Front Row

Commissioned by the British Council back in 2011, SuperEverything* was a live cinema performance project that explored identity, ritual and place in relation to Malaysia’s past, present and future. Created by UK audiovisual artists The Light Surgeons in collaboration with a diverse bunch of Malaysian artists, the performance is described as a fusion of music, field recordings, filmmaking and real-time moving image that transports its audiences on a journey through a series of universal narratives. Now, more than a decade on, Malaysian audiences will be treated to a special screening of a SuperEverything* performance recorded at the Hackney Empire in London in 2013. The film screening will be interspersed with a series of discussions with The Light Surgeons and their Malaysian collaborators, reflecting on the themes in the show and the genesis of this live cinema performance. We find out more from Christopher Thomas Allen, the Founder & Director of the Light Surgeons, who was the lead artist, director and creative producer of SuperEverything, and also Tim Cowie, the music director and one of the leading artists on the project.

Indian Carnatic vocalist Sangita Kalanidhi Vidhwan Shri Neyveli Santanagopalan is known for his traditional and purist style of rendering ragas, musical compositions and swaras. A teacher and composer as well, he is here in Malaysia collaborating with several organisations for Swagatam, a Malaysian Indian Traditional Orchestra with 100 participants from Malaysia, all under his guidance. He joins us to share more about his journey in Carnatic music, and also for a quick 101 on Carnatic music, and to discuss his performance here in KL.

Commissioned by the British Council back in 2011, SuperEverything* was a live cinema performance project that explored identity, ritual and place in relation to Malaysia’s past, present and future. Created by UK audiovisual artists The Light Surgeons in collaboration with a diverse bunch of Malaysian artists, the performance is described as a fusion of music, field recordings, filmmaking and real-time moving image that transports its audiences on a journey through a series of universal narratives. Now, more than a decade on, Malaysian audiences will be treated to a special screening of a SuperEverything* performance recorded at the Hackney Empire in London in 2013. The film screening will be interspersed with a series of discussions with The Light Surgeons and their Malaysian collaborators, reflecting on the themes in the show and the genesis of this live cinema performance. We find out more from Christopher Thomas Allen, the Founder & Director of the Light Surgeons, who was the lead artist, director and creative producer of SuperEverything, and also Tim Cowie, the music director and one of the leading artists on the project.

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Indian Carnatic vocalist Sangita Kalanidhi Vidhwan Shri Neyveli Santanagopalan is known for his traditional and purist style of rendering ragas, musical compositions and swaras. A teacher and composer as well, he is here in Malaysia collaborating with several organisations for Swagatam, a Malaysian Indian Traditional Orchestra with 100 participants from Malaysia, all under his guidance. He joins us to share more about his journey in Carnatic music, and also for a quick 101 on Carnatic music, and to discuss his performance here in KL.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Described as a lecture which turns into a workshop which turns into a performance, Touch Me Hold Me Let Me Go will be led by Lee Su-Feh, a performance maker, educator and writer who has spent the last 40 years exploring the human body as a site of intersecting habits and histories. This gathering invites the audience to listen, experience and participate with their bodies and voices, with Su-Feh sharing her Touch Me Hold Me Let Me Go algorithm, and ways to use it. We speak to Su-Feh and also dance artist Lee Ren Xin, who is producing Su-Feh's workshop and lecture performance, to find out more. 

Image credit: Five Arts Centre Malaysia

In A Notional History, a performer, a journalist, and an activist pore through school textbooks, inherited memories, and video interviews of exiled revolutionaries – uncovering erasures, exclusions and questions around the Malayan Emergency. Part of a series of works known as the Emergency Projects which examines that era in our history, the performers investigate and speculate on the possible histories for a different Malaysia, intersecting the personal, the national, and the notional. We discuss the documentary performance with documentary filmmaker and performer Rahmah Pauzi, and A Notional History's director Mark Teh of Five Arts Centre Malaysia, to discuss how the team are relooking into our history in imaginative and speculative ways. 

Image Credit: George Town Festival

Described as a lecture which turns into a workshop which turns into a performance, Touch Me Hold Me Let Me Go will be led by Lee Su-Feh, a performance maker, educator and writer who has spent the last 40 years exploring the human body as a site of intersecting habits and histories. This gathering invites the audience to listen, experience and participate with their bodies and voices, with Su-Feh sharing her Touch Me Hold Me Let Me Go algorithm, and ways to use it. We speak to Su-Feh and also dance artist Lee Ren Xin, who is producing Su-Feh's workshop and lecture performance, to find out more. 

Image credit: Five Arts Centre Malaysia

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In A Notional History, a performer, a journalist, and an activist pore through school textbooks, inherited memories, and video interviews of exiled revolutionaries – uncovering erasures, exclusions and questions around the Malayan Emergency. Part of a series of works known as the Emergency Projects which examines that era in our history, the performers investigate and speculate on the possible histories for a different Malaysia, intersecting the personal, the national, and the notional. We discuss the documentary performance with documentary filmmaker and performer Rahmah Pauzi, and A Notional History's director Mark Teh of Five Arts Centre Malaysia, to discuss how the team are relooking into our history in imaginative and speculative ways. 

Image Credit: George Town Festival

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pengembaraan Satu Malam (The Night Journey) is an immersive art performance that invites the audience to take part in the role of the unassuming traveller, and embark on a symbolic voyage that follows the various stages of the Hero's Journey—enabling them to explore the archetypal patterns and themes of an odyssey in an audio-visual format. We find out about this transcendental multi-discipline performance from Nadhrah (co-founder, No-to-Scale*), Teuku Umar Ilany (Artistic Director, Gangsapura) and Syed Muhammad (co-founder, Supercodex), all collaborators on this project.

Image Credit: Abdul Shakir

From the award-winning creators of Sepet The Musical, Liver & Lung’s brand new production Melur The Musical retells the harrowing story of the Pontianak, and is set during the Malayan emergency in Colonial Malaya. The musical chronicles the lives of two women, Melur and Cempaka, bound by love and friendship but separated by conflicting values, and by having married men who are practically polar opposites. Things take a turn when Cempaka's husband, the British High Commissioner, commits a murderous crime and the characters experience the wrath of a supernatural creature, now a blood thirsty Pontianak determined for revenge. We find out what's in store at this musical from Shafeeq Shajahan, the co-founder of Liver and Lung Productions, who is also the director, writer and composer for Melur the Musical, and Vasilis Konstantinides, a pianist and composer for the musical.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.