KUCHING: Besides the highly anticipated night concert or the music workshops during Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF), music lovers can make music themselves during the drum circle usually held at 5 pm every day throughout the festival.
“The concept of it is for people to come in to join and perform with us,” said 1Drum.org leader Shameer Kumar who leads the drum circle in rhythms and rhythm-based activities.
Shameer Kumar
“Basically the audience are the performers themselves. It gives the chance for known musicians and the crowds to take part and be part of an ensemble,” he said, adding that it paved the way for people to be exposed to making music together.
“My job as the Drum Circle Festive leader is to get everyone together to make rhythms and have fun.”
For Eddy Utama of Indonesian band Dol Arastra Bengkulu, although the music played by his band has musical influences from ‘percusi dol’, part of an ancient ritualistic ceremony from the Muslim society at Bengkulu, the music can be played all year round.
“It’s not just played by the older generation, but the younger generation too,” he said, explaining that the ‘dol’ drum traces its roots back to India.
At the other end of the spectrum, Vocal Sampling from Cuba do not use any instruments at all and rely solely on the power of their voices.
“In Cuba, we have a lot of different types of music which most are made for dancing. What we are trying to do is to mix different types of music together,” said Rene Banos Pascual, whose a capella band consisting of six male members, mimicked different types of sounds and tunes under the whole gamut of Cuban music.
Also at the press conference was Narawi Rashidi, composer at Sarawak Cultural Village who captivated the audience with a big musical ensemble, the Sape Sarawak during last night’s concert.
Narawi Rashidi
He said it was the first time they had a performance with 17 sape players, all of different ethnicities.
Alena Murang was also one of the 17 sape players.
“I learn Kenyah and Kelabit songs from the elders and reinterpret them, trying to make them relevant to contemporary ears but trying not to lose the traditional music,” explained Alena during the press conference held this morning (Aug 6). She will be performing at the night concert tonight with her mentor Matthew Ngau Jau.
Alena Murang
Also present during the press conference were Kaspars Barbals of Auli from Syria, Taofik Mirkhan of Broukar from Syria, Dimitar Gougor of the three-member band Violons Barbares from Bulgaria, France and Mongolia and Melinda Soo of Pustaka Bookaroo.
The second day of the RWMF night concert will see musical acts like Stelios Petrakis Cretan Quartet (Greece), Naygayiw Gigi Dance Troupe (Australia), Band Girls of Sabah Cultural Band (Sabah), Vocal Sampling (Cuba), Shanren (China) and Pat Thomas & Kwashibu Area Band (Ghana).