We Don't Need Another

Waktu kita berdepan dengan Empunya,
di hening malam...

"Sangsaya dalu araras
Abyor kang lintang kumedhap
Titi Sunya tengah wengi
Lumrang gandaning puspita
Karengyaning pudyanira, ae…
Sang dwijawara mbrengengeng
Lir swaraning madu branta
Manungsung Sarining Kembang
Lir swaraning madu branta
Manungsung Sarining Kembang"

What state of mind are you in?

The State of Mind

Taken from SBKT055: TRANCE BAND - Entrancing
Release date: 3rd March 2023

In a global landscape that increasingly prioritizes individuality over collaborative expression, TRANCE is a distinctive project. Initiated by Chinese multidisciplinary artist Tianzhuo Chen, best known for his work with Asian Dope Boys, TRANCE is as artistically amorphous as its constantly evolving line-up, that fluctuates as it shimmers across borders and time-zones. In 2019, the project was demoed in Beijing as part of a solo exhibition from Chen, a 12-hour durational performance that examined the altered states of living and dying and pondered the sounds, sensations, bodies and spaces that notion might suggest. On hold for three years due to COVID-19 restrictions, TRANCE was eventually premiered in Hamburg at the Kampnagel Theatre last year where it was presented as a surreal three-day ceremony. This time around the Trance Band was made up of Berlin-based noisemaker and vocalist Dis Fig, Indonesia's Gabber Modus Operandi, musician and MC KIM KHAN, guitarist and engineer Felix-Florian Tödtloff, and Vancouver-based percussionist and producer CITY. Chen directed the show, channeling each artist's unique energy into an alliance that highlighted their independent skills while pushing towards ideas that simply couldn't have been realized discretely.

"Entrancing" is a live documentation of that incendiary Hamburg session, powered by the performative fireworks that came from having the project halted for two years before it was allowed to burst into life once more. Just as with previous iterations of TRANCE, the space was terraformed into an alien landscape that allowed the collective to enact a carnivalesque display that was tightly controlled but creatively boundless. Musical u-turns were accompanied by monumental stage overhauls that reshaped a muddy, fog-filled outdoor riverscape into an arena, or a sweaty nightclub. This theatrical impact can't be visualized as clearly on the record, but musical cues do just enough heavy lifting to provide a tantalizing contour. When the alluring electro-acoustic plucks and resonant sustained string tones of 'There's a Ghost in the Lantern' cascade into cinematic drone metal on 'Ylva's Theme', it's impossible not to be drawn into the TRANCE narrative. Sonic stage lights flicker with uncommon intensity as the nebulous group rewrite their collective personal stories into stirring, synergistic poetry.

"Something changes!" KIM KHAN calls out on 'Soft and Black', cutting through warbling synths and itchy beatbox percussion. The track builds quickly, reaching a sizzling crescendo of buzzsaw noise and acidic electronics. It's a stylistic sea change that channels the group's kinetic energy into a rock show, and CITY picks up the message on 'Trance Genesis', adding rapid-fire drums to a barrage of guitar skronk. 'Shaolin Affliction' glues Trance Band's jagged artistic edges to a vintage metal template, gradually dissolving into throaty post-hardcore, while 'My Fortress' brings the show to a powerful conclusion with Dis Fig assuming the role of grunge balladeer, bellowing into the void over cacophonous live instrumentation. Unbound by musical and artistic conventions, TRANCE peers out from the basement, the gallery and the playhouse to forge an expression that's all of this and something new entirely. It's refreshing, witty, exhilarating and most of all, completely unpredictable.

Entrancing

Gabber Modus Operandi - Larung [digital only]

Deafrepublic is a single for the upcoming EP Jamadevi by Yangon-based sound designer/electronic music producer Lynn Nandar Htoo.

Lynn Nandar Htoo unmasking the brutality of the political event that happened in 2021 in Myanmar through her sentiments of sound designing & storytelling. The EP explores minimalistic tones overlapping syncopated Myanmar traditional percussions that creates a hypnotic effect - slowly transitioning into dronelike territory synchronized by subtle noises & glitches. Fascinated with traditional tunings and compositions that resembles her Myanmar cultural traditions, Lynn Nandar Htoo integrates the rhythmic essence of Nat Pwel, a ritual that is led by a queer character into haunting ambience depicting the alienation that many has felt since the condemned political event. Jamadevi is an enigmatic piece of electronic music work that yearns to form dialogues of displacement between sound & the effects of politics through her intricate compositions.

Lynn Nandar Htoo is a sound designer, composer & music producer based in Yangon, Myanmar accomplished in both the realm of filmmaking & electronic music. She explores Southeast Asian tuning systems and scales through modern music technologies and was chosen to be part of South East Asia’s music research development by Nusasonic & »Listening to the World – 100 Years of Radio«, an initiative of Goethe Institute.

Lynn Nandar Htoo "Deafrepublic"

Trauma

A dance track composed for p71sma, 
choreographed by Syimah Sabtu, 
titled Zero Point 

in conjunction with Singapore Night Festival 2024

Zero Point

dakwah[loop]

NúÚ PEACE ⛈ Pure Ever KNNBC CB Party

Chance

Gamelan musician
Composer and Sound Designer
Vocalist

Instagram: Rosemainy
Facebook: Rosemainy Buang

Zero Point

rosemainy