KLEX 2017 Pre-festival Party!
We’re having a pre-festival party prior to the annual festival in November! KLEX 2017 Pre-festival Party is happening on Saturday, 21 October, 8pm @ RAW Art Space. We’re very happy to host three honourable guests from Taiwan: musicians Lin Hsiao-Feng (bamboo flutes), Shih-Yang Lee (harmonica/sound objects) and visual artist Wasabi Chuang (video), as part of their debut Malaysian tour entitled “Pearls of the Southern Island, Gazing At The Moment”. They will be collaborating with local dancers Ren Xin and Tan Bee Hung, and music improvisers Sudarshan Chandra Kumar (electronics), Kok Siew-Wai (vocals), Yii Kah Hoe (suling) and Yong Yandsen (tenor saxophone). Come meet the Taiwanese guests in person!
There’ll also be a short experimental video screening, featuring works from Fadly Sabran (Malaysia), Max Hattler (Germany), Ivelina Inavova (Bulgaria/UK) and Charles-Andre Coderre (Canada). Mark your calendar and come join the fun!
And, don’t forget to mark your calendar of KLEX 2017 Festival: it’s on 24-26 November at Checkmate Creative and RAW Art Space! Stay tuned!
Date: Saturday, 21 October 2017, 8pm
Venue: RAW Art Space, No. 8, 4th floor, Jalan Panggong, 50000 Kuala Lumpur
Admission by suggested donation RM20
More info: https://web.facebook.com/events/119957732031054/
SHORT EXPERIMENTAL VIDEO SCREENING:
For the Sake of Time (2016)
Fadly Sabran, Malaysia, 4:30 min/sound
“Time” is a major subject in the world of science, philosophy and art. Time has a positive economic value “time is money” or the negative culture “waste of time”. Now, times have changed with the use of technology, such as television or the Internet in creating new opportunities to use the time in different ways. In this video, I try to explore the basic concept of time as in the space of everyday human life. With black and white images, I’m imagining around on how time is appreciated, evaluated and respected.
Divisional Articulations (2017)
Max Hattler, Hong Kong, Germany, UK, 4:33 min/sound
Repetition and distortion drive this audiovisual collaboration between composer Lux Prima and visual artist Max Hattler, where fuzzy analogue music and geometric digital animation collide in an electronic feedback loop, and spawn arrays of divisional articulations in time and space.
Granular Film – Beirut (2016)
Charles-Andre Coderre, Canada, 6:51 min/sound
Reminiscence of a trip in Beirut. The sea. the palm trees, the buildings melt when my eyelids began to close. My memories now have a separate life of their own.
Microdistrict (2017)
Ivelina Ivanova, UK, Bulgaria, 4:00 min/sound
Snaps of everyday human interactions assembled in a rhythmic montage that explores the relationship between men, architecture and nature in the context of Bulgarian post-socialist residential neighbourhoods.
ABOUT THE PERFORMERS:
LIN Hsiao-Feng (Taiwan, bamboo flute virtuoso) was born in Taipei,Taiwan. He is Active Chinese flute virtuoso / soloist/improviser, he plays Chinese Traditional Music , world music,free improvisation, and experimental avant-garde in the contemporary music world. In recent years, he is committed and a variety of artistic collaboration include poetry, calligraphy, painting, dance,Action art, chinese martial artsrock, electronic music, experimental music, free improvisation and so on. In addition to performing,He often come and go in all kinds of arts and cultural activities.
LEE Shih-Yang (Taiwan, pianist/harmonica/sound objects) LEE Shih-Yang has been dedicated his time to improvised music. He has collaborated with artists from different fields, including painting, theatre, multi-media, and dancing. He is the founder and co-leader of the improvisation ensemble, Ka Dao Yin. LEE has won the Golden Indie Music Award and Golden Melody Award of Traditional Arts and Music several times. LEE’s live recording with Fred van Hove “Galactic Alignment” has won the New York City Jazz Record “Honorary Mention of the new releases of 2013. LEE has played with the main bulk of Classical and Avantgarde musicians in Taiwan. He has performed with drummer legend Sabu Toyozumi from Japan, pioneer of European free jazz pianist Fred van Hove from Belgium and many others including Sainkho Namtchylak, Jaap Blonk, Hans Koch, Thomas Lehn, Audrey Chen and etc. LEE is also the founder and music director of Taiwan International Improvised Music Festival.
Wasabi CHUANG (Taiwan, photo/video) is a visual artist, illustrator and photographer from Taiwan. In 2009 she had her first exhibition in Taiwan. In 2011 she was supported by Taiwanese government to attended an international art project in London. In 2013 she studied visual communication at Florence University of Art. In 2016 published her art works and a interview on “special issue of ARTiculAction Art Review” magazine and on “die angst” photography magazine.
LEE Ren Xin (dance): Danced with T.H.E. Dance Company in Singapore, LeeSaar The Company in NYC, and DPAC Dance Company in Malaysia. Her own works have been presented in MyDance Festival, National University of Singapore Arts Festival, The Esplanade da:ns festival, and International Young Choreographers Project in Taiwan. She has performed with Ng Chor Guan in MUSIC=DANCE improvisation, and presented her Two Minute Solo curated by Marion De Cruz of Five Arts Center. Most recently, Ren Xin presented her movement theatre piece B.E.D. at DPAC, and then collaborated with Japanese dancer Miwa Okuno on a new choreography at T.H.E. Contact festival in Singapore and d’MOTION festival. Currently, she is working on a site-specific creation in Rimbun Dahan.
TAN Bee Hung: Graduated with a LLB degree. Was predominantly trained in contemporary dance and ballet. Joined Kwang Tung Dance Company since 2005. Has collaborated with many renowned artists and is actively involved in performances locally and internationally including Germany, China, Japan, Korea and Singapore. Her passion for dance choreography has led her to be selected by MyDance Alliance as one of seven young emerging choreographers under the Dance Escalator Project and was selected to participate and present her work in the International Young Choreographers Project 2013 in Taiwan. Her work “Silent Raid”took away Best Costume, Styling & Make Up Award in the 2015 BOH Cameronian Arts Awards. Currently a full time dance and Pilates instructor, dancer, choreographer.
YII Kah Hoe is the winner at the Malaysia Philharmonic Orchestra Forum for Malaysian Composers II (2007), winner of 11th BOH Cameronian Arts Awards (best music and design), and a recipient of the Third Prize at the International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Composition organized by the Singapore Chinese Orchestra (2006). He was also a finalist in the International Competition for Composers ‘Città di Udine’ (Italy, 2010). His works have been performed in the U.S., London, Trinidad, Germany, Mexico, Paris, Italy, Melbourne, Bangkok, Hanoi, Manila, Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Cairo, Singapore and Malaysia. Yii was the festival director of the various contemporary music festivals in Malaysia, president of Society of Contemporary Composers, and is a senior lecturer at SEGi College Subang Jaya.
Sudarshan Chandra KUMAR has performed for the CHOPPA Music Fest (Singapore), Playfreely (Singapore), Switch On (Malaysia) and KLEX Festival (Malaysia). He participates in Serious Play Improv Lab (SPIL) regularly, a monthly experimental music series in Kuala Lumpur. Sudarshan has contributed vocals and live electronics to the following bands: HKPT, Takdir, Sorry and Think!Tadpole!Think!. Working with music for theatre, he is the music facilitator for Main Wayang (2015-2016), a children’s theatre workshop which emphasizes on the basics for orchestrating D.I.Y multimedia performances and has directed and scored music for his musical “The Propitiation of Fundamentals” (2015).
YONG Yandsen is an improvised saxophonist. He has played at the Kuala Lumpur Contemporary Music Festival, Asian Meeting Festival (Japan), Mosaic Festival Singapore, Choppa Eclectic Improvised Music Festival (Singapore), Turn Around Free Jazz & Improvisation Festival (Singapore), Music Matters Festival (Sri Lanka) amongst others. Yandsen, together with Darren Moore and Brian O’Reily, form an improvised trio called Game of Patience. They have toured to Japan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand. They released debut CD album “Trial and Error” and a vinyl album “The Bad Sleeps Well”.
KOK Siew-Wai is a vocal improviser, artist-organiser and video artist. She has performed in festivals such as Kuala Lumpur Contemporary Music Festival, SoundBridge Contemporary Music Festival, Asian Meeting Festival (Japan), Choppa Experimental Music Festival (Singapore), Playfreely Festival (Singapore), RRRec Fest (Indonesia), E-Poetry Festival (USA) and more. Her video text + vocal improvisation performance piece “Language of Self” is collected by He Xiangning Art Museum in Shenzhen, China.