Faith | Hope | Chaos : Malaysian Contemporary Music Vol 1 is the first ever compilation of Malaysian contemporary music. Across the  environmentally-friendly CD case, made entirely of paper, is a tudung’d doll, staring sightlessly up at God-knows-what. On the back is a photograph of a dummy leading the unwary driver down the dark road to God-knows-where. 

The images, courtesy of Pang Khee Teik, convey a sense of uncertainty, and with that, possibility, of the contents within. I found myself unable to find a good point from which I could begin this review. Each composition is so powerful. Each composer has his or her own signature. Instead, let me repeat a comment I had made by way of an aside to a friend of mine when she’d asked me what I thought of it.

The CD is something that you cannot put on in the background, and hope to carry on with your day. It is too thought provoking, and on a basic level, too disturbing, to allow you to continue your chores without paying it less than your complete attention. There is no room in this CD for hooks and harmonies. No candy or prettily wrapped melodies to lull you into a cheery mood.

In most cases, there is no pre-scripted melody line, or a predictable twist to the compositions. Instead, they are cleverly spun tales, told not in a verbal language, but a musical one. Each song is a journey through feelings, and emotions, and transcende simple song forms.

The instruments you think you are familiar with no longer speak with familiar voices, but are stretched through their entire vocal repertoire. Effects, wails, whines, breathy exclamations. I hesitate to touch the word “experimental” as this is generally fobbed off as “un-listenable", for these pieces, as they are composed and performed, make for good listening.  The experimentation on all these compositions are psychological, rather than instrumentally physical. And as with all art, there is still room for the lines of interpretation on the side of the listener to change and grow.

Tracks 5 and 6, composed by Adeline Wong for Sumunda’s Cameronian Arts Award-winning play, Five Letters From An Eastern Empire, are a beautiful example of contrasting emotions. Both are cello solos. The first, titled “Pierced” is a frenetic piece. Pulling from the negative ends of the spectrum, the cello saws away viciously and discordantly, making you feel the  “wide emotions varying from child-likeness, pain, hysteria, and anger” promised in the CD cover notes. The second piece from the same play, titled “Epitaph”, is its antithesis. In contrast to the intimacy of these two works, Wong’s third contribution on the CD, "Synclastic Illuminations"  is written on a much grander scale, and was performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Composer Chong Kee Yong has two contributions on the CD, the first,  “Metamorphosis VI: Wind Prayer”, is distinctly Oriental in flavor and is, as the inset informs us,  influenced by ancient Tang Dynasty art forms. Now, being a layman, I’m not sure that I’d recognize any art form if it bit me in the nose, but I definitely recognize a beautifully crafted song. The wind is in effect, and it plays lightly and seriously (and sometimes eerily) throughout the song. Written for the Sheng (free-reed Chinese pipes), Pipa (Chinese string instrument resembling a lute or gambus) and the Guzheng (chinese zither) and 10 Western instruments, just  that little snippet of information is enough to make one curious enough to play the “Spot The Instrument” game. But enough of my flippancy. It is gorgeously composed and put together.

His second composition, “Monodrama”,  is different in color, if not flavor. Also merging the traditional -- in this case the Malaysian gamelan -- flavors with Western instrumentation and electronica, it is nonetheless a very voluble piece, whose exact meaning I shall leave for you to interpret (no cheating and looking at the CD inset).

Johan Othman’s “Composition for Piano No. 8” is a either a glass of cold water to the face, or a breath of fresh air. On first hearing it, I went “Hmm! Jazz!” Of all the pieces on this compilation, this particular one is the only piano solo on the list, and one that stands out even more due to it’s totally Western approach. A very chatty piece that winds in and out of itself, it is what I would term 'trippy' -- a sort of internal monologue of a paranoid schizophrenic which repeats itself thematically before bouncing to its conclusion. Fun and, yeah, trippy!

CH Loh’s “Toccata from 3 KL Miniatures” is the last track on the CD. As Off The Edge’s Nick Choo describes it,  “At its most sinister, it conjures darkly comic images of spiders, the accompaniment reminiscent of scurrying legs, at once both deadly and beautiful…At its most effervescent, it is a paean to commotion, to madness – and to city living: planned and methodical, messy and unpredictable.”

To my common ears, it seems reminiscent of the instrumental interludes in a Tim Burton movie, composed by Danny Elfman. CH Loh’s "KL" is swarming with dark and persistent Malay influences, a tiny insignificant Chinese voice, and no representation from the Indian faction, all bound together by a Western concept.

 Also on the CD are Dr. Tazul Izan Tajuddin’s “Corak - Arabesque V”, a rather lengthy and dark conversation between cello and harp, interspersed by contributions to the conversation by various other instruments. Yii Kah Hoe’s “Inner Voices II”, in turn is a different type of conversation: a flute verbalization of his, well, inner voices. Sometimes hushed, sometimes forceful, sometimes droning, and punctuated by human grunts and muted mutters.

No stranger to the pantheon of internationally renowned local composers, Saidah Rastam’s excerpt from her recent M! The Opera, titled “M’s Doomed Wedding” is also on the CD. The scene itself, a precursor to the death of the title character, M, dictates the heavy gamelan influence which asserts itself throughout the music, like in Malay weddings of old. With an elaborate percussive background, and the tense energy signifying dark foreboding, the piece is itself energetic, and builds to a high-octane climax.

Last but not least are Ng Chong Lim’s “Three Sketches for Two Pianos”. The first sketch begins with an abrupt statement, interspersed with frantic and questioning trills. It segues smoothly into the second sketch, which is spookier in effect. The two pianos don’t duel, so much as converse, sometimes in loud tones, sometimes with one character giving way to the other, and other times asserting each self forcefully. The conversation ends gently however, fading slowly to a questioning ending.

On first hearing most of the pieces, I got most of all the chaos, except in Hardesh Singh’s compositions. But indeed, after all the energy has been expended, the darkness found overall in the music usually finds its way to a hopeful conclusion.

After all that talk of chaos, and experimentation, and 2-cent dissection of the music, let me just conclude by saying that the recording quality and the production values on this CD are second to none. You won’t hear any irritating white noise, or Decca-like distance between performer and recorder.

This CD is a statement about the musicians and composers that Malaysia has born and bred -- the cream of the crop -- that the AIM has yet to recognize. Pop hooks are well and good. Rock rage has its advantages indeed. And I love it all, the hooks, the angst… but nothing illustrates how far we’ve come as the level of our art and artists.

Like the just launched New Malaysian Essays 1, the numerical ending of Faith, Hope, Chaos : Malaysian Contemporary Music Vol 1 is a promise of more to come. Lets hope so, as this collection screams against the conventional wisdom :  “We’re not lagging behind. We’re far ahead!”

~

Zalina Lee is a performer, music lecturer and writer.

All images courtesy of  MalaysianComposers.com
an new online magazine for regional contemporary music.

Win free copies of Faith, Hope, Chaos by taking part in Kakiseni's online competition. Bonus - you get a copy of February's issue of Off the Edge as well.