MP3 Nop Sotthibhandu & Kit Young - Akaneekita

All Categories Combined: Classical, Indie, World Collaborative Improvisations ⦠from Thailand

8 MP3 Songs in this album (30:33) !
Related styles: WORLD: Asian- Southeast, CLASSICAL: New Music Ensemble



Details:
All Categories Combined: Classical, Indie, World

Akhanee Kita

Nop Sotthibhandu, violin
Kit Young, piano

Collaborative Improvisations ⦠from Thailand

HERE Music Company: CD issued January, 2009 Bangkok

Portion of sale proceeds will go to support:
1. Gitameit Music Center, Yangon Myanmar (www.gitameit.org)
2. Krongkan Yaowachon, Mahasarakham, Thailand
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Akhanee â Fire
Kita â Music

Electrifying! Dazzling! Sparking!

These pieces were ignited by a musical flame crackling since 1993 in Bangkok, Thailand between Kit Young, pianist âcomposer and Nop Sotthibhandu, violinist-composer. A distillation of collaborative improvising.

When musicians of divergent musical backgrounds meet to share ideas, an exciting
challenge is to work with that divergence in shaping the direction of sound and silence. Certain idioms and timbres beloved by each performer emerge as common ground: the wafting, tremulous sound of the saw samsai (three string rebab) breathlessness and drone clusters of the Lao/Northeastern Thai khaen , robust motions recalling mid-20th century composers and styles, gleams of passagework from the Thai Piphat orchestra, hints of a âwalking bassâ â all coalescing as a series of imprints that cannot be fixed by locale but burn in the imagination.

THE PIECES:

1. Inao Rampun (Plaint of Inao)

The Javanese tale of Ninth Century AD Prince Inao ( Inu Panyee Karatapati) and his initial refusal to enter into an arranged marriage with Princess Budsaba â when after many tribulations he falls in love with her â was a popular court story which traveled to Malaysia, Thailand and Burma. âRampunâ in Thai means, âto speak at lengthâ . Ajarn Nopâs father taught him this melody when Ajarn Nop was a child and playing the harmonium in the adult music ensemble of his family.

2. Dao Hang (Comet)
When the uninitiated eye searches the night sky and fixes on still points, the sudden movement of a comet startles our stillness. What if that were sounded?

3. Naga Mantra (Calling up the Cobra)
There are no cracks in piano sound â only on the piano keys. We look for a universe
in nuance âlingering in resonance - to accompany each other in a language of gliding motions.

4. Songkram Nai Jai (The War Within)
Dr. Oliver Sacks has poignantly described the insistent nature of âearwormsâ âendless (and to some, endlessly irritating) repetitions of small phrases of music in oneâs inner soundscape over a period of time. When two neighboring pitches vie for attention and one pitch wins by being sustained, we wistfully keep hearing the echo of the other âdefeatedâ pitch.

5. Foy Fan Proy Lom Lardprao (Lard Prao Road in a Raindrop)
Many years ago, when we first rehearsed at Ajarn Nopâs house off Lard Prao Road in Bangkok, we found that reflections on Thamnong Thai Deum(traditional Thai melody) , Indian Alap, be-bop, non-tonal idioms, slendro, Burmese Myinsaing in F (a Lydian flavored modal home) afforded multi-colored palates to explore rhythm, response and other engines of direction.

6. Dae Ajarn Vichian ( Remembrance of Nai Vichian)
Nai Vichian was an extraordinary performer of the Lao/Northeastern Thai reed mouth-organ, the khaen and helped to introduce Lao khaen musical structure to new listeners from the West in the 1960âs.

7. Lop Lai Nee Haai (Dash Away)
The busyness of cities: their malls, restaurants, markets â where abruptness is the continuum and solitude is the interruption. And one reaches at long lastâ¦.

8. Nao Niran Na Hinthaya (Inner Sanctum)
â¦.a return from longing to that stillness â which lies behind all the turning in the meantime.

THE PERFORMERS:

Nop Sotthibhandu was born in Songkhla, in Southern Thailand. Ajarn Nop grew up in a family of musicians playing Thai music. He played the violin and was interested in learning Western techniques of playing while studying at Thammasat University in Bangkok. For Ajarn Nopâs generation, studying Western music seriously and at a high level meant leaving Thailand â which Ajarn Nop was unable to afford. He started composing as a young adult and began a self- study program of American Jazz, of North Indian Raga, Twentieth Century European composing techniques. His âMaria
Sonataâ for violin and piano (available from the HERE Co.) on âTRIâ a cd of contemporary music by composers in Thailand.

Ajarn Nop is currently at work on an opera based on stories from Hindu mythology. Ajarn Nop can be reached at: nopmusicschool@hotmail.com
Pianist Kit Young has lived in Southeast Asia since 1992 â Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Kuala Lumpur, and most recently, Yangon/Rangoon â and before that spent some of her childhood in Bangkok.

In addition to performing solo and chamber music concerts of contemporary and classical music to acclaim over the years, Ms Young began a long study of Sandaya â the piano as used in Burmese music â in 1987. She has given many performances in Myanmar/Burma, Bangkok, Hong Kong and the United States of repertoire and improvisation techniques from this tradition.

In 2003, Ms. Young, together with Burmese colleagues founded Gitameit Music Center
in Yangon. Recently, she has been composing for music-theater productions at Gitameit and for visiting guest artist, Baritone Thomas Buckner.

Prior to that, Ms. Young was a piano faculty member of Payap and Sri Nakarin Wirot Universities in Thailand where she arranged festivals of new music and chamber music for young Thai musicians.

Ms. Young received degrees from New England Conservatory , Bennington College and did post-graduate work at the University of Michigan. Her primary teachers were Theodore Lettvin, Robert Helps, Patricia Zander, Lionel Nowak and Vivian Fine.

Contact for Ms. Young is on Facebook: sandaya khin khin le