Happy New Year 2020! SPIL is back! SPIL 059 welcome our long time friend, French guitarist Thierry Monnier back in town after like a decade! Come meet Thierry, who also runs the Doubtful Sounds record label! Also on the bill are three women voices Charlotte Leng, Loke Xiao Yun and Kok Siew Wai, and saxophonist Yong Yandsen. Come celebrate the first month of a new decade with us!
Date & Time:
Friday, 24 January, door opens at 8:30pm
Venue:
RAW Art Space, No. 8, 4th floor, Jalan Panggong, 50150 Kuala Lumpur.
Admission by suggested donation:
RM20 general, RM15 with student ID
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/592739854839219/
ABOUT THE MUSICIANS:
Thierry Monnier is a self-taught musician from Grenoble, France. He mostly plays guitar (although not in a convential way) but also cassettes as a solo project for a kind of electroacoustic music. His work with is focused on continuous sound (mostly feedback) through improvisation. His main project is a drone / ambient guitar duo called sun stabbed, existing since 15 years, but he also plays in the quintet of psychedelic free noise band called La Morte Young.
In Malaysia, he has played in the past with saxophone player Yong Yandsen and guitarist Aziz. Thierry Monnier runs doubtful sounds record label and has worked for 15 years in Metamkine mailorder.
Loke Xiaoyun sings and plays the piano, the flute, and the Sape. She is also a music educator with students from different age groups. Previously, Xiaoyun involved in different academic research projects in various branches in music such as music education, music sociology, and ethnomusicology. She presented academic papers in different countries including Canada, China, Laos, and Malaysia. Trained as a classical musician, Xiaoyun first dipped her toes in atonal vocal improvisation when she was a member of Merle Noir, an extraordinary voice group, led by Michael Edgerton. She also draws inspiration from nuances in different ethnic singing styles. Currently, she is attending teacher’s training in Dalcroze Eurhythmics, a Swiss music teaching method that emphasizes movements and improvisation.
Charlotte Leng grew up in England, where she trained as a classical pianist and violist. She studied music at Goldsmiths College, London, where she explored a diverse range of interests from Western Classical music, composition and ethnomusicology. Charlotte went on to become a music teacher. Her passion lies in working with young children, in collaborating with ensembles and in making links between her school and the local community through various projects and festivals. When not in the classroom, Charlotte loves to travel and experience the arts at any opportunity and to constantly deepen her skills as a musician and educator. In recent years, this has led her on to the path of Dalcroze studies, where musicianship is explored and developed by experiencing music through the body. At the heart of this is the process of improvisation and experimentation, through voice, instruments and movement. Charlotte is fascinated by the capacity the human voice has in communicating and exploring new sound possibilities.
From Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Kok Siew-Wai is started out as a video artist, now active as an improvised vocalist and artist-curator. She has shown her works, video curatorial programmes and performed in Asia, Europe, Canada and USA. Siew-Wai has performed in music festivals such as CTM Festival (Germany), allEars Improvised Music Festival (Norway), Asian Meeting Festival (Japan), Choppa Experimental and Improvised Music Festival, Playfreely Festival (Singapore), RRRec Fest, Nusasonic Festival (Indonesia), amongst others. In music, Siew-Wai is interested in improvisation and the exploration of expressions with the human voice.
Yong Yandsen is an improvised saxophonist. He has played at the Asian Meeting Festival (Japan), Mosaic Festival Singapore, Choppa Eclectic Improvised Music Festival (Singapore), allEars Festival (Norway), Music Matters Festival (Sri Lanka) 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 with Christian Meaas Svendsen and Paal Nilssen-Love. 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.
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Founded in May 2014, SERIOUS PLAY IMPROV LAB (SPIL) is a monthly music series focuses on improvisation. It’s a project of KLEX – Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film, Video & Music Festival. It is a performance laboratory series 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.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/klexfest/
www.klexfestival.com
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