WILT_2021-09

A playlist of songs that intrigued me from Sunday to Saturday. Week of 28 Feb 2021 to 6 Mar 2021.

1. Utopia Symphony: Part 1 – Vladimir Martynov, Vladimir Jurowski, London Philharmoic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Choir, Jun Hong Loh
2. Verses – Ólafur Arnalds, Alice Sara Ott
3. IV: What You’re Thinking – Bell Orchestre
4. V: Movement – Bell Orchestre
5. Lasem – Gamelan Semara Pegulingan
6. Chasing Destruction (Live) – Aisyah Aziz
7. Kapak – Fauxe
8. Hati – Fauxe
9. Arisen My Senses – Björk, Acra
10. Black Lake (Viola Organista Version) – Björk
11. Minimum Brain Size – King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
12. Straws In The Wind – King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

Hyperlink to Spotify playlist: WILT_2021-09

Notes

I don’t think I will be getting very introspective in this post. I am just feeling really tired and I would rather get this particular writing over and done with. But that isn’t doing very much justice for some of the performances that I would like to feature this week.

Something I could not shake this past week was what I had shared last week in WILT_2021-08 about being bored with the rock music genre. I have been carrying a burden of guilt, or perhaps a panging anxiety that I had been overly dismissive or elitist in sharing that. While I still predominantly stand by what I said, that I am somewhat bored with the rock music genre, by no means am I saying that the genre is boring. It is just a particular annecdote of where I am at, musically, at this point in time. However, I am also realising how limiting it is to air such thoughts into the ether, because it sets your mind down a particular path. Of inquiry perhaps. But I do find myself either seeking things out to prove my bias, or to oppose it. Either way, you create friction to find a path moving forward. You steer your ship by navigating against the current, rather than see where the sea takes you.

In this particular path, I did initially seek out more orchestral music, although that did not last very long. I stumbled across a symphony about Singapore composed by Vladimir Martynov, and performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as commissioned by the Foundation of the Arts and Social Enterprise. That was interesting to me in of itself, and I have been curious about what would warrant such a commission, but I have not come to any conclusions of my own just yet.

This also then set me on a path to seek out more indigenous music to the Southeast Asian region. We definitely think of gamelan ensambles within a Javanese context, but what might be more pertinent would be the music that we find preserved within Malaysia and Singapore. Malaya if you will. That is where I think producers like Fauxe are researching something important, to understand the indiginous history of a land, to understand the journey of a culture across time, rather than just at time. That is also where I find contemporary singers like Aisyah Aziz, who are able to connect with both traditional and contempoary audiences through their talent to be important bridges to understanding some of the music history of the region.

In short, this past week I did start some initial explorings into the regional music of Malaya, and I hope to explore more traditional and historical styles of music to better understand the land I grew up in, as well as currently live in, even if my heritage is different. And I do wonder if my musings from last week have also come full circle as I started listening to more music by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. It’s rock music and guitar music, but somehow it is also meandering, psychedelic, Indian-classical inspired, as well as percussion-driven. It sounds like something familiar from the sixties, and it also sounds like something exploratory from the 2020s. Who knows? I simply enjoy it when music takes me places, to worlds I scant remember or universes I inhabit and find some place in.