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.
What is Cosmic Armchair?
What is Digital Dondang Sayang about?
Why do you enjoy working with the NUS Electronic Music Lab?
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
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.
One page of pantun by Ang Kay Teong, handed down to his great grandson Ben
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.
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.
NUS Electronic Music Lab (at the National University of Singapore Centre for the Arts) is a special place for us, because we first started collaborating on music there. To this day, Ben continues to teach there on weekends, and recently he conducted a two day workshop on Ableton Live for beginners. Participants came from all over campus and even beyond, and the most unique participant was Dr Pete Kellock, a veteran electronic musician who had been our tutor! He had decided to make the move from Logic to Ableton, and in the spirit of learning, chose to go back to school again! Very inspiring for EML students, to see that learning never stops, and making electronic music never stops either.
A few weeks after the workshop, participants and current EML members met at NUS CFA for a barbeque and EML PLUGIN session – EML’s regular electronic music open mic where we present our new works and tracks that are work in progress. Everyone had a great time with the food, music and good company
The best part of keeping in touch with this community is that we are constantly meeting new electronic musicians, and hearing the work of up and coming artists is inspiring and sparks off new ideas. For the upcoming album, you’ll also hear some of our tracks being remixed by these new artists, so watch this space.
Club E, Singapore’s pioneering electronic pop music act of the 1990s, are reuniting for a new release in 2016. This is great news for the electronic pop scene here and especially for us, because members of Club E have been instrumental in supporting and helping our own music. Leonard Tan featured our Cosmic Armchair songs in several EQMusic compilations, and Geoffrey Low will mixing the songs for our upcoming 2016 Cosmic Armchair album CONTACT. We’re very glad to see them back together and making Club E music again – happy, catchy, upbeat, dance-able electronic pop.
So we’re looking forward to having more made-in-Singapore electronic music in the air and on the air in 2016. You can read the full interview here on TODAY Online
In the meantime, enjoy this new song from Club E as a preview of their upcoming album!
When we released our first EP in 2009, it was Lush 99.5 FM that first played our song Marching of the Days on air, and it was the lovely DJ Kate Reyes who interviewed us and played our songs for a full half hour.
Since then, we’ve been grateful to hear our songs Marching of the Days, Just One Look, and our current single I Don’t Belong Here, not only being played on Lush 99.5 FM, but also tweeted with the hashtag #lushloveslocal (see https://twitter.com/hashtag/lushloveslocal?src=hash).
And that – besides their awesome playlist that is a rich source of discovering new and interesting music especially electronic – is a key reason why so many of us in the Singapore music scene love Lush. Because Lush loves us and helps us spread our music.
So we too want to show our support for this excellent radio station by posting with the hashtag #ilistentolush – and if you enjoy good music, we hope you will do the same too.
COSMIC ARMCHAIR 