Marginal Art Festival: MAIL ART RESPONSES TO TRENCH ART

CONTRIBUTING MAIL ARTISTS:

Kamal Sabran (Malaysia)
Clemente Padin (Uruguay)
Spencer Selby (USA)
Diana Magallon (Mexico)
Randy Adams (Canada)
Lena Samol (USA)
Marina Salmaso (Denmark)
Emilio Morandi (Italy)
Jessy Kendall (USA)
Tiziana Baracchi (Italy)
Judy Skolnick (USA)
Giovanni Strada (Italy)
Sheila Murphy (USA)
Reed Altemus (USA)
Warren Fry (USA)
Sig Bang Schmidt (Germany)
Mircea Bochis (Romania)
Shiva Dangereux (USA)
Steve Dalachinksy (USA)
Jukka-Pekka Kervinen (Finland)
John M. Bennett (USA)
Tom Taylor (USA)
Don Boyd (USA)
Marton Koppany (Hungary)
Lothar Trott (Switzerland)
Bruno Capatti (Italy)
Id M Theft Able (USA)
Paul Tiilila (Finland)
Domenico Severino (Italy)
Keith Buchholtz (USA)
Jeff Crouch (USA)
Luc Fierens (Belgium)
Denis Charmot (France)
Reid Wood (USA)


Trench art is commonly defined as any decorative item made by
soldiers, prisoners of war or civilians, where the manufacture is
directly linked to armed conflict or its consequences.
Common articles that this includes are decorated shell and bullet
casings and items carved from wood and bone.
To the uninitiated, all trench art, by definition, was made by a
soldier sitting in a trench in France during the First World War, in
the midst of a bombardment. To the cynics, it was all made in the
1920s by enterprising French and Belgian citizens. The reality is,
naturally, a mix of these extremes, and everything in between, and
spans conflicts from the Napoleonic Wars to the present day. (from the
Wikipedia entry)

Mail Art Exhibit
Mail Art Responses to Trench Art
Opening 7 pm Friday 20th, 2009
Studio Annex, 16 Kirk Street USA
Free

Kamal Sabran-Zenmetalshirt : Sonic Experimentation

Roy Mantel a.k.a Zenmetalshirt (switzerland)

A solid sonic experimentation based on total improvisation of kamal & Roy made their sound track weird and complex to digest. Roy's industrial & electronica heaviness molded kamal's organic sound, becomes a breathtaking sonic experience. The musical drama comes chugging at you like a slow climbing freight train.Every notes causes anticipation for the next and the space let between allow time for contemplation and appreciation.Both of them manage to inject a refreshing, clean breathiness into the music.

Zenmetalshirt in his notes, "it is an exciting adventure to work with such an extraordinary artist; he led me into a musical field that was quite new for me...
so if you're into weirdness, electro and musical u-turns enjoy the result of our project :)
give me feedback! i love to hear what you think!"

kamal recites a poem from the malaysian poet rahmat haron titled "isim tiga musim".... in the end of the long song you'll hear the whole poem, distracted by some drum'n'brain noise :) that's of course the last of the "Hard Variations"


listen to the track by clicking main title.

*zenmetalshirt is experimental electronica, industrical, ambicore, drum n brain and metal.
zenmetalshirt is a one man - music - project formed in 1997. it has grown out of roy's need to develop his musical world beyond any trend-measurements.
his ambition is to produce authentic and powerful electronic music with a live-feeling. there is no preproduced stuff in his music. most drumloops are played live.
he uses acoustic drums, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocals and ableton live.
roy is a highschool-teacher who lets influence his artistic intentions into countless school-projects like theatres, movies, visual art and books (see www.gegengewalt.ch).
zenmetalshirt collaborates with artists from wisconsin, seattle, toronto, hawaii, germany, switzerland , the uk and malaysia. their genres are industrial, classical, new age, noise, indie rock, hardcore and electro punk.
it' music for free minds.

Link:
http://web19.sr101.firestorm.ch/zenmetalshirt/
http://www.myspace.com/zenmetalshirt

Support Palestine Art Show

Kamal Sabran's piece "there will be no miracles here" on show


with many other participated Malaysian artist



This is to inform you that the Balai Seni Lukis Negara, Malaysian Social
Research Institute and RA Fine Arts Gallery will officially launch our
Charity Exhibition on Palestine on 20th February 2009 (Friday) at 3pm by
Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir. The curator for this event will be Dato'
Syed Ahmad Jamal, the National Laureate.

As you may already heard from the media, the situation in Gaza Strip is
recovering albeit slowly and a lot of reconstruction and rehabilitation
works are required in order to reach the displaced population who are
living in an extreme condition. To date, there are nearly 500 artworks on
display by some 230 emerging and established Malaysian artists. This
exhibition aims at generating fund through the selling of the artworks in
which the fund will be used to buy much needed food and medicines for the
Palestinian in Gaza Strip.

Please join us in the merriment of this event!!!

VENUE: Balai Seni Lukis Negara
No 2, Jalan Temerloh, off Jalan Tun Razak,
53200, Kuala Lumpur

TIME: 3pm, 20th February 2009, FRIDAY

Kamal Sabran-Zulkifli Ramli: Sound Project

Zulkifli Ramli with his Oud

Recently, Kamal Sabran and Zulkifli Ramli working hand in hand on their experimental "Malay Song". Using Oud also known as Gambus by Malays, Zulkifli Ramli produced a very beautiful melody brings a mystic element to the track. Meanwhile, kamal with his norm as a noisician add various tracks from accordion, trumpet, xylophone, gendang, drums,plastic bag, toys, electronic noise, recorder and found object that creates multiple sound dimension and soothing atmosphere.

click main title for the music.

*Zulkifli Ramli (Malaysia)

He is a Gambus (Oud) player in a traditional /Malay folk ensemble, Dewangga Sakti. Prior to forming Dewangga Sakti, he was a guitarist /propagandist for a now defunct death metal band, Cryptic Malediction and has released a couple of death metal records (a demo, an EP and an album).
He learned the art of gambus under the tutelage of Raja Gambus Malaysia, Fadzil Ahmad.
Dewangga Sakti has released an EP called Mabok Kepayang in June 2008 and currently working on full album scheduled to be recorded in 2009. Apart from performing at formal and non-formal functions, the band also involved with Tourism Malaysia promotion abroad (China, Taiwan and Japan).
For this track, he is using a Turkish oud. The Oud track was recorded at a studio in KL (August 2007) and originally intended for a documentary (which he helped to produce the music).
Email (dewanggasakti@yahoo.com)
Blog (http://dewanggasakti.blogspot.com)
Myspace ( http://www.myspace.com/dewanggasakti)

Kamal Sabran - Cathy Fern Lewis :Sound Collab

Cathy and her instruments


Cathy (Canada) is another collaborator who work with Kamal Sabran recently. Her voice, accordions, bowl and whistling playing technique colors the sound in unique and interesting way. Their sound work creates feeling of spaces, melancholic and rich in tiny sound; organically well composed. Beautifully crafted based on free improvisation, the sound work portrays their mutual understanding in sound making process.

Cathy in her note,"I listened to Kamal wave file several times. I played with it a few times just whistling and making some percussive gestures. Then I left it for a couple of weeks. Upon returning, I listened again only a couple of times. I chose my instruments, accordian, voice, whistling, bird whistle, bowl. I recorded three tracks. Each one singing with Kama'ls track. The result was that I could play any of my individual tracks with Kamal's and I was very happy with the result. Then, I began to experiment and I realized that also any combination of them was very pleasing. What you hear here are all tracks combined".

Click main title for their sound work.

*Catherine Fern Lewis - Bio

An ambassador and active exponent of the professional new music and art scene in Canada since 1974, versatile and experimental soprano/voice artist Catherine Fern Lewis graduated from the University of Victoria, B.C. where she specialized in contemporary music. Lewis spent
a further three years in Europe, predominantly in Paris, studying French song with the noted Pierre Bernac, Madame Chereau and Winifred Radford.

Lewis is frequently heard in traditional repertoire as well as contemporary. She also has been in demand for her children’s presentations as well as her pop concerts. She has performed with such groups as the Steve Reich Ensemble, Toronto-based Arraymusic, Vancouver New Music and held invitations to such festivals and conferences as the International Voice Festival in Montreal, Tuning of the World Conference in Banff, Simon Fraser Choreographic Symposium in Vancouver, Festival of the Sound in Parry Sound, Sound Symposium in St. John’s Newfoundland and Voice ++ in Victoria, B.C.

She currently working and performing with experimental improvisational group LaSaM and in Second Life with the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse under the avatar name, Fernsing Llewellyn.
In a mixed reality setting, AOM recently premiered pieces by Pauline Oliveros, Jeremy Owen Turner and Tina Pearson at the 2008 Voice ++ Festival and at the Deep Listening Women and Identity Festival in New York City. AOM continue to have numerous performances all over the world, in a variety of Second Life and mixed reality settings.

Together with Nicholas Fairbank, Lewis has recently formed Duo Delirio, presenting concerts with a wide range of music from mediaeval to contemporary, singing and playing accordion, guitar, piano harpsichord and percussion, for adults and in their ‘children’s corner’, they present colourful playful concerts employing masks, costumes and other props filled with music and stories of the master composers. In September of 2008, they presented their work at the Family of Festivals.

Indie Film Screening

A series of short film has been screened last 31 Jan 2009 at Ipoh Perak in conjunction with "Independent Day Out Gig".

Film:

WHY RUN?
by Asfanizam & Razaisyam

KOPITIAM KURANG MANIS
by Azri Abu Hassan

SEPULUH TAHUN SEBELUM MERDEKA
by Fahmi Reza

SONIC COSMIC
by Kamal Sabran

MY INDIE ROCK DARLING
by Razaisyam Rashid

THE ARTIST'S STORY
by Fadly Sabran

Initiated by young and talented film maker Razaisham Rashid.
visit his blog at http://iamstradust.blogspot.com/

Photo by Kamal Sabran