyaw.
Aye first learnt how to play the harp when she was 15. According to one of the ensemble members, Kyaw MyoKo, Aye is the only harpist in Myanmar who sings while playing the harp.
The last performer was Sarawak pride’s Tuku’ Kame. The award winning act performed several songs during the BWME showcase including Leleng and Lan Ee’.
The group was founded in 1998 at the Sarawak Cultural Village and is renowned for combining traditional music from various ethnic groups of Sarawak to produce new and contemporary music.
The string instrument that Tuku’ Kame featured was none other than the Orang Ulu’s sape.
The band also featured renowned sape’ player, Jerry Kamit and his brother Wilbert Kamit who played the modern sape’ bass.
While the traditional sape’ is a two-stringed sape’ with three frets, Jerry played the electric six-stringed sape’.
Tuku’ Kame concluded the night with a song composed by Jerry himself called ‘Terkayo-kayo’, which means wandering aimlessly.
“Our band actually composed our own songs. At the Sarawak Culture Village, we perform only traditional and cultural songs. In showcases like this, we perform our contemporary music,” said Narawi Rashidi the leader of the band.
Tuku’ Kame’ has travelled the world and has performed in Canada, US, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Brunei, Japan and Germany, Korea, Monaco and others.
This year was the second edition of BWME organised by the Sarawak Tourism Board.
The event saw an amazing outcome last year when one of the showcase performers, Lan E Tuyang, an ethnic Orang Ulu band was scouted and then invited on a month-long tour in Germany early this year.
BWME was designed to expose Asian and ethnic musicians to the international market and to help professionalise the music sector to meet the expectations and standards of the international market.
BWME consists of a trade fair, musical showcase, conferences, mentoring and networking sessions with 25 invited programmers from other countries like Germany, France, South Korea and India.