Pak Yan Lau has tirelessly been carving out her own niche. As part of the group Going, a collaborator of musicians such as Chris Corsano, Darin Gray and, recently, Mette Rasmussen, the Belgian artist has been exploring many different styles of music together with very different people over the past ten years. Whoever follows her work is always in for a surprise, but will have noticed that toy pianos and gong rods are a constant. Those instruments and their distinct sonic qualities inspired the improviser to take a different approach for " Bakunawa", a two-part composition recorded together with some long-time collaborators that formed an ensemble just to perform the piece. Lau will present it on the 10th of September at the St. Elisabeth-Kirche for an edition of Kontraklang during the Month of Contemporary Music that also features Will Guthrie's Nist-Nah Ensemble on the bill. Before that, Lau talks about how "Bakunawa" came together, her relationship with gamelan music, and working between cultures.
The title actually came after the piece had been written. In the myth, the villagers are first trying to calm down the moon-eating dragon, but when that fails they try to scare him away instead. Part one of my piece is full of soothing, high-pitched, droning sounds; it creates a trance and makes you lose your sense of space and time. The second part is more rhythmic, with filtered toy piano sounds. One tames the dragon, the other scares him away! When I saw that another record called "Bakunawa" was coming out, I was really surprised! (laughs) But if you listen to that one, it becomes clear that the title and concept came first and the music second.
What was your original musical concept?
I have been playing with toy pianos and gong rods for around ten years now, but always as a soloist. In a sense, "Bakunawa" is a continuation of my work with those instruments as it had been first documented on my debut solo record, "Book of Toys."
Rétablir l'original