𝐇𝐮𝐦 𝐚 𝐓𝐮𝐧𝐞 — 𝘢 𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦

To understand the fascination in sound-making means dissecting the social history of the cacophony and the ‘noise’ makers (or the early forms of musical instruments) that have emerged from the particular relationship between humans and nature. Learning to create sounds is also learning to listen to them.

To accompany the visual landscape of Truong Cong Tung’s ‘disoriented garden’, Sàn Art is pleased to invite our audiences to join the unique aural experience of actively listening to, and making sounds, from musical instruments that are shared amongst ethnic groups across Central Highlands and other communities beyond the region. Audience members are invited to the lecture of NS Khong Phai, the sound artist behind Tung’s video work, to learn about his research on the social context of sound and instruments in Southeast Asia. This lecture will be followed by a participatory performance workshop, where attendees will be able to collectively recreate the soundscape of the Highlands through improvisation and the use of insect noises, bamboo flutes, mouth organs, gongs, modern instruments, and more.

𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁

NS Khong Phai is a musician and researcher who works with various musical instruments from Southeast Asia. He researches folk music, and has learned about traditional musical instruments from local artists in Southeast Asia. In Vietnam in particular, he learned folk music from notable musicians of various ethnic communities such as Kinh, Cham, Jrai, Ede, Raglai, Thai, H’mong, and more. He owns a diverse collection of folk music instruments, gathered on various research trips, that include wind instruments, reed pipes, free reed instruments, percussions, and strings. His own music idea is to engage these rare instruments in today’s music scene to extend the possibilities of music.