Hello friends! Since the border opened up, we’d hosted friends from around the world from Europe and Singapore. This month, SPIL is back with a line-up of dedicated KL-based local musicians and improvisers. Come join us on 25th March (Sat) with Chia Cheng Kok (percussion), John T.R. Long (alto sax), Kok Siew-Wai (voice), Ping Wei (saxophones), Richard Allan Bates (double bass) and Yong Yandsen (tenor sax). See you at the SPIL 074!
Date: 25th March 2023 (Sat)
Time: Door opens @ 8pm
Venue: @Percussion Store
Add: No. 6, 2nd floor, Jalan Panggong, 50000 Kuala Lumpur.
Admission by donation: RM30
For Reservation, WhatsApp: 012 919 8031
Facebook Event: https://fb.me/e/3m9Q6I8a9
* Only fully vaccinated individuals.
Design: Aixin Choo
More info:
[email protected]
www.klexfestival.com
www.facebook.com/groups/klexfest
Instagram: @klexfestival
#klexspil #percussionstore
Founded in May 2014, SERIOUS PLAY IMPROV LAB (SPIL) is a monthly music series of KLEX Festival. It is an art laboratory focusing on music experimentation and improvisation. SPIL provides a platform for musicians from various backgrounds to collaborate and present a new collective expression through improvisation. Over the years, many local and international artists have initiated experimentations and collaborated in the SPIL series, enriching the experimental and improvised music scene in the region.
ABOUT THE MUSICIANS:
Currently working as a percussionist/ timpanist in the National Symphony Orchestra based in Istana Budaya, Malaysia, Chia Cheng Kok is also music educator of various school and university orchestras. As an active percussionist, Chia has either performed or conducted in the Winter Guard International Competition, Japan International Orchestra Music Festival, Jiayi City International Music Festival (Taiwan) and also played with the Asian China Youth Symphony Orchestra in Cambodia (Angkor Wat), Malaysia Philharmonic Orchestra and many prominent local orchestras and bands. Chia was recently invited as soloist in a double percussion concerto year of dragon with Professional Cultural Chinese Orchestra.
John T.R. Long is a highly experienced performer, composer/arranger, and educator. As a performer he has played in many venues around the world including the Royal Albert Hall, Tokyo Dome and Carnegie Hall. As an educator he has led many youth bands and ensembles with great success: an impressive number of his individual students have gone on to study at the most prestigious colleges of music leading to successful musical careers of their own. John is British born but has been a resident of Malaysia for many years, currently residing in Kuala Lumpur. Some of John’s recent projects include arranging and performing on Zahid Ahmad’s Tuk Tak album and also performing in the horn section for Edd Rahze on his Soul Sisters concert series. John has just completed working with SIEL on their forthcoming album.
Kok Siew-Wai started out as a video artist, now active as a vocal improviser and artist-curator/organizer. She has shown her videos, curatorial video programmes and performed in Asia, Europe, Australia, Canada and USA, including allEars Improvised Music Festival (Norway), Asian Meeting Festival (Japan), CTM Festival (Germany), Hanoi New Music Festival (Vietnam), Kuala Lumpur Contemporary Music Festival, Nusasonic (Indonesia) amongst others. Siew-Wai is interested in improvisation and the exploration of expressions with the human voice.
Ping Wei is a Malaysian saxophonist who performs experimental music. He has learnt to play the saxophone at a young age and has since been involving in different projects, including Birdian Saxophone Quartet, Klpac Symphonic Band and Klpac Orchestra. In 2007, Ping Wei performed as a guest player for the University of Malaya Orchestra in a royal concert in honour of His Royal Highness Sultan Azlan Shah. Since 2017, he has become interested in experimental music and played in festivals such as KLEX Festival and Dao Xuan Chin International Arts Festival. In 2020, Ping Wei and Yong Yandsen released a saxophone duo album “PangGong”, with an attempt “to bring out the unexpected and unusual sounds of the saxophones by redefining the conventional understanding of musical rhythms and melodies”. He is currently running The Saxophone Store (TSS), a music venue for free jazz and experimental music in Kuala Lumpur.
Richard Allan Bates plays guitar, bass and electronics. Born and raised in Hong Kong, he’s also lived in the UK, Cambodia and the Philippines, and now resides in Malaysia. Richard has played in a number of musical projects and collaborations, bridging a range of genres from jazz to electronics to psych-rock. Rooted in free jazz and improv, he takes a mosaic approach to music with a focus on playing both structured and unstructured free improvisation.
Yong Yandsen is a free jazz and improvised saxophonist from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Yandsen has released albums through XingWu and Herbal Records in Malaysia, Utech Records (USA), Dream Sheep (Italy), and his solo debut on vinyl through Doubtful Sound (France). He has played at allEars Improvised Music Festival (Norway), Asian Meeting Festival (Japan), Mosaic Music Festival (Singapore), amongst others. Yandsen, together with Darren Moore and Brian O’Reily, form the improvised trio called Game of Patience. They have toured to Japan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. In 2018, he joined another trio, Hungry Ghosts, with European musicians Christian Meaas Svendsen and Paal Nilssen-Love and have done several tours in Asia and Europe. Yandsen has also done several solo tours to Japan and Taiwan. He is the co-founder of a Malaysian record label, LaoBan Records, focusing on releasing contemporary improvised music.
More info:
[email protected]
www.klexfestival.com
www.facebook.com/groups/klexfest
Instagram: @klexfestival