(click for bigger image)
published in
UTOPIA magazine
15 Oct 2010
text by Pjoe
photo by Jo Ghazali & Nini Marini
FULL TEXT INTERVIEW1. where do u guys meet up? how SGE ditubuhkan?Space Gambus Experiment (SGE) is a circle of friends and family constantly creating their own art and music. It is based on the concept of “open source” band that everybody can participate, join and put creativity juice on it. It is more on collaboration concept, where we believe where art suppose to be. . we believe by sharing and collaborating through audio and visual, the artist will come out with more interesting artworks. As usual, experimental artwork will produce a new perspective and open more possibilities in new direction and findings.
Records released under the name Space Gambus Experiment may include contributions from any or all members; the lineup is not uniform.
It can be only 2 people or up to 20 people working at the same time, and numbers of musician/noiscian is increasing. Till now we have not only musician involved but other discipline like dancer, visual artist, designer, VJ, Dj, poet, photographers, video makers and sound artist from Malaysia and all over the world.
We meet up in 2 medium, 1 in real collaboration and the other one is online based, through internet.
I have work with most of them earlier and also some of them I just met recently. And 80% of them I never met face to face, we only communicate online, through Facebook and email. We regularly collaborate online by exchanging sound files through online.
Current lineup:
FOUNDER:
Kamal Sabran - Electroacoustic
Zulkifli Ramli - Gambus/Oud
The Collective:
haneem: guitar, ambient (artist, curator)
bentara: guitar, soundscape (ex- langsuyr/tro-njo-i)
elly: bass (ex the hans)
Munis Musa: multi-instrumentalist (Uh Uh!)
andri: guitar, noise (goodbye 20th century)
aizat: guitar (keladak)
azmil mokhtar: drum , percussion (the Hans)
Syahril Fadly: sampler (moloko)
Fasyali: Rebab
mamel: drum (akta angkasa)
fadly Sabran: noise (Sosound)
putera oud: gambus (Oud-Kestra)
pyan: electronic manipulation (Shizuka)
Poet
A Samad Said
Siti Zainon
Amirul Fakir
Rahmat Haron
Yusuf Martin
friends and collaborators:
Adam James davis (UK)
Alvari Lume (Finland)
Antonio Mainenti (Italy)
Arcano 18 (Ecuador)
Cathy Fern Lewis (Canada)
Derek Crofut (US)
Goh Lee Kwang (Malaysia)
Gunhild Seim (Norway)
Jim Leftwich (US)
Lily Taylor (US)
Lorenzo Pancini (Italy)
Matt Middleton Crude (New Zealand)
Masoud Takavar (Iran)
Markus Wenninger (German)
Zenmetalshirt (Switzerland)
Eric Hausman (US)
Pandu Hidayat (indonesia)
Alan Herrick (US)
photo journalist
meor kahirulnizam
Jo ghazali
jongguttouch
nini marini
annaloq
DJ
Milkii Hani
Vj
RupaJiwa Studio
Kotaro Tanaka
dancer/performer
zubin mohammad
aida redza
TTS Mimer Group
The Half Show
2. tell about SGE history.As sound artist and experimental musician/noisician, I ve been collecting all of nature sound, most of my sound art is based on sound that I found from my surrounding. So one day, im thinking how to get sound that is not from the earth. Then I was start thinking about space sound. Sound from outer space. So I start do some research on it. Luckily I was selected as artist in resident for National Space Agency, Malaysia in 2005. There, I’ve done a research called “Sonic Cosmic Music from Outer space” where I finally composed music based on cosmic radio wave collected by radio telescope in collaboration with scientist there. I finally performed it live in planetarium with fellow artist, musician, and poet in 2006.
It was 2006, after I finished my residency in National Space Agency, where I found out all of my composition is incomplete. I put all the tracks away in hard disk and working on other works until in 2009, I met Zulkifli Ramli, the gambus/oud player in Malaysian well-known folk ensemble called “Dewangga Sakti”. We then experimenting and blending the mystical sound of Gambus in my unfinished tracks contain cosmic radio wave at my home studio in Ipoh. With no big ambitions, we just experiment the source but finally we found out that we are making this “outer-inner space” meeting point in our music. We are also surprise that the gambus/oud perfectly blended in my compositions like jigsaw puzzle. Gambus and cosmic radio wave creating an amazing atmosphere more than we expected.
I used a lot of Malays traditional instrument like Gendang, Seruling, Gamelan, Gong, Serunai, Tabla and Rebab along with other instruments like drum, trumpet, accordions, bass, violin, guitar, sax and many more. I was also experimenting with noise sound sources like toys, water, sand, soil, wind, radio signals, poetry, plastic bag, circuit bending and hundreds layers of tiny sounds. This entire ingredient blends with electronic abstract pattern where I programmed using computer software. There are also many precious sound contributed by the collaborators. I recorded and mixed myself at my homestudio using lo fi and low tech equipment.
And finally we manage to come up with our first CD in 2009.
3. your music directionWe can say we are experimenting with any possibilities in sound making. We are not actually a musician, but we prefer to call our self as “noisician”, where we have so much freedom in creating art. In future, we would like to experiment more on Malay traditional instruments and at the same time with new technologies or perhaps inventing our own instruments. It’s like an abstract painting: we don’t really know what will happen rather than let the art be he. We only have 3 main ideas in our mind: 1. Research, 2 .Experiment and 3.knowledge contribution. We believe music is not just a simple entertainment but it is actually more than that.
4. where do you guys based?We are based on ipoh-KL-world wide web (WWW)
5. Band philosophyExperiment with infinite possibilities
6. your actual influence? (bandwise)John cage-sonic youth-portishead-nusrat fateh ali khan- hossein alizadeh-P ramlee
7. what is post rock?A genre that have the “wide view “approach with many possibilities in music making.
8. describe your sound in physical wayMeditative, haunted, space, abstract
9. where do you guys record your stuffIn kamal sabran’s home studio in Ipoh. He called it as “Xperimental LAB”.
10. politic and religion should be... (in 10 words)politic and religion should be mixed together. The separation of religion from politics is intellectually weak and purely artificial.
11. who is the primary song writerKamal Sabran & Zulkifli Ramli is the primary song writer.
