“Ahead of Ilu Leto’s appearance at this month’s Rainforest World Music Festival, Southeast Asia Globe grabbed a quick word with co-founder Alena Murang.
Tell us a little about your band…
We formed in 2017, so we’re quite new. There are only a few professional female sape players around – three of us are based in Kuala Lumpur and three of us live in Borneo, and sometimes we play together, [so] we decided to put together a band of six. We’re called Ilu Leto, which means “Us ladies” or “We, the ladies” in Kenyah, an Austronesian language and [the name of] one of the tribes in Sarawak. …”
Read the rest of Will Feuer’s interview with Alena Murang for SEA Globe.