Space Gambus Experiment "B Sides"

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Space Gambus Experiment: suatu experiment dan experience by SINAGA NAGA




Eksperimen adalah ujian atau penyelidikan mengikut kaedah sains untuk mencari penemuan baru, untuk menguji sesuatu hipotesis (sesuatu pendapat yang dipercayai benar tetapi belum dibuktikan lagi) atau untuk membuktikan bahawa sesuatu andaian itu benar.

“Butttt,” kata guru Kimia gua, Mr. Cheah Sau Phang, “curiosity killed the cat, hah boys!”

Hal itu betul apabila pada suatu hari gua dengan gatalnya telah menyalurtakungkan gas dari penunu bunsen ke dalam singki dan meledakkannya dengan pemetik api (dan letupan itu nyaris membunuh kami semeja).

Sejak kejadian ‘Ka-boooom!’ di makmal itu, ketahuilah oleh gua bahawa ciri-ciri seorang anarkis itu memang telah sedia wujud dalam diri sejak gua bersekolah sains lagi.

KOMA

Eksperimen juga adalam percubaan terhadap sesuatu yang baharu dan yang berbeza.

Album muzik New Age pertama yang gua miliki adalah album Andreas Vollenweider: Dancing With The Lion yang gua gunakan sebagai alat penguji bunyi ketika gua memilih-milih hi-fi yang paling tip-top untuk dibeli.

Langkah pertama ini berpanjangan apabila gua juga akhirnya mengumpul beberapa buah lagi album muzik New Age/Ambient/Electronic Music/Psychedelic/Kraotrock/Progressive Rock/World Music dari pemuzik-pemuzik seperti Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, Mike Oldfield, Kitaro, Peter Gabriel, dan Karunesh (gua sengaja tak bubuh nama Pink Floyd sebab lu orang dah biasa dengar nama tu walaupun lu orang tak pernah dengar muzik Pink Floyd pun) (dan entah mengapa, gua tidak pula menggemari Jean Michel Jarre dan Yanni).

Spacemusic adalah cabang muzik New Age dan muzik Ambient yang menggambarkan muzik yang terbangkit dari perasaan yang terpantul hasil daripada bunyi-bunyi yang dicerap dari angkasa lepas.

Space Gambus Experiment (SGE) adalah album muzik New Age Fusion yang pertama di Malaysia. Album muzik yang bercabangkan Spacemusic ini mengandungi lagu-lagu seperti Pengembara Cahaya, Lily Wave Mekanik, Sonik 46 Kosmik, Fizikali Real, Gerhana, Panglima 9, Dari Dalam Kalbu, Semesta Kuanta, 7 Ruang Ksong, dan Pulang Kekanda Bulan.

Ketika menyelusuri kosmos, telinga Kamal Sabran tertancap pada bunyi-bunyi yang tidak pernah didengarnya sebelum ini, lalu curiosity-nya pun terbangkit.

Sampler-sampler tersebut kemudiannya disusun lalu menghasilkan entahkan motif entahkan frasa. Seterusnya diadun dengan muzik akustik elektro dan terhasillah gubahan melodi yang dia suka.

Merasakan seperti ada yang terkurang, Kamal Sabran menyulam melodi separa lengkap ini dengan deting-deting temali gambus dan oud Zulkifli Ramli (Dewangga Sakti). Tidak cukup dengan itu Kamal Sabran telah mengadun beberapa lagi sampler dari teman-teman pemuzik online-nya demi melampias libido artisnya yang tidak pernah puas-puas. [Libido? Jahaneeemmmm lu, Kamal!!!!] Lalu, unsur pun menjadi sebatian!

Gua melihat SGE sebagai sebuah karya seni installasi yang diluar dari kebiasaan. Kamal melihat angkasa lepas sebagai kosmosnya; dengan bijak dia memetik dan menyunting dan mengolah bunyi-bunyi hasil cerapannya sebagai medium - lalu terhasillah album ini sebagai kanvas pernyataan seninya.

Seperti mana-mana ujikaji pun - ada yang berjaya dan ada yang gagal. Kendati pun, langkah pertama perlu diambil. Dan, langkah pertama Kamal Sabran ini adalah betul dan tepat. SGE adalah experiment and experience (xnx) Kamal Sabran dan Zulkifli Ramli dalam menghasilkan album New Age Fusion pertama di Malaysia. Perjalanan menghasilkan SGE itu bagaikan gula-gula buat mereka. Kadang manis, kadang masam, kadang pedas dan berangin sifatnya. Album ini mungkin biasa-biasa sahaja bagi sesetengah orang – tetapi, pengalaman yang dialami dalam perjalanan menghasilkannyalah yang begitu manis bergula.

Gua paling menyukai lagu Pulang Kekanda Pulang. Bagi gua, pemilihan tajuknya sahaja sudah terasa seperti memanggil-manggil.

Album Space Gambus Experiment ini harus dimiliki oleh semua orang, tak kiralah siapa-siapa.

Untuk membeli album Space Gambus Experiment ini – hubungi: kamalsabran@gmail.com

"Dr Faridah! You patut beli!"

visit SINAGA NAGA

Space Gambus Experiment Album review by MOLOKO



9.00 AM..22012010 is the date, I slowly slide the SPACE GAMBUS EXPERIMENT CD,- into my Tivoli Audio......suddenly.....it resonates...beep....beep....

Aku pejamkan mata, & cuba hayati keindahan muzik berinspirasikan angkasa raya, sistem galaktik, Bima Sakti ini. Sekerdip bintang-bintang, di langit, begitulah degup jantung aku bergetar, tatkala petikan gambus mula bergema, seiring dengan bunyian sonic, electronica, acoustic, yang diprojeksi oleh Kamal sekreatifnya. Aku berkata dalam hati,- 'This Is Going To Be, A Hell Of A Ride!'

DUO- Kamal & Zulkifli ternyata satu mixture padu! Ia PADU, kerana paduan alat muzik klasik (gambus@oud) & moden(drum machine@programing & etc) a.k.a 'Electro-Acoustic', ini telah berjaya membawa dereksi SPACE GAMBUS EXPERIMENT- THE ALBUM setaraf dengan produk instrumental 'ambient' bertaraf antarabangsa. & yang paling penting, ia ternyata bergema, melankolik seakan datang dari sistem galaksi angkasa raya!

Album ini boleh membuatkan Wayne Coyne dari The Flaming Lips berkata 'What The F**k!' dengan dirinya sendiri, kerana ia bakal terkejut besar, kerana recording album ini hanya dieksperimentasi, seterusnya dirakam secara peribadi oleh 'Team' kreatif ini, di studio@pondok Kamal Sabran,- yang ternyata 'Very Basic@Down To Earth! & ianya 100% MADE IN IPOH, MALAYSIA, yang secara muzikalnya boleh menandingi album galaktik 'Christmas On Mars' oleh The Flaming Lips atau album electro 'ambient' instrumental 'GHOST I-IV' oleh NIN!

OBSESI- KAMAL SABRAN terhadap ANGKASA RAYA- ternyata mencetuskan satu 'SoundWaves' yang bukan sahaja 'insipiring', tetapi SGE tulusnya, aku-Moloko, akui, mampu mencuit emosi. Di sebalik angkasa raya yang seakan sepi ini, ternyata tersembunyi INDAH! Yang Kamal cuba ekspressikan se Elegant mungkin melalui SPACE GAMBUS EXPERIMENT. Komen tulus aku lagi,- MOLOKO;-

KAMAL SABRAN & ZULKIFLI RAMLI BEAMS THE SPACE SOUNDSCAPE IN MASS ELEGENT OF SHEER BEAUTY & EXTRAVAGANT!

This is important work that should be owned by most of music collector & enthusiast. It's a rareties@essentials album, that worth every penny, that men can spent.

27.08- SGE lenght....

& within that tiny hour, I'm sure you'll certainly will be moved by the sound of ANGKASA RAYA created by this very, very talented Duo, that is...

KAMAL SABRAN & ZULKIFLI RAMLI.

After SGE reached it's finale, I must admit, it made me longing...wanting for more....

***** A GIANT LEAP THROUGH OUTERSPACE! BOLD! MINIMAL! & 100% MADE IN MALAYSIA!

SOUNDING QUALITY- suprisingly the sounds resonates, as if the SGE ALBUM had been recorded in a HIGH-END STUDIO, whereby the fact is, IT'S NOT! SGE- deserves a CULT FAME, same as THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT- The Movie!

AWESOME COVER!

HIGHLY ADDICTIVE & RECOMENDED!

visit MOLOKO

SPACE GAMBUS EXPERIMENT: The Discovery by MOLOKO



The time just past midnite, I was in this modern contemporary hotel- HOLIDAY INN SURFERS PARADISE- Gold Coast, Brisbane, Australia. It's already Tuesday, & the date shown on my iPod is 12012010. I've just checked-in the hotel an hour ago. Just had my warm bath, & now is my late nite routine, sipping a warm Earl Grey while reading the news paper, THE STAR, with an iPod plugged to both of my ears! After a few flips, I'd laid my eyes on this articles, written by Rizal Johan;-

THE SOUNDS OF JUPITER

Sedetik kemudian.. Ingatan aku kembali teringatkan KAMAL SABRAN! Rakan sebatch Saat Omar, yang sama-sama pernah menuntut di 'Universiti Tolong Melayu'- UiTM! Ironiknya, aku hanya 6 bulan junior, jika dibandingkan dengan kedua bro aku ni. Ironiknya lagi, aku akui, aku terlepas pandang insan Kreatif Yang bernama Kamal Sabran ini, sewaktu menimba ilmu di Fakulti Art & Design, Shah Alam. Benar, aku hanya bertembung dengannya hanya di blog Saat Omar & miliknya, beberapa kali, hinggalah, larut malam itu, yang jaraknya beribu batu, dari tanahair, selepas aku terbaca tulisan Rizal Johan:- mengupas,- siapa Kamal Sabran & projek SPACE GAMBUS EXPERIMENT! Aku secara personal, akui,- AKU TERUJA!

Kalau satu ketika dulu, DISCOVERY aku terhadap Electronica Maestro ulung tanahair iaitu FATHUL & INFFECTIOUS MAGGOT, membuatkan aku cakap 'FUHHH....this is serious sh*t!' Feeling & ungkapan yang sama kini terdetik lagi sekali, selepas mendengar, serta melihat klips, & tracks karya Kamal Sabran di YouTube.

Kamal bukan Trent Reznor dari Nine Inch Nails. Kamal juga bukan Gary Numan, apatah lagi Jeff Buckley, - Kamal & Zulkifli Ramli bukan dari band Suicide! Tapi pada aku, VISION & KREATIVITI DUO,kadangkala TRIO ini, harus diberi perhatian serius, sebab komen ikhlas aku lagi, this is REAL! & IT'S PUSHING TO THE LEVEL THAT NONE OF MALAYSIAN ARTIST(musician@singer) WOULD DARE TO EXPLORE! Believe me, by just listening to few of the songs, it's just a MIND BLOWING EXPERIENCE! The Gambus, the Electroacoustic, the near silenced of the space soundscape, is so mysterious, yet, it lies a boundless, an immensed BEAUTY, waiting to be explore,- & I boldly believe, in my POV, this is what KAMAL SABRAN & Comrades are trying to craft & present. Indahnya bibit bunyi angkasa ini, semerdu suara Ustaz Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Melankoliknya sesyahdu 'hymm' Jeff Buckley! Komposisi Muzikalnya secomplicated@unik arangement NINE INCH NAILS! Itu hanya pendapat aku, -Moloko!

Towards my amazement, I already purchased SPACE GAMBUS EXPERIMENT- THE ALBUM, & it's on it's way to my cribs. Today, I'm one of Kamal Sabran's Blog Follower, & I'm keen to share some of my thought on the SGE album, -after A few spins. Me, That is Moloko, sincerely admit, this is one of my unique, henced- a trully promising, DISCOVERY in the beginning of the year 2010!

visit MOLOKO

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Kamal Sabran's Space Gambus Experiment: Between Human Rights movement and Sound from Outerspace by SAAT OMAR



It always interesting to follow kamal’s progress as an artist, as a musician.
Cause I was there to see he develop from a grunge kid to a devoted ambience minimalist. I was there with Kamal. Sitting at class of 1995 and we talk about music, mostly about Kurt Cobain and Grunge and all. Then 10 years later when I met him back, he already leave the raw sounds of Gurnge and try new different style of music.yes like Robert Zimmerman said "those who not busy being born are busy dying" means we must move. And kamal has progess alot asince that summer of 1995.

Theres is nothing kamal wont try to experiment. video experimental, sound experimental, poligamy, mud wrestling, psychoanalysis, Primal scream, Yoko Ono Minimalist style, suicide bomb and food not bomb. And yes Rahmat Haroun the hippies poet is his friend....long before he get tatooed !
And the latest result is here..he called it as experimental electro acoustic soundscape. And the name of the band is Space Gambus Experiment.

Space Gambus Experiment's are:
Zulkifli Ramli - Gambus/Oud
Kamal Sabran - Electroacoustic


This is no ordinary music.The sound is taken from orbit. Yes u read me right. + the track contains real signals from outer space (Jupiter's radio wave)captured by the artist with tremendous helps by a group of scientist in National Space Agency Malaysia.

Kamal always have interested with cosmic idea and Einsten relativity. For him science and art is one thing while sex and pornography is another thing. a silence is not a silence. Theres always music in between. And in this case, it could comes from outer space. And when a signal is blend with music, heres what you got. With influence from Portishead, Bjork, Radiohead’s Kid A, Sigur Ros and even Lori Anderson, Space gambus Experiment brought another new dimension to its kind of music.

So its not too much if to say that this music collaboration he produce is like science meets traditional. Or science meets the ..gambus. As I said, this is no ordinary music. So when u listen to this music and u caught a glimpse of an alien voice trying to contact us, that’s not accident. it could happening. And this is not science fiction, the music is real.

Of course Kamal is no Jean Michel Jarre or even say Vangelis. But his one of few local artist that are not afraid to expermient with things and hes eager for your opinion. Kamal is like a tiger in a cage waiting to leap onto you. Or in this case..hes like the orbit sound from space that waiting to be heard (pergh! Gila ah ayat aku untuk ko ni Kamal)

Listen it with open heart. feels the ambience surrounding u. feels the enigma of unending space. A space that is lighter than a light and space that revolve around us. The Quantum leap of metaphysical that opens the mystery of human kind....
A good listen either u BN member or PKR member or Komunist or Socialist or Capitalist. (finally)

This music sounds good when u doing your charity with Human Right movement or giving soup to homeless person on a Sunday Morning.

If u want to listen to the songs, clik to Kamal Sabran’s blog. The link? Oh he’ll be the first one to comment here. Clik to his blog. Its free.

visit SAAT OMAR

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Saya Sudah Ada Space Gambus Experiment by sharizal sulaiman


The Band from left: Zul, Haneem and Kamal

Space Gambus Experiment adalah CD terbaru dalam koleksi ku. CD ini ku terima didalam tray bersama dengan slip gaji bulan December tahun lepas yang duitnya tidak dapat dipastikan bila akan ku peroleh dan CD ini adalah CD pertama yang untuk tahun 2010 yang ku beli.

Tilisan ni ditulis atas dasar ku sebagai seorang pendengar muzik dan dari deria rasa yang tak seberapa hebat. Cukup untuk memberikan gambaran tentang isi kandungan rilisan ini.

Lagu pertama memang lagu pembukaan pengenalan yang tepat...!! Ia seakan membawa pendengar menyusur ke satu pengembaraan. Sepantas dalam kepala ku terbayang, jikalau lagu pengenalan ni dipersembahkan dengan visual cahaya atau laser berserta asap pentas yang menimbulkan effect yang hebat, pasti ramai yang agaknya akan terpukau dengan kombinasi keduanya...!! Itu sekadar imaginasi ku...!! Yang menariknya, selepas separuh perjalanan lagu diputar, baru ku sedar, tajuk lagu pertama ni adalah Pengembaraan Cahaya...

Track lagu seterusnya membawa ku melayari, berkhayal dan berimaginasi.

Mendengar intro trak tiga, membuatkan ku terasa seperti tak tau dimana. Ohh!! Mungkin seorang bidadari yang berpakaian serba cantik, berambut panjang dan menutup separuh mukanya sedang memberikan tarian dengan lintuk bahasa badan yang lembut dan mempersonakan...!! Adakah khayalan ku sudah terlampau...!!? tidak...!! mungkin anda lain yang mendengar punya imaginasi yang berlainan dari ku.

Bunyian gamelan dalam Trak nombor tujuh mengingatkan ku pada satu peristiwa dimana satu masa dulu pernah ku dihalau pengawal Perpustakaan Universiti Sains Malaysia menunjukkan bakat mengetuk caklempong diruang pameran yang telah bertag dibawahnya "sila jangan sentuh". Peristiwa ini berlaku sekitar tahun 1998.

Ada pula bahagian riff dalam 7 Ruang Kosong yang mengingatkan ku pada lagi Kiss By The Rose, lagu tema filem Batman Forever. Ia mungkin secara kebetulan dan tidak ketara langsung dan ia hanya dapat dikesan bila sampai pada note tu dimainkan...!!

Keseluruhannya boleh disimpulkan, CD ini tidak akan dapat diperoleh dimana mana kedai munjual CD dan Cassette seluruh negara dan juga sudah pasti tiada lagu lagu yang tersenarai didalam album ini akan diputarkan dicorong corong radio popular yang mentafsirkan sendiri mereka nombor satu Malaysia. Alasannya, artis ini bukan dari Indonesia [lagu takde standard] ataupun mereka mampu menggunakan alasan fakta yang tiada vocal dalam lagu [walau ada sedikit bait-bait percakapan dalam beberapa lagu]. Itulah lumrah artis Malaysia terutama yang bersifat DIY.

Kepada anda yang sedang mencari cari album atau lagu lagu diluar kebiasaan halwa pendengaran, saya sarankan album ini. Explorasi kombinasi bunyian alatan moden yang digarapkan dengan alatan muzik traditional mampu mencetuskan perasaan tenang dan jauh, seakan jauh berada di space.


Terima kasih Space Gambus Experiment
Selamat Maju Jaya

lawati shahrizal sulaiman @ GREENDAZEY

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Sense of sound by Yusuf Martin


click for bigger image
The Space Gambus Experiment

A new music CD, launched December 2009, introduces the mesmerising sounds of The Space Gambus Experiment to an expectant audience. This landmark work is the result of a unique collaboration, not only between the two presenting musicians – Mohd Zulkifli Ramli (Gambud/Oud) and Kamal Sabran (electro – acoustic) but also between the traditional and the contemporary in modern Malaysian music.


For this ‘experiment’ Kamal Sabran has engaged the talents of Mohd Zulkifli Ramli, to bring the uniquely symbolic music of the Malay gambus (a lute like instrument), into play, perhaps with the intention of playing point, counterpoint to Kamal’s adventurous sound making.


An observant reader will have noticed the word – Space in the title of this CD, as in The Space Gambus Experiment, and maybe scratched an itchy follicle or two on its significance. To put your inquisitive minds at rest, I am not referring to some post-hippy, pseudo-psychedelia, but in this case – real Space, as in ‘one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’, the National Space Agency and the planet Jupiter.


Among Kamal’s many projects as an artist and musician, and following his partiality to meld science with art, Kamal had worked as an ‘artist in residence’ at the Malaysian National Space Agency, between 2005 and 2006. There he developed ‘Sonic Cosmic Music from Outer Space’, which was later performed at the planetarium. It was at the National Space Agency that Kamal began experimenting with radio waves, received through the radio telescope, from the planet Jupiter as it was orbiting over Malaysian skies. Some of that celestial material, along with the more traditional gambus music, graces this present album.


With a world rapidly churning out the latest talking blues gangsta rapper, wannabe TV starlet/singer or bootilicious boy/babe dressed hot to kill, it has become a case of never mind that he/she cannot actually sing but look at that boy/girl go. It therefore comes as a great relief that artist/designer/musician/academician Kamal Sabran quests on the fringes of ‘noise’ and ‘melody’ to bring us this unexpected gem of a CD – The Space Gambus Experiment. Co-incidentally, Kamal, rapidly becoming a Malaysian renaissance man, has also designed the layout and cover of this visually, as well as musically, exciting CD.


Those of you who have been intently following the contemporary arts scene, or who have been nose-diving into arts listings or even shrewd enough to access on-line Malaysian arts reviewers, recently, will have seen Kamal as part of 15 Malaysia.


15 Malaysia was a project consisting of a series of 15 short films, concerning the realities, and some fantasies, of life in Malaysia. Kamal’s entry – LUMPUR (mud), is about, strangely enough, mud, or rather what it comprises of. This short film explores people’s association with land, ownership, water and earth, leaving the audience pondering these subjects. ‘Lumpur’ saw Kamal as film director, editor, musician and composer, along with the legendary Pete Teo as overall producer.


Music from ‘LUMPUR’ - Ruang Kosong Remix, containing sounds taken from soil and water, add an ‘organic’ element to the soundtrack, and appears on the CD The Space Gambus Experiment.


Out of the canon of Kamal Sabran’s musical enterprises, this CD offers what may be his most accessible compositions, with a more direct focus on instrumental melodies, intertwined with electronic abstract resonance. Certainly, with this innovative CD, Kamal has moved, ever so slightly, away from the more distinctly avant-garde Terry Riley, or, perhaps Max Neuhaus inspired sound experiments he is known for - towards a more rounded sound imagery, infinitely more palatable for the general, lay public, as well as proving stimulating for the discerning music lover.



Senses of Malaysia

Jan-Feb 2010

Article by Yusuf Martin
Photo by Jangguttouch

Sounds from Jupiter: The Star


click for bigger image

The Star

11 Jan 2010
article by Rizal Johan
Photo by Jangguttouch & Akmal

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Pendaratan Space Gambus Experiment Di Bulan By ARDA



NOTA: Reviu ini adalah berdasarkan pengalaman aku selepas mendengar SGE, aku tiada pendidikan formal di dalam bidang muzik.

Semalam aku terima bungkusan yang dihantar oleh Kamal Sabran menggunakan Pos Laju (Terima Kasih Kamal!), perlahan-lahan aku bukakan sampulnya, sambil tersenyum lebar, nah! CD yang aku idam-idamkan, Space Gambus Experiment (SGE). Maka hari ini adalah satu lagi hari yang bersejarah.

Memandangkan CD ini adalah sebuah rilisan penuh, aku pasti cara mendengarnya juga akan berbeza. Perkara seterusnya yang aku lakukan adalah meneliti layout pada bahagian belakang, ada 10 track kesemuanya. Kemudian aku teliti pula cetakan pada CD, tercetak tulisan ‘Made in Ipoh’. Aku tersengih sendiri.

Sambil aku mendengar SGE, otakku mula mencetuskan arus-arus elektrik, dari sisi bagaimanakah interpretasi notasi ini akan aku tuliskan? (Sila baca reviu aku sebelum ini) Selepas beberapa ketika, aku membuat keputusan untuk mendokumentasikan SGE sebagai sebuah perjalanan ke bulan berdasarkan susunan tracknya.
*****
Baiklah, sebaik sahaja kamu mendengar Pengembara Cahaya, kamu sebenarnya sudah tersedut ke dalam ruang masa SGE, aku ibaratkan Pengembara Cahaya sebagai sebuah pintu masa yang menghubungkan kamu kepada ruang masa SGE, petikan gambus Zul akan menangkap kamu terutamanya pada minit 1:35 ke 1:58, kemudian kamu akan di daratkan di lantai bulan untuk menikmati pengalaman yang seterusnya.

Apabila berada di ruang angkasa, perkara pertama yang berlaku pada tubuh kamu adalah mencari keserasian, Lily Wave Mekanik bagaikan sebuah automatik tuner yang akan meneutralkan sistem tubuh kamu dengan suasana angkasa. Kamu tidak perlu bersedih kerana suara dan ambient dari Lily Taylor akan memujuk kamu sepertinya menyatakan bahawasanya kamu tidak keseorangan.

Benar bukan? Kerana apabila kamu pandang semula ke hadapan, Zul dan Kamal sudah bersedia dengan instrumen mereka untuk sebuah opera terhebat dari bulan ke seluruh ruang angkasa. The rest is history, aku tidak boleh ceritakan semua kerana kamu perlu memilikinya sendiri.

Secara peribadi, rilisan penuh SGE ini bagaikan sebuah Sudoku yang telah sempurna. Gambus yang sentiasa mengiringi perjalanan Elektronik itu membuatkan kamu akan terasa keseimbangannya walaupun dalam keadaan kamu yang sedang melawan graviti. Permainan Kamal dan Zul tidak berlebih-lebihan serta tidak membayangi antara satu sama lain.

Ada satu-satu masa apabila kamu terasa tersedut oleh bunyi-bunyian elektronik itu, notasi gambusnya akan segera datang menarik kamu keluar kembali perlahan-lahan, maka kamu akan terasa benar-benar di atas sebuah garisan di antara teknologi dan tradisional.

SGE rilisan penuh ini bagaikan inkarnasi kepada versi sebelumnya, penyesuaian kedua-dua instrumen yang berasal dari dua budaya yang berbeza ternyata memerlukan curahan kreativiti ke satu tahap paling maksimum. Seperti apabila aku mendengar Dari Dalam Kalbu dan Pulang Kakanda Bulan, satu persoalan akan timbul, akukah yang tidak tahu betapa saktinya instrumen gambus ini?

Ataupun pada ketika mendengar keganjilan Fizikali Real, yang terus mengingatkan aku kepada sifat-sifat yang ada pada Mild Und Leise, tinggi sungguh imaginasi Kamal Sabran waktu itu, tentunya Mild Und Leise sedikit sunyi, kerana bukan tujuan aku mahu membandingkannya, bahkan struktur kedua-duanya juga dibina dari peralatan yang berbeza.

Begitu juga dengan track Gerhana, mungkin aku sedikit terperasan jejak-jejak trip-hop Portishead di situ, beranikah Portishead dengan gambus? Ataupun Filter Happier (Radiohead) yang diiringi gambus pada track Panglima 9? Oh, mungkin ini perasaan aku sahaja memandangkan corak keseluruhan SGE telah menepati konsepnya seperti yang aku bayangkan.

Apa yang aku mahu beritahu adalah, SGE sebenarnya patut keluar dari Malaysia sebagai sebuah produk antarabangsa, sekaligus meletakkan tahap muzik di negara ini kepada satu peringkat yang lebih baik dari sebelumnya. Kamal Sabran dan Zulkifli Ramli bagi aku adalah alien yang berbaju melayu, kemistri yang ada pada kedua-duanya adalah keistimewaan kepada penyeimbangan di antara teknologi dan tradisional yang aku anggap sebagai berjaya.

Selamat buat Space Gambus Experiment! Aku akan sentiasa menyokong kalian.


Ben Izzat a.k.a. ARDA. Lahir pada tahun 1982 di tanah DiRaja Klang. Tidak mengalami fasa Tadika dan menjalani kehidupan sebagai kanak-kanak di Kampung Bukit Kapar sehingga darjah 6, pada usia awal remaja berpindah ke Asrama Putera Sekolah Agama Menengah Hisamuddin Sg. Bertih, Klang (Tingkatan 1-5) sebelum merantau secara dewasa ke Bangi dan menetap di sana sehingga kini.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Space Gambus Experiment: Sounds of Jupiter By RIZAL JOHAN

THE STAR, Monday January 11, 2010


Out of this world: Sound artist and designer Kamal Sabran is elevating traditional art forms by incorporating sound works and video.


Zulkifli Ramli playing the gambus or oud for the Space Gambus Experiment album.

New media artist Kamal Sabran shares the secret of recording sounds from outerspace.

KAMAL Sabran is an artist, filmmaker, musician – these are just a few of the many roles he plays. He recently released an album which features sounds that are, literally, from out of this world. To be more precise, it is the sound of the planet Jupiter.

The project, called Space Gambus Experiment (SGE), is an amalgamation of sampled sounds, delicately woven with beats and other instrumentations, including the stringed gambus (lute), over the drone of Jupiter.

And no folks, this is not a tale from The Twilight Zone.
Back in 2005, Kamal, now 32, was the artist-in-residence with the National Space Agency and he got to be the artist-in-residence because of his proposal: to record sounds of Jupiter as an experimental music project.

As an artist, Kamal hovers slightly outside the norm of contemporary fine arts by practising sound art. Sound art is also considered the new direction in fine arts.
This particular art form, compared to the more visually-related forms of painting, drawing, sculpting and installation, focuses more on sound, listening and hearing.
The nature of sound art, though, is ever evolving and takes various hybrid forms through film, video, performance arts, experimental theatre, etc.

As a sound artist, Kamal’s plan was ambitious. He wanted to record sounds that did not originate from Earth. So the only place where they would point a microphone into space, so to speak, was an observatory. Which was why Kamal knocked on the doors of the National Space Agency.

“You remember the time we sent our first Malaysian astronaut into space? That was the time I was the artist-in-residence with the National Space Agency.
“This was my personal project actually because I was very interested in natural sounds but I didn’t want ‘normal’ sounds. I wanted something from outer space. A space sound, you know.” said Kamal in a recent interview.

Hence, a radio telescope was used to record the electromagnetic radiation emanating from the planet Jupiter as it orbited over Malaysian skies.
“You can’t really hear anything of the electromagnetic waves because the frequency is too high to be detected by the human ear. So I had to filter it down to listenable soundwaves and from there, turn the ‘noise’ into a performance piece,” said Kamal, who graduated in Graphic Design from Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM).

That performance piece, at the time, was called Sonic Cosmic Music From Outer Space and Kamal had invited friends who were visual artists and poets to contribute to the project. That was in 2006 and Kamal had ended his tenure as artist-in-residence with the National Space Agency but the sound artist was not completely satisfied with the project.“I had completed all the compositions back then but I felt that something was missing ... it didn’t feel complete,” said Kamal, who is now based in Ipoh.

A few years went by and Kamal’s sonic space project was put in the backburner while he pursued other projects, including directing the short film, Lumpur, in 2009, which was one of the shorts for the 15Malaysia project.
Kamal had previously directed three music videos for folk artiste Pete Teo, who later became the producer of 15Malaysia and gave Kamal a call about directing a short film.

“You know, I don’t even have a video camera and Pete wanted high-resolution quality so I asked my friends, a collective of photographers known as Jangguttouch, whether any of their cameras could record video and they handed me a Canon 5D Mark II, with which I shot Lumpur.”

Kamal used the short film project 15Malaysia as a platform to combine different art forms like sound art and performance art into it.
“I don’t consider myself a filmmaker or a music video director even though I use the same elements – images and sound – as film.
“I’m still very much an artist who is trying to push the boundaries of fine arts outside its traditional confines.”

As social networking on the Internet intensified worldwide, Kamal wasted no time in contacting like-minded people – sound artists and experimental musicians – and passed them samples of his space project to work on.

As such, SGE comprises collaborators from all over the world – North America, South America, Europe and the Middle East – but his most significant collaborator was Zulkifli Ramli, a local musician.

“I ‘met’ Zul on Facebook. I didn’t know who he was then but I added him and we started chatting and I learned that he played gambus for Dewangga Sakti. So, I told him about my space project and e-mailed him a sample.
“Zul took that sample and added gambus sounds to it and returned it to me. When I heard it, I thought: ‘That’s it. That was the missing piece (the gambus)’. Now the project feels complete.”

Kamal invited Zul over to his “pondok” or hut (that’s what Kamal calls his workspace and recording studio in his home in Ipoh) and recorded the gambus over seven tracks.
“It was all done in one take. I have 10 tracks on the album and seven of them I recorded with Zul and the other three with other collaborators whom I’ve never met. I’ve only spoken to them on-line,” said Kamal.

It is a strange sensation listening to an album which has a sample of the sonic space between Earth and Jupiter and grounding it is the gambus, along with various loops, beats and other musical samples.
It is also rare for a piece of music whose hidden qualities transcend (outer) space and time. And all it took was imagination and perseverance.


> To purchase the Space Gambus Experiment, contact Kamal at kamalsabran@gmail.com. Each CD is priced at RM20. For more information, visit http://www.myspace.com/spacegambusexperiment. You can also download bonus tracks, B-sides, outtakes and rehearsals of Space Gambus Experiment for free at http://www.reverbnation.com/spacegambus¬experiment.

I GO : song of the year!


original version.

Recorded and released by Pete Teo [only in Korea] as part of Samsung's YEPP mp3 player promotional campaign.

The lo-fi and noire-like video directed by Kamal Sabran - who also did the video for 'Carnival Hall' proved popular in the Korean blogsphere.

"song of the year": by AJL 24 (Anugerah Juara Lagu TV3), Jan 2010

Monday, January 04, 2010

"Sebuah Album untuk Sahabat" -UTUSAN MELAYU


Dua orang sahabat, Zulkifli Ramli dan Kamal Sabran telah menerbitkan sebuah album sulung bertajuk "Space Gambus Experiment" bagi membantu seorang rakan mereka yang terlantar menderita kerana sakit barah mata.

Pelancaran album tersebut telah disempurnakan oleh pemilik galeri RA Fine Art Raja Ahmad Aminullah sempena pameran lukisan Seni Muda di Kuala Lumpur baru baru ini.
"Album ini telah kami siapkan untuk dijual kepada sesiapa sahaja yang bersimpati dengan penulis dari ipoh, Amirul Fakir yang masih dalam rawatan sakit barah mata",jelas Zulkifli sebelum memulakan persembahan kepada orang ramai yang hadir di pameran tersebut.

Sesiapa yang bersimpati dan mahu menderma boleh melayari emel kamalsabran@gmail.com atau talifon 013-2078407 atau kamal 016 5533391.

Sebanyak 10 buah lagu terdapat di dalam album yang berharga RM20 itu.
-UTUSAN MELAYU 4 Jan 2010, Isnin