Musicians & Performers

Born in Ping Tong, Taiwan, Ben San Q Nan started making noise when he was a freshman in college. Making noise makes him happy, so is buying records, eating, drinking. His goal in music is to let others be happy with his noise, but still has not succeeded……

Brian Chu, performs under the name: 龢wo4, plays improvisation with various percussion instruments, cassette feedback and sound objects. He is continually attracted by the coincidental rhythms that are produced in the course of daily life. Through his improv, he explores the properties of sound in a percussive way. Through this process, he hopes to elaborate a unique language that corresponds to each passing immediacy. 龢 (“Wo” pronounced with the fourth accent in the Cantonese language) is a word that originally signifies the euphony that results from the sound of several bamboo reed flutes playing at once, and connotes harmony. Having assumed this name, Brian hopes that a resonance and a rapport can be established lying between contemplation, emotion, and the many-layered frequencies of reverberant sound, all of these entering into an interplay with one another and negotiating ephemeral forms of balance.

Malaysia-born New York-based Composer, Multi-instrumentalist and Improviser. Chow’s composition has been lauded by Financial Times for its “skilful contrasts in both volume and texture”. His thorough knowledge of skills and characteristics of both Chinese and Western instruments has made him a leading figure in merging music of East and West. His album “A Traveler’s Portrait” in collaboration with Seungmin Cha (South Korea) was nominated for Global Music Award in 2018. Other productions and concert series include – Shan.Shui (w. Chatori Shimizu, Miyoko Satoh & Satoshi Haga), Borderless (w. Steve Hui) and Tango Night (w. Lance Low).

Christian Meaas Svendsen is a Norwegian bass player playing in constellations such as Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit, Momentum and Duplex. He is also leading his own ensemble Nakama as well as being initiator of the collective label Nakama Records. At the age of 28 he has participated on over 20 records in a combination of player/composer/producer/designer. He is aiming towards becoming a distinctive yet flexible musician, and can be summed up as a challenging and innovative bass player. Although he is a firm believer that any creative output stands strong on its own terms, he also feels that music is a powerful tool to make a change in this world. His concept of music is not defined by genre, and he aims towards connecting the classical, contemporary and the free, rhythmic music tradition and to reach beyond the various imaginative borders created by human society and modern culture.

Spiritual Drone / Experimental project of Rio Nurkholis Syaifuddin from Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The name inspired by coffee taste. In Indonesian language, it is  like a word play it means a bitter taste of coffee (Kopi Pait). Start in 30^th November 2014 after his band member does’t show up at the gigs, so he has to played solo. Using DIY Coffee Faith Box he makes a wide range of drone, dark ambient and atmospheric composition. Influenced by Sunn O))), Earth and taking theme from Religions book, story of an ancient gods and ancient culture and also philosophy and psychology. While absorbing and acknowledging these influences, it is important to him to find and evolve his own sound. Coffee Faith is an active member and part of Jogja Noise Bombing. Collective movement in Yogyakarta concentrated in Noise/experimental music.  Coffee Faith also working together with various local and international noise artist. Coffee Faith got involved in the noise show mostly in Yogyakarta. In 2016 Coffee Faith arranged mini tour in some city of Java with Tengger, a Noise/Psychedelic Band from Korea/Japan. And in 2017 Coffee Faith has done the Europe and Southeast Asia Tour. This project actively release the recording material. Both in digital release or physical release (CD-R and Cassette Tape).

Dharma is best known in Singapore as the guitarist of avant-rock group The Observatory. But besides The Observatory, he is also part of free improvising regional act, Tenggara Trio and an active solo guitar performer. Starting from a listening background of rock and jazz, he started to experiment in his playing during the late 90s. His initial experimentations with the electric guitar were with effects and later incorporating objects with various self-devised extended techniques to bring it to a grittier level, often transcending to a mystical and industrial-esque dimension. “Intergranular Space” was his debut album as a solo performer and since 2015 he has been pursuing solo performances more actively. In 2018 he appeared at the Angelica Festival in Bologna, Italy and has toured Europe, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand and Australia as a solo artist. Collaborating as a guitarist with other art platforms is also something he continues to pursue having collaborated with filmmakers and dance companies in the past. Dharma’s latest album “Electric Animism”, was released in April 2019. 

Richard Tuohy (b. 1969, Melbourne) began making works on super 8 in the late nineteen eighties.   His films have screened at venues including the Melbourne IFF, EMAF (Osnabruck), Rotterdam IFF, New York FF, Ann Arbor and Media City and he has toured  Europe, the Americas and Asia presenting solo programs of his work. His works are firmly in the ‘hand-made’ film tradition. An advocate for the possibilities of hand made cinema, Tuohy has devoted much time and effort in sharing his knowledge through workshops and classes both in his native Australia and internationally.   

Dianna Barrie (b. 1972, Melbourne) found her way into filmmaking as a middle ground between the pursuit of abstract music and philosophy.  Ever pushing the limits of the hand processing of super 8 led to the establishment of nanolab with Richard Tuohy, and into the intersection of hand making and industrial cinema technology.  This exploration has spread beyond individual work to the establishment of Artist Film Workshop, where celluloid is embraced and advocated by a community of practitioners in Melbourne.

Dinois a representative of the Taiwanese second noise wave in the 90s’. His works demonstrate the noise movement in Taipei from the second half of the 90s, technically a transition towards pure analog electronic sound, a milestone to establish an independent aesthetics. Dino uses extremely simple analog equipment to create electronic sound, loop were generated from circuitry noise, static, or microphone feedback, a sort of “Recycle Music”. In recent years, Dino participates in experimental films and live music production for theater. He was awarded Best Sound Effects in Taipei Film Festival. Dino is particularly fond of British punk subculture and traditional Chinese classics, of which the influence can be found from his works. 

Dirk Johan Stromberg is an American music technologist, composer, and improviser. His body of work explores dynamic interaction between performer, technology and performance practice. Designing both hardware and software has led to the development of network-based audio cards, embedded hardware, and e-instruments. He has thrice worked on Art Creation Funds supported by the National Arts Council, Singapore – a major arts development grant. Dirk has been an artist in residence at a number of Institutions in the US, Europe, and Asia. He has been invited to present his work as a composer and technologist at a number of international conferences and festivals.

Fangyi Liu lives in Kaohsiung. He is concentrated in free improvisation, performances with acoustic objects, electronic sound and cassette tapes. He also works on field recording, and is interested in sounds of everyday life.These sounds are often combined with his voice in his performances and musical composition. He mentioned two major points. First is about the human voice. The pronounce action from different races and cultures contained not only languages, but also the sound of out of languages, before languages, distortion and lapsing of languages, etc. Even the unestablished pronouncing still can bring the signal or context to the receivers. Second is about the environment sound or sound field. People are surrounded with sounds induced by every vital or mortal things. The problem of sensing or recognition environmental sound are his major projects. He tries to use any kind of materials or methods to approach these two topics. He also created a Facebook group called Cochlea and try to introduce the musician from different fields to the new audiences. He hold several performances to promote new sound experience.

Flagio is the Osaka-based contrabass artist and composer Tetsuro Hori. Using the contrabass and digital and analog effects, he creates lyrical and hypnotic soundscapes that straddle the genres of ambient, electronic, and post-classical music. At the age of 14, he began to play the contrabass and eventually started performing with classical orchestras in Osaka. His interests later shifted, and he became a member of several bands playing post-rock, jazz, dub, and acoustic music. He began his solo project Flagio in 2017. He frequently performs in Japan with both local and international musicians and dancers, and performs in Asia and Europe.

Yen-Lin Goh is a pianist, toy instrumentalist, vocalist, improviser, and composer who integrates culture, language, and multi-disciplinary art.  An avid performer of contemporary classical music, Yen-Lin has premiered and performed numerous solo and chamber works across North America, Europe, Africa, and Malaysia. Yen-Lin holds a doctorate in Contemporary Music (Performance) from Bowling Green State University in Ohio, USA. Her passion for teaching brought her to Tanzania 2013-15, working as a piano/voice teaching fellow at Umoja School of Music and a lecturer at Tumaini University Makumira. She is currently a senior lecturer at Sultan Idris Education University in Malaysia. Last year, she was selected as a 2018 One Beat Fellow with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs out of a pool of more than 1,500 applications. This award brought her to the US from September to October, acting as a music diplomat representing Malaysia. The same year, she received the Anugerah Seni dan Kreatif, the Arts and Creativity Award from Sultan Idris Education University in Malaysia.

Yi-Chun Shen’s works can be regarded as a proof, or a experiment. He is now a noise/ free improvisation player based in Taipei, focusing on any possibility of communication with others, especially in non-linguistic way. In the performance, he first construct a feedback loop as a background, which represent a a self-talk system, and then try to respond or interrupt. Recently, he also try to play with some free improvisation or experimental musicians in Taiwan.

Ilysia Tan Jiayng (b.1997), born in Georgetown, is a composer/student at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music at National University of Singapore. Her current pursuits involve polishing her music compositional skills under the tutelage of Prof. Peter Edwards and developing her “artistic identity”. One of her happiest moments when creating music was designing an original interactive music show for children with special needs and bringing the performance to a few spaces in Singapore. She also has a foot in scoring for videos and teaching young children music.

Josten Myburgh is a musician and organiser based on Whadjuk Noongar boodja in Boorloo (Perth, Western Australia). His music synthesises composition, field recordings, and improvised performance using electro-acoustic sounds and woodwinds to create work concerned with the poetics of layering & juxtaposition. He is part of the management of the label Tone List, dedicated to fostering exploratory music in Perth, and curates their annual Audible Edge festival and the Sounding Together mentorship/residency. Notable performances of his include the Fremantle Biennale, Supersense Festival of the Ecstatic (Melbourne), Festival Cable#8 (Nantes), KLEX Festival (Kuala Lumpur), Klangraum Festival (Düsseldorf), Inland Concert Series (Melbourne/Perth), AudioArt Festival (Krakow), and the Totally Huge New Music Festival (Perth).  He plays with musicians, dancers & theatre-makers in Western Australia such as Joshua Pether, Daisy Sanders, Djuna Lee, Lenny Jacobs, Noemie Huttner-Koros and Jameson Feakes, as well as improvisers from other parts of the world, including Laura Altman, Simon Charles, Lena Czerniawska, Jim Denley, Emilio Gordoa, Michael McNab, Matthias Müller and Adam Pultz-Melbye. In 2019 he was awarded the Harold Schenberg fellowship in composition.

Jyun-Ao Caesar’s music borrows from both Eric Cordier and Otomo Yoshihide and can be described as an approach toward the composition of Pan-Musique Concrète as proposed by Dajuin Yau. His experience with signal processing, analog amplification, and field recording, as well as his knowledge of space and time led to his adoption of the instrument. He is also a member of Saint Sloth Machine with the impro-percussionist Lala Reich, guitarist Pillof Yau and bassist Weiting Huang. His compositions for the group aim to represent a certain contemplation of humanism and modernity in a non-realist way. As a part-time pseudo-improvisor, he has played with Dino, Motoki Yoshinori, Paal Nilssen-Love, Otomo Yoshihide, Rabito Arimoto, Park Daham, Kyosuke Terada, Lala Reich, Tsuruya Genizai, Soma, Lisa Lai and some others not named.

From Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Kok Siew-Wai is started out as a video artist, now active as an improvised vocalist and artist-curator. She has shown her works, video curatorial programmes and performed in Asia, Europe, Canada and USA. Siew-Wai has performed in music festivals such as CTM Festival (Germany), allEars Improvised Music Festival (Norway), Asian Meeting Festival (Japan), Choppa Experimental and Improvised Music Festival, Playfreely Festival (Singapore), RRRec Fest, Nusasonic Festival (Indonesia), amongst others. In music, Siew-Wai is interested in improvisation and the exploration of expressions with the human voice.

A monster lives in an isolation abyss, stars were eaten by him. she heard the buzz, and try to reflect the sound of the fragment.

During his early years, because of the influence of rock music in general, he started to learn playing guitar in his own way. Once he listened to many noise, improvisation and so-called experimental sound works, for the reason to explore and to discover the possibilities of the auditory sense and its limit as well. The approach he adopted to transmit the sound is classical , basically by the electric guitar and effectors. In the recent years, he tends to convey in playing the course of variation of sound between harmony and dissonance, tonality and atonality, with the recognition of the material form of human emotions expressed through the sounds.

Mahamboro (born 1991 in Magelang, Indonesia) is a composer, musician, producer, sound editor, and community organiser. Trained in classical music and music education for seven years, Mahamboro has pursued a diverse range of styles and instruments (saxophone, clarinet, piano, guitar, synthesizer and his self-made Bajakrana) as a solo artist and as a member of the collectives Jogja Noise Bombing, Kombo, and YesNoClub. He has produced four albums and has produced music for dance productions, performance art, and film. In collaboration with his collectives, Mahamboro regularly organises festivals, seminars and workshops in Yogyakarta including JNB Fest, Pitch Me Off sharing sessions, and Yes No Klub concerts.

Mervin Wong, under the alias of Theemptybluesky is a sonic alchemist best known for his explorative journeys through sound in an evocative and eclectic manner. With a curiosity for blending recorded and synthesised sound, Mervin’s full length debut album Aphelion explores the juxtaposition of musical narratives against organic textures from field recordings to produce a unique electronic sound that is highly emotive. His other works include creating bespoke music and sound design for film, media, installations, as well as collaborations with performing and visual artists. Mervin also actively explores his practice in other forms including light, visuals, and design.

Noah Diggs, a recent graduate from Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music as a composition major. He’s currently working at Kids Philharmonic Orchestra @ SG, teaching children cello and music theory, as well as playing in the orchestra. He also works independently as a composer, artistic conceptualization consultant, voice actor, aspiring stage actor, aspiring performance artist, aspiring writer, aspiring filmmaker, aspiring visual artist, aspiring installation and video game designer… A young artist that is open to try out new things!

NRYY is a harsh noise, digital hard core project from Japan, with mix of weird guitar and industrial sounds. He sometimes collaborates with musicians and artists from different backgrounds. He has many releases from different individual labels around the world. 

Paolo Gàiba Riva (a.k.a PGR) is from Italy. He is a frequencies explorer, interested in both electric and acoustic music. Sometimes super loud, others impalpable. A dedicated recordist in the nature. Researching the clash, the dynamics and the static states of the sounds.

Ping Wei’s a Malaysian saxophonist who performing classical music and experimental music. He started playing the saxophone at the age of fourteen, in high school Wind Orchestra. He has widely interests in different areas of music and shown his passion by taking parts several saxophone quartet, wind ensemble and orchestra, including Birdian Saxophone Quartet, Klpac Symphonic Band and Klpac Orchestra. In 2007, he played as a guest player in University of Malaya Orchestra in concert of celebrating Love and Life. This is a royal concert in honour of His Royal Highness Sultan Azlan Shah. In 2012, he and his team had been invited by embassy of Norway to perform on the Norway National Day at the Norway Embassy of Malaysia. He started to engage in the field of experimental music since year 2017 and had played in Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film and Video Festival 2018, Dao Xuan Chin International Arts Festival 2019. At the present time, he is currently running a music venue in Kuala Lumpur (TSS), focusing on free jazz and experimental music.

POÈMES ÉLECTRONIQUESis an immersive, improvisation-based performance of music executed on the distinctly modernist combination of modular synthesizer and percussion, taking listeners into a sensory and tactile space where reality is blurred and the limits of sound are expanded. POÈMES ÉLECTRONIQUES unites the limitless sound worlds available to the synthesist and percussionist, each capable of creating and manipulating a vast palette of sonorities unlike any other, in an evening-length event that is both an homage to Varèse and Stockhausen and a compelling exploration of new sound worlds for our time. The duo is made up by Dr. Marc Fleury (Paris, France), who evokes avant-garde meditative soundscapes in live performances using rare synthesizers with the latest effect technology and DJ mixers (Buchla/Eventide/Model1); and American Professor of  Percussion and musician Stuart Gerber, who has worked with such noted composers as Karlheinz Stockhausen, Kaija Saariaho, Tristan Murail, and Steve Reich.

Rastko Lazić is a composer and improviser of electronic music based out of Copenhagen, Denmark. He has been composing music for contemporary dance, theatre, and television since 1996 including performances throughout Europe and Southeast Asia. He is mostly interested in experimenting with sound through free improvisation on any devices capable of producing sound. These are mostly electronic instruments and gadgets. He likes to call it Free Electronics. Although his main instrument is a modular synthesizer, in recent years he began playing Southeast Asian percussions and computer software. The computer software is mostly used for creating custom instruments and sound for installation pieces. He enjoys creating unheard instruments that sing unheard sounds and plays them on various tactile interfaces. The sound he creates ranges from minimal to noisy analog feedback. 

After decades as a baritone saxophone player, Rick made a late-life change to alto sax, at the urging of bassist, Simon Tan. His first recorded session with Simon and Christian Bucher, avant garde drummer from Switzerland, attracted the attention of French label “Improvising Beings” and was released as “Acceptance – Resistance”. The recordings received many positive reviews, both in the United States and Europe. In his early 20s, Rick studied traditional jazz improvisation, intervallic cycles and concepts, and extended techniques for sax with Bert Wilson; and recently studied extended techniques for flute with Robert Dick. His style is heavily influenced by Eric Dolphy, Sonny Simmons and the 60s Free Jazz movement. Rick currently has over a dozen album releases, on 5 labels across Europe, Asia, and the United States, including multiple albums with legendary Japanese improvisational drummer, Sabu Toyozumi. Two recordings were listed in “Gold Dolphy 2018” on CitizenJazz. Rick currently continues his musical pursuit within the Manila scene, appearing regularly in jazz festivals and jazz/improvisational venues. In February, 2019, he performed and held workshops with Dr. Royal Hartigan at MAKILINC 6 arts festival in the Philippines, and will join Dr. Hartigan again in October, 2019 in Taiwan, for the Yilan International Art Festival.

Wukir Suryadi brings theatrical ruckus to the classical stage, plucking, strumming and bowing his way from peaceful meditations to rhythmical frenzies. The evolution of his music is never complete as he utilizes the agility of his instrument to collaborate with musicians and performance artists from around the world, fluently bridging musical styles and inventing new instruments as he goes. He is also one half of Javanese duo Senyawa, that has achieved acclaimed status in the global experimental music circuit. 

Yii Kah Hoe is a Malaysian composer and improviser. Yii has been recognized as one of the major voices among Southeast Asian composers of his generation. As an improviser, Yii has played at the Asian Meeting Festival, Hanoi New Music Festival, Sapporo International Art Festival, Melaka Performance Art Festival, KLEX and worked with many great improvisers and artists. He was the president of Society of Malaysian Contemporary Composers (2014 – 2016) and a senior lecturer at SEGi College Subang Jaya, since 2000.

Yong Yandsen is an improvised saxophonist. He has played at the Asian Meeting Festival (Japan), Mosaic Festival Singapore, Choppa Eclectic Improvised Music Festival (Singapore), allEars Festival (Norway), Music Matters Festival (Sri Lanka) amongst others. Yandsen, together with Darren Moore and Brian O’Reily, form the improvised trio called Game of Patience. They have toured to Japan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. In 2018, he joined another trio with Christian Meaas Svendsen and Paal Nilssen-Love. Yandsen has also done several solo tours to Japan and Taiwan. He is the co-founder of a Malaysian record label, LaoBan Records, focusing on releasing contemporary improvised music.

Born in 1959, Yoshinori Motoki is a Japanese sound artist who plays different waste objects and self-made instruments.

YUEN Chee Wai is a musician, artist, designer based in Singapore. Born in 1975. Often inspired by ideas drawn from philosophical and literary texts, and perspectives glimpsed through the filmic eye and photographic lens, Yuen’s stylistic oeuvre in improvised music is marked by internalised reflections on memory and loss, invisibility and indeterminacy. In 2008, he teamed with Otomo Yoshihide (Japan), Ryu Hankil (South Korea), and Yan Jun (China) to form the improvised music quartet, FEN (Far East Network). FEN focuses on the continuing multifaceted networks and collaborations between Asian countries. Since its inception in 2014, Yuen is part of Ensembles Asia as Project Director for Asian Music Network, to which he co-curates the annual Asian Meeting Festival (AMF) with dj sniff in Japan. He is also a member of the avant-rock band The Observatory (Singapore), with whom he plays guitar, synth and electronics. With twelve albums to date, the most recent being a split with Japanese psych rockers Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso U.F.O., called Trails to the Cosmic Vibrations (2018), The Observatory has also conceived a vanguard of initiatives such as the annual festival Playfreely, and also an ongoing series BlackKaji, which give artists new creative avenues for performing and working together. He continues to tour extensively with FEN and The Observatory, performing in Europe, America and Asia regularly, and has presented in MIMI Festival, Lausanne Underground Music and Film Festival, All Ears Festival, Ftarri Festival, Gwangju Biennale and CTM Festival.