Our TINGKAP PROJECT seeks to showcase local talents who are not mainstream musicians and also veteran talents whose works may be unknown to our younger generation. It is a way of archiving local works as well for generations to come.

YUE YUAN HUA HAO on Guzheng and Ruan by Alan Lam & Loretta Tan

A husband and wife duo plays an instrumental rendition of a 1940's classic song, Yue Yuan Hua Hao, said to be the gift of love from Yan Hua to Zhou Xuan. A tune almost every Chinese of the Greater China Region will recognise. Here, the guzheng, weaves the embellishments through the melodic motives of the ruan.

Han Palace Autumn Moon on Guzheng, performed by Loretta Tan

"Han Palace Autumn Moon" can be said to be Loretta's entry-level zheng music piece. Her learning experience of repeatedly listening to the recordings of the Shandong zheng master Zhao Yuzhai (1923-1999) still remains fresh in her memory. When she began to formally learn how to play this piece, her original main teachers focused more on using pressure techniques to express the music, such as using the thumb's small joint for the "support and chop" technique and "big rubbing" to emphasize its outstanding sound.

The River Of Sorrow on ERHU, performed by Lim Wei Xiong

"The river of sorrow”(Jianghe Shui)" was originally a traditional tune in the Liaonan drum music. It was adapted into a double reed instruments by the musician Gu Xinshan (1927-1992) in 1951. In the early 1960s, Huang Haihuai (1935-1967), a young teacher at Hubei Art Academy, transplanted the tune to erhu. He imitated the characteristics of the reed instrument playing by using techniques such as plucking, pressing, and rubbing the strings, combined with the rich and varied bowing techniques and the special technique of sliding between notes, occasionally alternating with direct playing (i.e., not rubbing the strings), conveying the melancholy and indignation of the music.

Jelas

JELAS, a short film through song directed by Sabera Shaik & IMAGINARY ARTS

Original composition by MOHAMAD ALI AHMAD SAPARI, Performed by RUMINAH SIDEK and MOHAMAD ALI AHMAD SAPARI

THONG YONG HOW ON HANDPAN

An original work; collaborative 3 layered real time rhythmic composition captured by IMAGINARY ARTS. This piece showcases the textures of  the percussion as lead and accompaniment.

Music Direction : THONG YONG HOW AND SUSAN SARAH JOHN

Lighting Design by SABERA SHAIK

Shaman - Along Tea

Shaman Tearoom is a multi-disciplinary art collective led by Aiwei Foo and Kent Lee, currently work and based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Contemplating the presence of stillness and flux in life, their artistic expression sits at the intersection of contemporary art, lyrical poetics, healing ambient, tea ceremony, sound art and sensory experiences.

"THE SWALLOW" performed by Sundal Malam (Stefano Chen, Loretta Tan, Lim Wei Siong), and percussionist Thong Yong How

As one of the widely circulated songs in the Greater China region from the 1950s to the present, 'The Swallow' （Yan-zi） has always been regarded as one of the representative traditional Kazakh folk songs. But its origin deserves some attention. It was considered a folk song from the Kazakh tribe of Xinjiang Province with Kazakh lyrics translated by Aitowarff into Mandrin.

GOING TO NANYANG (Lai Fan) sung in Hainanese by Stefano Chen

Mai Ying (real name Yan Yue Ying) is a local Hainanese singer-songwriter who used to be the lead musician of the Hainanese opera troupe. She became known to local radio listeners for frequently appearing on the radio interview program "Xiang Yin Archaeology" hosted by Chong Keat Aun (who won the Best New Director at the 2020 Golden Horse Awards and had been a host and program producer for the national radio station RTM for 12 years).

FANGZHI MANG by Alan Lam on 18 string Guzheng

‘Fangzhi Mang’《紡織忙》is a composition written in 1955 for solo guzheng by renowned Cantonese musician and composer Liu Tianyi (劉天一, 1910-1990). This piece is considered the first masterpiece after The Chinese Revolution of 1949. It subtly imitates the rhythms and sounds of the looms and sewing machines used in a textile weaving factory, as well as the joyful spirit of the female textile workers.