concrete

Field recordings

Sombat Simla: Master Of Bamboo Mouth Organ
Simla is known in Thailand as one of the greatest living players of the khene, the ancient bamboo mouth organ particularly associated with Laos but found throughout East and Southeast Asia. His virtuosic and endlessly inventive renditions of traditional and popular songs have earned him the title ‘the god of khene’, and he is known for his innovative techniques and ability to mimic other instruments and non-musical sound, including, as a writer for the Bangkok Post describes, ‘the sound of a train journey, complete with traffic crossings and the call of barbecue chicken vendors’.

Exploring Gong Culture Of Southeast Asia
This project, Massif and Archipelago, is a field recording project initiated by Japanese sound artist Yasuhiro Morinaga, documenting traditional gong music by different Southeast Asian ethnic groups. The project aimed to examine the impact of the natural and social environment on the gong music culture of Southeast Asia. During the project, he visited over 50 different ethnic groups and made hundreds of recordings. This album presents a selection of the unique gong music from different ethnic minorities. The selected music has been divided into two broad sections: one focussing on the music from the Massif, i.e. mainland Southeast Asia (Central Highland of Vietnam and Northeast Cambodia), the other on music from the Archipelago, maritime Southeast Asia (the Luzon Islands of the Philippines, Borneo, Sulawesi, and the Flores Islands of Indonesia).

Gong Culture of Southeast Asia「Co-Ho」
The Co-Ho people are an ethnic group living in the southern part of the central highlands of Vietnam. They speak a Mon-Khmer language. Co-Ho are animists who make a division between two types of supernatural spirits: the first type, with human characteristics, is called "Yang" - these are gods which are worshipped during ceremonies and important rituals to prevent from bac luck, which is represented by the second type of spirits, called "Cha" = devils. The music of Co-Ho people serves different rituals and thus there are different styles of gong music, played on both flat and knobbed gongs. Usually an ensemble consists of six gongs. On this recording, the number of gongs ranges from 2 to 6. On the occasions where music is performed in duo(such as first track), a small ritual is conducted as a means to show respect to the ancestors. This particular track is quite rare and consists of improvisation and call&response. If one of the gong players is unable to follow the other one, the player who fails to follow needs to drink rice wine from the vase. For this album, two locations for 2 groups in total were visited. One of the groups had forgotten how to play gong music: they had a new member and they had not practiced for a while, being busy with their daily lives (track 6&7). The other group played gong music well: this ensemble was constituted of members of the same family, who often meet and play together (track1-5).

Gong Culture of Southeast Asia「Bahnar」
The Bahnar are an ethnic group in Vietnam, living from the north to the south and northeast of the Vietnamese central highlands. Bahnar speak a language in the Mon-Khmer language group. These recordings were conducted in Dak Doa, Gia Lai Province. Bahnar people use both knobbed gongs and flat gongs; knobbed gongs mostly have a rhythmic function, the flat gongs are used for melodies. Usually a gong ensemble comprises 8 or 9 gongs in total (6 flat gongs and 2 or 3 knobbed gongs), but the number of gongs can go up to 20 (10 flat gongs, 10 knobbed gongs) or even 22 (11 flat and 11 knobbed). For this recording, the musicians brought different sorts of sharpened twig as drumsticks. the biggest knobbed gong was played by twig of jackfruits. For Bahnar people, gongs - equivalent in value to several water buffaloes - are acquired through exchanges with the people from Laos, Cambodia and nowadays with Kinh groups of Vietnam. Gong music is commonly played among the Bahnar on particular occasions such as harvesting, funeral, buffalo sacrifice, wedding ceremonies, etc.

Gong Culture of Southeast Asia「Ede-Female」
The Ede groups live mainly in Tay Nguyen, the central highlands of Vietnam. Ede women are the master of their families and the children usually take the family name of their mother. This recording consists of the music played by the only the female group of Ede (Ede-bih – subgroup of original Ede). They only play the gong on special occasions such as festivals, funerals, and welcoming guests. Besides these, their gongs are usually kept in the wooden box and preserved them in the church. In this recording, they played different gong music with 7 gongs. The names of gongs are termed by the order of family members and this female gong group only uses the knobbed gong (also called nipple gong) that the sound is far more resonated than the music from the Ede male gong group which is faster rhythmic patterns and wilder tonalities.

Gong Culture of Southeast Asia「Ede-Male」
The Ede groups live mainly in Tay Nguyen, the central highlands of Vietnam. Gongs are one of the most valuable instruments for Ede people. Each player strokes the back or front of the flat gong by a wooden stick aggressively, to create unique rhythmic patterns. However, for this recording, some of the tracks instead of using Gong as instruments, Bamboo are being used instead. Bamboo instruments such as Cing Kram are played by bamboo-made mallets/sticks. For Ede people, they usually practice with the Cing Kram first, and after they play the gong as the gong is more a sacred symbol and instrument. So, these bamboo instruments are used for twheir practices and they literally call it as “bamboo-gongs.”

Slamet Gundono [Surakarta, Indonesia]
Yasuhiro Morinaga presents Field Recording Series Slamet Gundono [Surakarta, Indonesia]

The second edition of “Field Recording Series” by Yasuhiro Moringa has released. This edition features Jawa’s charismatic performer, Slamet Gundono. Slamet Gundono is a charismatic performer, musician, puppet shadow master. With his particular ironic sense of humor through the appreciation of traditional Indonesian culture, the unique style of his music and narration have been appreciated by local Indonesians. By his considerable influences, He received a prestigious award, Prince Clause Award in 2005.

Sound designer & Music director, Yasuhiro Morinaga met with Slamet Gundono during the production of contemporary dance performance (choreography by Akiko Kitamura) in 2011. Throughout the number of discussions and communications, both Morinaga and Slamet agreed to work collaboratively in producing new recording album. With two microphones, Morinaga captured Slamet’s dynamic voice and instruments and other Indonesian local instruments such as gender or kendang etc. Because of his improvisational music style, the recording has never been replaced or re-recorded. And Morinaga decided not to edit anything during the process of post production process (certain bypass filtering and equalization during the mastering process) to enhance the real sonic environment around him and his musicians.

Endah Laras [Surakarta, Indonesia]
Yasuhiro Morinaga presents Field Recording Series Endah Laras [Surakarta, Indonesia]

A pioneer of Japanese Sound Design, Yasuhiro Morinaga’s field recording series has just launched the first edition! This first edition is featuring one of the most astonishing Indonesian singers, Endah Laras, who has been known for Javanese traiditional art like Wayang Kuri. The recording was conduced at the open-air studio, owned by Endah’s father who was regarded as one of the maestro of Javanese Wayang Kuri. The location has rich sonic environment and enriches natural resonance. Through her astonishing voice with different music instruments, such as ukulele and guitalele and other traditional Javanese instruments like gender and Javanese sitar, The music in itself beings us the feeling of Kroncong and Folk. Although we all know that Indonesia has strong tradition in gamelan music or ritual ceremonies, this recording work should be treated as a new music of modern Indonesian sound.