tales_from_malaysia.pdf

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Label: Soundset Recordings
Item Number: SR1114
Format: CD
Year Recorded: 2019

A celebration of different worlds. Not just Malaysia (itself between many worlds geographically), but a meeting of Orient and Occident. John Duarte offers two sets of variations, composed for the 1996 guitar camp of the Classical Guitar Society of Malaysia. The first, on a popular song from 1960, Getaran Jura (Vibrations of the Soul) which was featured in a film whose subject focused on what happens between castes. A sort of Malaysian Romeo and Juliet, the haunting song is subject to imaginative variations; the work is beautifully written and superbly performed here by Nathan Fischer. The other set draws on an Indonesian popular song. Like Suarte’s other set, this one has theme, four variations and finale; in this latter case, the finale is infused with gamelan-inspired sonorities.

The beautifully interior On a Malaysian Song by Andrew Zohn was written for the same reason, but for the 2015 camp; Fischer’s controlled “fade” at the end is a thing of wonder.

The use of Malaysian and, later in the recital, Indonesian melodies works superbly well. Paul Cesarczyk’s one-minute take on a traditional Malaysian song, Jong Jong Inai (Let’s go, let’s go, Henna) is delightful.

The lovely story of Salji (Snow) concerns the composer Amirah Ali and how her first experience of the white stuff was as a graduate student at Northern Illinois University. It is a tranquil, restive piece; Ali captures well the sense of comfort and security snow can bring, and its otherworldliness.

Originally for choir and arranged here by Wann-Dar Tan, the elusive Exile is Injury includes tasteful, rhythmic knockings on the instrument. Three haunting popular songs by Az Samad, a well-known name in Kuala Lumpur; Fischer’s rhythmic sense is impeccable, giving the music a sort of restrained buoyancy until the final number, where the music seems to take wing like a freed bird.

The first Malaysian woman to compose a concert work for the classical guitar, Sharifah Faizah Syed Mohammed’s Incantation of Ulek Mayang tells of a fairy tale in which ritual song and dance is used to celebrate local spirits. A short piece, it weaves its tale concisely, using the sparest of textures to conjure up a time of magic. It is one of the glories of this disc.

Two pieces inspired by natural Malaysian phenomena, a sunrise and a landscape, inspire the British guitar composer Vincent Lindsey-Clark, both skillfully drawn. The Kuala Lumpur jazz scene brings Sia-Sia (Wasted Love) by Patrick Ternrack, mellow and laid back.

There are several references to songs from films of this region; one wonders if there is a sort of Malaysian/Indonesian Bollywood thing going on? A kind of Miollywood, perhaps?

Recommended; beautifully recorded tranquil music for troubled times, superbly performed.

- Colin Clarke, Fanfare
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TALES FROM MALAYSIA: BETWEEN TWO WORLDS • Nathan Fischer (gt) • SOUNDSET SR114 (48:03)

A delightful one of a kind disc, “the result of six years of research and collaboration to produce the first Malaysian themed album featuring works for solo classical guitar.” Nathan Fisher has lived and taught in Malaysia and has a great affection for the diverse mixture of Malay, Chinese, Indian, and European cultures that defines Malaysian society. The fertile confluence of these mingled ethnicities led me to expect more of an exotic sound to the music, and so I was surprised that Getaran Jiwa, Variations on a Malaysian Song