Events, gigs, shows, music releases and other things that happened in the past
Happy birthday Robert Smith of The Cure on Friday 21 April! Here’s our club mix cover of Friday I’m in Love, available from Alfa-Matrix https://alfamatrix.bandcamp.com/track/friday-im-in-love
Our second #synthpop #electropop show in #Japan was Saturday 3 December at Treasure River Book Cafe in Chiba with our talented Japanese host artists Cobalt Bomb Alpha Omega!
3 December at 19:00–22:00 UTC+09
あの東郷カレーが帰ってきた！
２０１２年を最後にサヨナラした千葉のテクノカレーが、そのトンチキ具合を増して復活。
今回の出演はシンガポールから初来日のエレクトロポップデュオCosmic Armchair。Zoom Lensからアルバム『Event Horizon』をリリースしたばかりのYoshino Yoshikawaもライブセットで出演。さらには世界でBOMBを投下するコバルト爆弾αΩもDJ＆VJでカレーの旨味を引き立てる。
会場はもちろん変わらずTreasure River Book Cafe。
今回はカレー王国八千代からKorocurryが出張カレー。千葉のカレーフリークに挑戦状を叩きつける。シンガポールの国旗が制定された１２月３日は、東郷カレーで祝杯を！
Live:Cosmic Armchair (from Singapore / Alfa Matrix )
http://www.cosmicarmchair.com/
DJ:Yoshino Yoshikawa（Zoom Lens / Maltine Records）
https://yosshibox.com/
東郷ターン（EBM Never Stop!）
DJ&VJ:コバルト爆弾αΩ (Maltine Records / Aki Party – Dance Party for Geeks / Inage)
カレー:Korocurry（from 8chi4）
12月3日（土曜日）
¥1500(Entrance+1Drink+Curry)
@千葉TREASURE RIVER BOOK CAFE
http://treasureriverbook.web.fc2.com/
Many thanks to our hosts cobalt bomb alpha omega and Treasure River Book Cafe for hosting our second show in Tokyo on 3 December! If you’re in Tokyo on 3 December please drop by for music and good curry!
That Togo curry is back!
Chiba ‘s techno curry which finished good – bye last year in 2012 has revived .
This time the appearance is from the Singapore first electro-pop duo Cosmic Armchair. Yoshino Yoshikawa who just released the album “Event Horizon” from Zoom Lens also appears in the DJ set. Furthermore, the cobalt bomb αΩ which drops BOMB in the world also complements the umami of curry with DJ & VJ.
Treasure River Book Cafe certainly does not change.
This time curry from Karocurry from the Yachiyo curry kingdom. Challenge the Challenge to the Chiba curry freak. On December 3 when Singapore’s flag is established, please celebrate with Togo curry!
Live: Cosmic Armchair (from Singapore / Alfa Matrix)
Http://www.cosmicarmchair.com/
DJ: Yoshino Yoshikawa (Zoom Lens / Maltine Records)
Https://yosshibox.com/ Togo Turn (EBM Never Stop!)
DJ & VJ: cobalt bomb αΩ (Maltine Records / Aki Party – Dance Party for Geeks / Inage)
Curry: Korocurry (from 8chi4)
December 3 (Saturday)
¥ 1500 (Entrance + 1 Drink + Curry)
@ Chiba TREASURE RIVER BOOK CAFE
Http://treasureriverbook.web.fc2.com/
あの東郷カレーが帰ってきた！
２０１２年を最後にサヨナラした千葉のテクノカレーが、そのトンチキ具合を増して復活。
今回の出演はシンガポールから初来日のエレクトロポップデュオCosmic Armchair。Zoom Lensからアルバム『Event Horizon』をリリースしたばかりのYoshino YoshikawaもDJセットで出演。さらには世界でBOMBを投下するコバルト爆弾αΩもDJ＆VJでカレーの旨味を引き立てる。
会場はもちろん変わらずTreasure River Book Cafe。
今回はカレー王国八千代からKorocurryが出張カレー。千葉のカレーフリークに挑戦状を叩きつける。シンガポールの国旗が制定された１２月３日は、東郷カレーで祝杯を！
Live:Cosmic Armchair (from Singapore / Alfa Matrix)
http://www.cosmicarmchair.com/
DJ:Yoshino Yoshikawa（Zoom Lens / Maltine Records）
https://yosshibox.com/
東郷ターン（EBM Never Stop!）
DJ&VJ:コバルト爆弾αΩ (Maltine Records / Aki Party – Dance Party for Geeks / Inage)
カレー:Korocurry（from 8chi4）
12月3日（土曜日）
¥1500(Entrance+1Drink+Curry)
@千葉TREASURE RIVER BOOK CAFE
http://treasureriverbook.web.fc2.com/
With many thanks to our hosts COBALT BOMB ALPHA OMEGA
https://twitter.com/CobaltBombAO , we are performing at EBISU BATICA on 26 November 2016!
Facebook event page https://www.facebook.com/events/1773893972853665/
Electronic Popを独自の視点で進化させているアーティストが恵比寿Baticaに集結する一夜限りの音楽実験室。
シンガポールから初来日のエレクトロポップデュオCosmic Armchairを、東京からAZUMA HITOMI、サテライトヤング、Yoshino Yoshikawa等5組の個性派アーティストが迎え撃つ！
オープニングは国内外で活躍中の美術家 愛☆まどんなが、DVJのコバルト爆弾αΩと共にライヴペインティングを披露！
Line up:
AZUMA HITOMI (from サンナナニ)
Cosmic Armchair (from Singapore / Alfa Matrix)
サテライトヤング / Satellite Young (Future City Records)
Yoshino Yoshikawa ( ZOOM LENS / Maltine Records)
テクノポップユニット三鷹（Mitaka Sound） (Acid Worx)
ksd6700 (Inage / Omantic Records)
and more!
Opening Live Painting:
Ai Madonna with DVJ: コバルト爆弾αΩ (Maltine Records / Aki Party – Dance Party for Geeks / Inage)
Thank you COBALT BOMB ALPHA OMEGA for tweeting
11/26に恵比寿Baticaで開催されるElectronic Pop Lab Yebisuに出演します！シンガポールからCosmic Armchairが来日し、日本の個性派ミュージシャンが出迎えます。 ご期待ください！
11/26 #EletroPopLabYebisu @BaticaEbisu
#シンガポール のシンセポップデュオ @CosmicArmchair が来日！
ベルギーの @AlfaMatrix から新アルバムリリース予定
We’re back in the studio after a long hiatus and our first recording of 2016 is this mixtape of our favourite synthpop / electro / EBM tracks from the Matrix Downloaded 4 compilation by Alfa Matrix, the top international alternative electro / synthpop / EBM label.
Yes we had our hands full with other matters in 2015 – new addition to family, new full time job, new live Peranakan electropop show – and we’re very sorry to our label mates whom we were unable to remix in time for your great EP and album releases (they sound great!) – but we’re back in action producing and remixing and ready to go!
You’ll find our favourite synthpop / electropop / alternative tracks from the Matrix Downloaded 4 (available at http://alfa-matrix-store.com/ ) featuring PSY’AVIAH feat. MARI KATTMAN, AYRIA, COSMIC ARMCHAIR (ourselves!), ESSENCE OF MIND, UNTER NULL, METROLAND, DIFFUZION, ENTRZELLE, SUICIDAL ROMANCE, AESTHETISCHE, STUDIO-X vs. SIMON CARTER, DREAM RECALL, and AVARICE IN AUDIO.
This is a series of video interviews that the NUS Centre of the Arts team recorded during our photo shoot for the show. Over the next few weeks we’ll be sharing more of our adventure, in creating our first Digital Dondang Sayang show, with you.
Fri & Sat 18 & 19 March 2016
Time: 8pm (doors open at 6pm if you would like to tour the Baba House
Venue: NUS Baba House, 157 Neil Road (click on link for map)
Tickets at $12 – Discounts & concessions available at bit.ly/CFATIX
Facebook event page
https://www.facebook.com/events/1847086882184695/?active_tab=highlights
E-mail us cosmicarmchair@gmail.com if you need any info or have difficulty with the ticket system
As we get closer to our special event Digital Dondang Sayang, combining traditional Peranakan music with our electronic pop and experimental electronica, we’d like to share with you the story of how this piece of previously unknown music history finally found its way into a show …
MANY YEARS AGO, when Ben was a little boy, his grandfather gave him a green plastic folder. Opening the folder, he found a collection of yellowed note book pages, with poems written on them. Some of the poems were handwritten in fountain pen ink, while others had been typed on a manual typewriter, and all of them were in Baba Malay (the Peranakan patois).
“These pantun (Malay poems) were written by my father, your great-grandfather,” explained Ben’s grandfather. “They can be sung as part of the Dondang Sayang (Peranakan song form).” Both grandfather and grandson had spent many afternoons watch Dondang Sayang shows on TV.
Years later, as Ben developed his own musical expression, as Principal Tutor of the NUS Electronic Music Lab and also producer / remixer of local synthpop duo Cosmic Armchair, the pantuns continued to sit in their folder, on a shelf in the Cosmic Armchair studio. He had a general hope of someday having the poems performed, but he had no idea how that would take place. Until Mary Loh from NUS Centre for the Arts asked Cosmic Armchair if the duo would be interested in performing at the NUS Baba House on Neil Road as part of the NUS Arts Festival 2016.
A series of referrals got him in touch with Frederick Soh of the Gunong Sayang Association, the Peranakan social club that has been performing dondang sayang regularly in Singapore. Frederick was surprised to find this collection of 580 previously unpublished poems, and that started Ben on a quest to find out more about the history of the poems and of his great-grandfather, Ang Kay Teong.
Little is known about Ang Kay Teong, who passed away long before Ben was born. Apparently he was a statistician who worked in the civil service, and not known as a poet. His family knew him primarily as a strict and short-tempered patriarch, who would physically punish his children or grandchildren if triggered. There are only a few photographs that remain of him, one of which shows him shirtless and muscular (he lifted weights) at the beach in the 1940’s.
None of these pieces pointed to his prolific output of poetry, nor did they fit with the stereotype of an early 20th century poet. According to Ding Choo Ming, writing in the article “The Malaysia Baba Pantun Database” ( Sari (2004) 159 – 165 ),
“[The poems] were recited and sung in ceremonies and festivals, often accompanied by musical instruments and some were even published in books and newspapers. … In general, all the baba authors, numbering about 60, were highly respected personalities, and are considered by many as superb examples of inspired secular poets of the highest standard.”
Whereas Ang Kay Teong was unknown, unpublished, and generally not known to have participated in ceremonies or festivals. Did he write in secret? How many other hidden poets were there from that generation, whose poems were not faithfully preserved till the current day, and are now lost to history?
Why did he keep his passion for poetry so private? From the lens of our 21st century perspective, replete with social media and multiple platforms for self-publishing and self-expression, the idea of keeping 580 poems out of sight seems alien to our culture that expresses every little thought online. But even today, there are hidden poets (and musicians) who are creating works that may never see light of day. And who knows, that unfriendly civil servant that you met today — could be one too.
In Part 2: How the pantuns became songs
For the first time ever, on 18 and 19 March we’re presenting Digital Dondang Sayang, the first performance of its kind combining traditional Dondang Sayang performers from the Gunong Sayang Association, electronic pop from us {Cosmic Armchair), and experimental electronica from the NUS Electronic Music Lab, in the NUS Baba House, a heritage house recreating the ancestral home of a 1920s Straits Chinese family.
Event: Benjamin Ang and Cosmic Armchair present Digital Dondang Sayang
Date/Time: Friday 18 March and Saturday 19 March, 8 pm
Venue: NUS Baba House, 157 Neil Road
The songs are based on a selection of traditional Peranakan pantun (poems written in the Baba Malay language) written by Ang Kay Teong in the early 20th century, and handed down to his great grandson, our very own Cosmic Ben.
The show begins with a classic Dondang Sayang rendition of the poems by the Gunong Sayang Association, in the traditional style. This is followed by our Cosmic Armchair electronic pop interpretation and original new songs inspired by the poems. The show concludes with new experimental electronic works created and performed by the NUS Electronic Music Lab, that take the words of the poems into the next century.
All of this takes place in the most appropriate setting for a Dondang Sayang house party – the NUS Baba House, a restored Peranakan family home from the era of the poems.
In addition to being an artistic adventure of old and new music for all ages, Digital Dondang Sayang also follows Ben’s exploration of his musical roots, as he tries to discover who his mysterious ancestor was, and what inspired him to write more than 500 poems. Watch this space over the coming days as we follow him through that journey.
ABOUT GUNONG SAYANG ASSOCIATION
Gunong Sayang Association is the Peranakan social club that has been performing dondang sayang (traditional Peranakan song form) regularly in Singapore.
ABOUT NUS ELECTRONIC MUSIC LAB
NUS EML is a performing group based at the NUS Centre for the Arts, which creates, records, performs and promotes original electronic music of all genres.
ABOUT NUS BABA HOUSE
National University of Singapore restored the traditional family home of a wealthy Peranakan (Straits Chinese) family in Singapore, recreating what it was like in the early 20th century, and now this heritage house is open to visitors to explore the history and culture of this ethnic group that is unique to this region of Asia.
