Composer - Performer - Researcher
#$XXXXX!/#*$
#$XXXXX!/#*$ is a series of releases between 2021 and 2023, investigating what happens when we translate expressive phrasing across genres and formats, chronicling the development of new, hybrid musical language via improvisation. It employs an intentionally lo-fi aesthetic via affordable, free, or self-made tools, and seeks to boil an expressive vocabularly down to its raw, essential components, then reconstitute it in a variety of new "skins". It functions as a laboratory for my more recent work, exposing the guts and internal wiring of the creative process, particularly in regards to genre hybridisation.
(Numbers 1-7)
This first release of the series opens with four 20-30 second tracks, each outlining one of the record's primary influences (grindcore, gamelan, harsh noise, and experimental electronic), before progressively smearing each of these together into a new, unified language. The entire release was composed spontaneously via vocal and body-percussion improvisation, then translated to MIDI and reconstituted using samples and software synths.
A primary goal was to investigate the way hybrid genre can emerge in a specific time and place through absorption. If the original genres become part of a performer's acculturation, their improvisations may eventually contain traces of each of these without conscious effort, with the various musical elements put to work collectively to describe the present moment.
For the initial improvisation, I began by focusing on each genre influence separately, then allowed them to gradually bleed together. Limiting myself to my voice and my hands assisted in the blending process by preventing me from doing too many things simultaneously. Eventually, common rhythmic characteristics of each began to merge within my phrasing, enabling further blending via the translation process. The choice of sounds reflect the materials and musical context of my surroundings in Denpasar, addressing time and place via spontaneous genre hybridization.
This project is deeply indebted to the experimental, noise, electronic, and gamelan communities of the region during the pandemic.
KSHHHHHK2 (Gamelan Bengkel)
For this second release, I built a gamelan-influenced instrument from scrap metal, wooden planks, and contact microphones for improvisation. After previously experimenting with hybrid genre via vocal improv and MIDI translation, I tested a similar language by improvising with mallets, hands, and iron, via distortion and amplification. I was curious to see how much of my gamelan technique would emerge, as well as how ideas with less gamelan influence would sound if played via this instrument. This was also an experiment with returning ideas developed in an electronic context to physical tools.
These pieces were each recorded in one take with only light editing. The work was initially released in late 2021 and performed at several underground shows hosted by Chaos Non Musica during the same period. The instrument later gained a second life as part of Pierre Alvian's Sanglah Slayer noise project.
Many thanks to Kim for access to workshop facilities (which is where the "bengkel" in the title comes from), and to Erlangga and Rio for storing the instrument between its two lives.
Seperti Bicara // Bersama Lagi
A two-part investigation into microtiming translated through MIDI Balinese gamelan, using samples from the #NAGi group's semar pegulingan set. These tracks are based on vocal and percussion improvisations, with performance details preserved across mediums. Translation was carried out by hand before access to timbre transfer by AI, as part of research into expressive timing.
Do we perceive performance subtleties differently when embodied through different instruments? Can expressive timing be a primary compositional material?
Tigabelas
Tigabelas is an experiment translating live vocal and hand percussion improvisation via MIDI and free software synths, outlining tensions between the digital and the physical, exploring the sense of momentum that emerges from the timing variations of live performance, and seeking unexpected artifacts within the transition. Originally released in late 2022 as the fourth installation in the #$XXXXX!/#*$ series.
JNB '23
Hardware electronics set based on #$XXXXX!/#*$-series material, composed for live several live performances in Indonesia in early 2023, including Jogja Noise Bombing.