Common Tonalities

Common Tonalities is a project that explores Southeast Asian tuning systems and scales through modern music technologies for the creation of new music. We invite participants to a series of workshops, led by Khyam Allami, that focus on the subject of tuning and the cultural biases in music technologies, the practical analysis of tuning systems of Southeast Asian music based on published resources and archival recordings, and how to use them in various creative musical processes.

About Common Tonalities
 

Common Tonalities Compilation © Nusasonic

Common Tonalities Compilation

Following the Common Tonalities workshop series, focused on the subject of tuning and how it relates to modern-day sonic technologies and music-making, each participating artist created a new work, all of which are presented in this compilation.

Listen on Soundcloud
Tuning In / Sounding Off

30.10.2021 | 5 PM Singapore: Tuning In / Sounding Off

30.10.2021 | 5 PM Singapore
Panel discussion: Discussion on Southeast Asian musical tuning systems with Joe Peters (SG), Khyam Allami (UK/IQ), Ros Phoasavadi (TH), Shzr Ee Tan (SG/UK)

More information

Watch Tuning In / Sounding Off panel

Nusasonic YouTube

Artists

Alicia De Silva
Singapore

Alicia De Silva

Alicia De Silva enjoys discovering the practices of various music cultures, and their significance and contexts in both the past and present.
 

Ayankoko
Laos

Ayankoko

Ayankoko is the solo musical effort of French-Laotian multi-instrumentalist and composer David Somphrachanh Vilayleck; a fusion of jazz, sound design, traditional, noise, ambient, computer music, and classical.
 

CJ
Indonesia

CJ Camelia Jonathan

A singer/songwriter turned music producer, CJ aka Camelia Jonathan is a firm believer that art and music should be democratized.

Corin Ileto
Philippines/Australia

Corin Ileto

Corin Ileto (UIQ, Bedouin Records) is a Filipina-Australian electronic producer, composer, and performer working in the field of performance art, sound design, theatre, and club spaces. 

Drago Katzov
Philippines

Drago Katzov

Drago Katzov is a sound artist from Pateros, Metro Manila, Philippines.

Elisha Tiga
Brunei Darussalam

Elisha Tiga

Elisha Tiga is a music producer, composer, musician, and music educator from Brunei Darussalam.

Ha Thuy Hang
Vietnam

Ha Thuy Hang

Ha Thuy Hang is a multimedia composer and improviser based in Hanoi. 

Joseph Peters
Singapore

Joe Peters

Dr. Joe Peters is an independent music scholar specializing in music sustainability and digital services for integrated music education.

Kasimyn ©
Indonesia

Kasimyn

Originally from a ghetto in North Jakarta, and now a resident in Southern Bali, Kasimyn has been cited by Fact magazine stylistically as “a mayhem of anti-aesthetic fun”. He has also been featured in Boiler Room’s Pure Rave Article and contributed a mix for its’ Global Hard Dance Mix no 9.

Kengchakaj
Thailand / USA

Kengchakaj

Kengchakaj is a Bangkok-born, New York-based pianist, improviser, electronic musician, and composer.

Khyam Allami © 2015 Johanne Issa
INT

Khyam Allami

Khyam Allami (born in Damascus 1981) is an Iraqi-British multi-instrumentalist musician, composer, researcher and founder of Nawa Recordings. Primarily a performer of the Oud, his artistic research focuses on the development of contemporary and experimental repertoire based on the fundamentals of Arabic music, with a focus on tuning and microtonality.

Liew Niyomkarn
Thailand / Belgium

Liew Niyomkarn

Liew Niyomkarn is a sound artist and musician based in Antwerp. Her work focuses on listening practice and the conveyance of memories through sound.

Lynn Nandar Htoo
Myanmar

Lynn Nandar Htoo

Lynn Nandar Htoo is a self-made musician from Myanmar, learning via online classes and from friends. 

Pinky Htut Aung
Myanmar

Pinky Htut Aung

Pinky Htut Aung is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist and a new media artist, active since 2013. 

Pornprapit Phoasavadi
Thailand

Pornprapit Phoasavadi

Born in Bangkok, Thailand, Pornprapit Phoasavadi received a Bachelor of Fine and Applied Arts in Thai traditional music performance from Chulalongkorn University.

Rani Jambak

Rani Jambak

Rani Jambak is a Medan-based composer, producer, and vocalist. 
Jambak began her solo career in 2018, spearheading projects such as Medan Soundspectives, a cultural festival celebrating the acoustic diversity of Medan, and working for Goethe Institut Singapore on the project Sound of X.

rEmPiT g0dDe$$ © Amani Azlin
Malaysia

rEmPiT g0dDe$$

rEmPiT g0dDe$$ is a music producer and composer based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She is most prominently known for her two distinct electronic music projects, Viktoria and rEmPiT g0dDe$$, which traverse the realms of industrial club music to deconstructed sounds and the emotional dimensions of film scoring.

Safuan Johari
Singapore

Safuan Johari

Safuan Johari is a Singaporean music producer and sound designer. In the realm of sound design, Johari has worked on various multimedia art installations and performance productions. He has also composed and produced music for theatre, dance, and film.

Septian Dwi Cahyo
Indonesia

Septian Dwi Cahyo

Septian Dwi Cahyo studied composition with Beat Furrer, and algorithmic composition with Gerhard Nierhaus at Kunstuniversität Graz and IEM Graz.

Shzr Ee Tan

Shzr Ee Tan

Shzr Ee Tan is a Senior Lecturer and ethnomusicologist specialising in Sinophone and Southeast Asian worlds, at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Tam Thi Pham © Heritage Space
Vietnam

Tam Thi Pham

Tam Thi Pham is a Vietnamese multimedia composer and improviser. Her works explore individuality in an attempt to connect with the surrounding social environment, and she aims to build forms of expression in which music and performance are two indivisible parts. She plays electronic music, objects, and dan bau (traditional Vietnamese instruments). 

wanhanzan
Malaysia/USA

wanhanzan

wanhanzan is a creative sound project by New York City-based Malaysian multi-instrumentalist and producer Dzarif Wan.

yaboi hanoi
Thailand/China

Yaboi Hanoi

Yaboi Hanoi, real name Lamtharn “Hanoi” Hantrakul, is a Bangkok-born cultural technologist, composer and AI research scientist based between his hometown and Shanghai. 

Zach Sch
Vietnam

Zach Sch

Zach Sch is a sound artist, composer, and member of the Rắn Cạp Đuôi Collective based in Ho Chi Minh City.